A big thanks to the organizers for another really fun 7QP. Excellent participation from outside and inside the 7th call area kept a healthy rate throughout the contest, even in the late hours.
Another big thanks to the rovers that traveled around and handed out county lines, and in some cases state/county lines. From my QTH, I had a pipeline into N7XU. He was everywhere! Was that op. K4XU? Well done! Other rovers handing out 2 for 1, and even 3 for 1 were W7EEE, N9DK/7, K7KC, KK7L, AA5TL/7, AC7J, KG7DMI (3 county lines!), K1LOK, AC7JW, and N9DK. Great job and thanks for being there guys!
I didn’t try to max out my allotted DX mults, which in hindsight, was a mistake. Late in the contest when I saw my mult to Q ratio ballooned to 25:1, I made a short attempt to catch up, but couldn’t seem to get any traction. There were a few DX stations in the contest like DL3DXX, F6HKA, F6CSQ, and PA3EVY. The bands were definitely open, but maybe most kept their distance thinking it was just a NA QSO Party? .. — ..
The static crashes on 20m got very intense in the late afternoon. With my rate dropping, and not much activity on 40m yet, I took a two hour break around 00:00z to eat dinner and psych myself up for what I thought would be a static crash-fest on the low bands. I like to keep BIC (butt in chair), but just needed a mental break from it. When I returned, the low bands were very good, and the static wasn’t as bad as anticipated. Plus, lots of activity from 7 Land and beyond kept things interesting.
A lot of fantastic CW ops showed up for this one making any QSY to SSB a difficult choice. I tried to keep a balance between modes, but CW just kept giving. The 1.5X point CW premium also helps.
Thanks to all for the Qs and fun weekend on the radio! 73, Mitch, K7RL
