The results are in and N1FD took first place in the recent ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB in the Multi-op Category. The N1FD team was also #1 in area one and #5 overall in the contest. Congratulations to all of our operators – the did a great job operating in the contest. You can find all of the scores for the contest here.
Many folks on our team are interested in the upcoming ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY. We are planning another multi-op entry for that contest as well.
A team of newly licensed club members came together to enter the 2016 ARRL Rookie Round SSB Contest. We held a training session at our QTH the weekend before the contest to allow our operators to learn about contesting and to become familiar with our station. We put together a training package to introduce the operator team to contesting in general and to the ARRL Rookie Roundup. You can view the training package here.
We entered the ARRL Rookie Roundup in the Multi-Op, Single Transmitter category using the club’s N1FD call sign. This gave everyone a chance to operate in the contest and to contribute to the team’s final score. Fred, AB1OC spent some time setting up and checking out our station ahead of time. Our operators used the N1MM+ logger and operated using 100w of power on the 20m and 40m bands.
Abby and Her Dad Jamey Operating in the Contest – Abby has a Bright Future as a Contest Operator!
We had a total of 13 Nashua Area Radio Club members who attended the preparation session and/or operated in the contest. Folks worked as teams during the contest with one person operating while another person logged. Our operators had nice pile-ups to work for a good portion of the contest. All of our Operators did really well. As you can see and hear from the above video, we definitely have some future contest stars in our club!
| QSOs | Points | Multipliers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rookie QSOs | 66 | 132 | |
| Non-Rookie QSOs | 214 | 214 | |
| States | 40 | ||
| Canadian Provinces | 4 | ||
| DX (1 allowed) | 1 | ||
| Total Multipliers | 45 | ||
| Final Score | 15,570 |
The table above shows the results of our operations during the 6 hour contest period. Our team did really well! Of particular note is that they were able to work 45 of the 70 available multipliers. It will take some time for the ARRL to put together the results for everyone in the contest but we believe that our team did very well.
We are planning to host recently licensed club members again for the ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY and the ARRL Rookie Roundup CW contests later this year. We hope to see many of our operators back again for these contests.
Anita (AB1QB)
For a number of years, Tom, K1KI has been managing the New England QSO Party (NEQP) that takes place the first weekend of May, usually right after NEARfest. This year’s event will be held May 7 & 8. The NEQP has become very popular among county hunters since many of the Yankee Clipper Contest Club members get on the air from New England with several of them going mobile. The small size of the NE states and counties make it ideal to spend a few hours in the car running pile-ups from county lines.
If you’re new to the hobby, this is an excellent time to experience the thrill of being a sought-after station. Stateside QSO parties are a great stepping stone to larger operating events like Field Day. Whether you go mobile or not, there are plenty of stations looking to work NE.
Lest you think you need to slog it out for hours to get anywhere, I won the NH Hillsborough Low Power category, using N1FD, for 2015 with only 162 QSOs. Tom spreads the wealth to maximize enjoyment.
If you’re interested in giving it a try, check out NEQP.ORG for details. In past events, NARC has used an interactive spreadsheet for those who would like to operate with the N1FD callsign so that folks can select a time and frequency for operating.
Finally, as a warm-up, look for me from Marion county, FL the weekend of April 30 – May 1.
73 de K2TE
