2014 VERMONT QSO PARTY RESULTS

Participation was up over last year. In Vermont, 24 stations sumitted logs with a total of 7100 QSO's, compared with 17 stations working 5958 QSO's last year and 18 stations with a total of 4360 QSO’s in 2012. In addition, some 31 other Vermont stations who did not submit logs were seen in the logs we received. For those who complain that Vermont is hard to find in this contest, the logs show that there were over 600 QSO’s made with 55 different Vermont stations. We managed to put 13 of the 14 counties on the air with only Orleans missing. This year, we made a large effort to get more Vermont stations on the air, and to stay on the air longer. For most of the afternoon on both days, at least 2-3 Vermont stations were engaged in significant runs on both 15 and 20 meters and later on 40 meters. If you looked hard enough, Vermont stations could be found not only on phone, but on CW, RTTY and PSK-31

AWARDS

In the Vermont competition, certificates will go out to the top 5 single op finishers. In addition, all Vermont stations making over 100 QSO’s will also get a certificate.

In the Outside Vermont competition, the “grand prize” for the 2014 Vermont QSO Party is a souvenir 3.4 oz jug of genuine Vermont Maple Syrup which goes to the top 3 Outside Vermont Single Op finishers. You guys worked hard for those contacts and we recognize you with a product which is uniquely Vermont. If you’ve never had Maple Syrup before, it is very sweet and very concentrated, so a little goes a long way! Here in Vermont it is the breakfast topping of choice on pancakes, waffles or jacked deer steak (!?). Enjoy!

Certificates will also go out to the top 5 Single Op stations, top Single Op Assisted station and stations working 10 or more QSO’s.

VERMONT COMPETITION

Vermont stations fell into 2 categories: Single Op and Multi-Op. There were no Mobile operators this year. The Host Club, W1SJ was not in competition and was there to make Vermont easily available for most of the QSO Party. This was the RANV Club Station which usually operates as W1NVT. We used W1SJ for this year only. The station was active 1300-0400 UTC, on phone only, on 80-10 meters. Six different operators (W1SJ, AA1SU, KB1IVE, KB1THX, KB1WIZ KB1WJA) of various skill levels manned the controls and all did a bang up job. There were monster DX runs on both days, on both 15 and 20 meters and even on 40 meters at night. The stateside run was tremendous on Saturday too. With W1SJ showing up in virtually every submitted phone log, we knew that the mission of putting Vermont out there was accomplished. By the way, each contact with W1SJ is worth 100 points for those working on the ARRL Centennial QSO Party. And if you snagged a QSO with AA1SU, you will pick up 175 points.

The Vermont competition was very exciting. Bob KB1FRW ran up a tremendous score of 1195 QSO’s and 94 multipliers for 224,660 points while operating on phone. Joe K1VMT only logged 541 QSO’s and 75 multipliers on phone. But, he also put in a considerable effort on PSK-31 and CW, which produced double points and 50 extra multipliers per mode. When the dust had settled and after several recounts, Joe ended up with 271,752 points and takes the top spot this year. In the Vermont QSO Party, there are many ways to win. And in this case, it was multiple modes with the extra multipliers and double points which turned out to be the best.

Zach K1ZK at the helm of WB1MG put up 93,600 points on phone and CW for 3rd place. And he managed to put 10 of 14 Vermont counties in the log, something only host station W1SJ was able to do.

Fourth and Fifth place turned out to be the Battle of Bennington, as Ed WA1ZAM just edged Randy N1SP. Both operated phone primarily with Ed doing some RTTY and Randy doing some CW. In fact, their phone scores were just about equal, with Ed pulling out a few more QSO's and multpliers on RTTY to Randy's CW numbers.

Steve W1SFR, who operated the whole contest CW QRP, was just knocked off the podium by the smallest of margins. His 125 QSO's on CW is quite impressive - we've never seen that many on CW before.

Tony N1DXR was the welcome voice of Franklin County, often tough county to work. Paul AA1SU racked up around 350 QSO's in about 4 hours of work on 40 meters where the rates were fast and furious. Mike AA1PR put club station WW1VT on the air from Rutland county. And Ron KK1L and Bob W4YFJ got on for short stints and were both able to claim the prize for 100 QSO's

In the Multi-op division, W1KOO with seven operators claimed the top spot in an uncontested race. This year we were able to field 4 club calls for special multpliers: W1SJ (aka W1NVT), WB1MG, WW1VT and W1KOO.

Vermont QSO Party Results: Outside Vermont Scores

  
K1KS   CAL  N1PGS  FRA       
K1NKT  CHI  N1SZO  ADD      
K1TNT  CHI  N1WDS  FRA    
K2AEP  WNH  NW1V   CHI     
KB1IVE CHI  W1OKH  CHI  
KB1MDC GRA  W1FP   CHI     
KB1MY  ORA  W1IL   CHI
KB1SLH ADD  W1IRA  WNH  
KB1VNA FRA  W1TAM  CHI      
N1ARN  FRA  W2HDI  LAM       
N1DXU  ADD  W2UHA  CAL
N1GB   ESS  WA1VT  RUT 
N1GZJ  BEN  WA3ETD RUT
N1HC   CHI  WB2JIX ADD
N1IO   ESS  WD1W   BEN
N1NRA  ADD