2023 Idaho QSO Party

Results

Weather and other events conspired to cut our planned 16 county operation to just eight before the party even began. Further events on Saturday morning cut our operating time even more. We didn't get to our planned start in Idaho county and only had nine minutes in the second one, Lewis. After that we remained on our Plan B schedule. We stopped operations at 0200 UTC Sunday.

Jay, WA0WWW, and I operated for six hours making 301 Qs and 48 mults for a score of 28,800. Our most frequent customer was NS2N in NY with eight Qs in five of our counties. Next most frequent with six or more Qs were K9CW in IL with seven Qs in 5 counties, KA6BIM in OR with seven Qs and six counties, OM2VL with seven Qs in seven counties, WB9HFK in IL with seven Qs and six counties, DL3GA with six Qs in five counties, KD2KW in TX with six Qs and four counties, and W5XG also in TX with six Qs and five counties. For DX in addition to OM and DL, operators from F, HA, LA, PY and SP made it into our log. This was more DX than we've ever had in the IDQP.

This year we had much more powerline noise than in previous years. Roads were clear, but we did get a few bouts of snow and mixed precipitation in Clearwater county. Wildlife sightings included wild turkey and a raccoon.

We missed working eight states, DE, LA, ME, ND, NV, SD, UT, and WY. The rig was an Elecraft KX2 and Elecraft KXPA100 to a Scorpion 680 antenna mounted in the center of the bed of my 2002 Ford Ranger. We used N1MM+ on an HP laptop with full rig control and a MORTTY for CW keying.

A shortened party time for us this year, but we had fun regardless. A thank you to all who worked us and those who tried.

Plan B

Conditions have conspired to force Jay and I to make a change to our operating plan. The current plan is to activate eight counties in the Idaho QSO Party on March 11 and 12 (UTC) using my callsign of K7TQ. All of our operation will be CW. We will try to split operating time between 20 and 15 m with possible excursions to 10 m during our daylight hours. Our sunset will be 0150 UTC. After that we will try to add 40 and 80 m to the mix. You can work us each time we change counties or bands. Watch the RBN for K7TQ. We will try to be on frequencies ending in 0365, such as 14.0365 or 21.0365 MHz.

Here is a schedule of when we hope to enter a county:

Saturday, March 11, 2023 (UTC)

Idaho (IDA) 1900 - 1930
Lewis (LEW) 1930 - 2012
Nez Perce (NEZ) 2012 - 2118
Latah (LAT) 2118 - 2254
Clearwater (CLE) 2254 - 2327
Latah (LAT) 2327 - 2345
Shoshone (SHO) 2345 - 2359

Sunday, March 12, 2023 (UTC)

Shoshone (SHO) 0000 - 0032
Benewah (BEN) 0032 - 0122
Kootenai (KOO) 0122 - 0200
Benewah (BEN) 0200 - 0335 depends on conditions
Latah (LAT) 0335 - 0420 depends on conditions

The Plan

Jay, WA0WWW, and I will activate sixteen counties in the Idaho QSO Party on March 11 and 12 (UTC) using my callsign of K7TQ. All of our operation will be CW. We will try to split operating time between 20 and 40 m with excursions to 15 and possibly 10 m. Our sunset will be 0150 UTC so we will concentrate more on 40 and some 80 m after that. You can work us each time we change counies or bands. Watch the RBN for K7TQ. We will try to be on frequencies endin in 0365, such as 14.0365 or 21.0365 MHz.

Here is a schedule of when we hope to enter a county and a map of Idaho with our counties color coded.

Saturday, March 11, 2023 (UTC)

Owyhee (OWY) 1900 - 1935
Canyon (CAN) 1935 - 2022
Ada (ADA) 2022 - 2054
Gem (GEM) 2054 - 2117
Payette (PAY) 2117 - 2147
Washington (WAS) 2147 - 2236
Adams (ADM) 2236 - 2352
Valley (VAL) 2352 - 2359

Sunday, March 12, 2023 (UTC)

Valley (VAL) 0000 - 0106
Adams (ADM) 0106 - 0145
Idaho (IDA) 0145 - 0314
Lewis (LEW) 0314 - 0349
Nez Perce (NEZ) 0349 - 0449
Latah (LAT) 0449 - 0512

==============

Latah (LAT) 1430 - 1525
Clearwater (CLE) 1525 - 1631
Latah (LAT) 1631 - 1649
Shoshone (SHO) 1649 - 1732
Benewah (BEN) 1732 - 1821
Kootenai (KOO) 1821 - 1859

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse