SCARC NAQP ~ Spring 2017

The North American QSO Party (NAQP) is a semi-annual contest wherein hams in North America try to make as many contacts as possible and non-North American stations try to make as many contacts as possible with North American stations as they can, all within a 12 hour period. The NAQP are favorites of beginners and seasoned operators alike. The NAQPs are low-power only (100 Watts maximum - no amplifiers allowed) which makes for a lot more breathing room on the bands. Small stations can generate very effective "runs" in the NAQP contests. he North American QSO Party is a contest sponsored by the National Contest Journal. The CW portion took place on January 14th with the SSB portion following one week later on January 21st.

This contest doesn't allow for aggregate club scores as do many of the other contests in which we have competed. Rather it allows ham operators to combine as teams. A team may have from 2-5 members and will be identified by a team name selected by the team. We put together a team for the CW contest in just a few days composed of John K7LVJ, Don KO7I, Matt NG7W, Jerry W6RKE and Fred N7KRN. The team members selected a name for themselves: "Flying Pigs". The "Flying Pigs" gave a good showing in the CW contest with a 92,973 score. We also put together a team for the SSB contest the following weekend composed of K7LVJ John, N7MZ John, N7LRG Terry, N7KRN Fred, and KD6TR Tom. We decided that you can't improve on a winning name so we retained the "Flying Pigs" name and scored 142,375 points putting us in 15th place.

The next NAQP will be in the fall.

For more information about the NAQP contests, contact: Tom - KD6TR.