Jay and I were able to put all 11 of our planned counties on the air. We made 540 Qs, an all time high for us, with 48 mults for an N1MM+ claimed score of 51,840, however that does not include the bonus points for making 10 or more Qs in the bonus counties of Shoshone nor Benewah. This year's band breakdown was
Band QSOs
40 49
20 344
15 145
10 2
Our most frequent customer was N6MU, John in CA, who got us in all 11 of our counties; the only one to do so. Laci, OM2VL, missed only one county. Others with 8 or more counties were WN4AFP, Dave in FL, and K9CW, Drew in IL, with 9 counties each. WB2PJH, Dave in NJ; N8II, Jeff in WV; and K0TRL, Brad in KS all contacted us in 8 counties. In total we had Qs with 218 unique calls.
Our best county was one hour into the contest where in Benewah we collected 67 Qs. Benewah county was one of the bonus counties which probably helped. The lowest QSO count of 12 was in Boise county where we had only 25 minutes on Sunday at the end of the contest.
On Sunday morning in New Meadows the KXPA amp reported a final amp temperature of 3C when we started. It quickly warmed to the usual 35 to 38C as Jay operated in Adams and Washington counties. Clear roads with snow on the surrounding mountains was the visual theme of the contest.
The mobile was a 2002 Ford Ranger with a KX2 and a KXPA at 100 W to a Scorpion 680 antenna mounted in the center of the truck's bed. Logging was done with an HP laptop running N1MM+.
Jay and I thank everyone who worked us and those who tried, but we didn't get you in the log.
Jay, WA0WWW, and I will activate eleven counties in the ID QSO Party on March 8 and 9 (UTC) using my call of K7TQ. All of our operation will be CW. We will start in the IDQP Bonus County of Shoshone (SHO) then to the Bonus County of Benewah (BEN). In each of those two we will operate for an hour trying to split out time between 20 m and 15 m. After those two we will head south and spend the night in Adams county. We start again in Adams county and end the contest in Boise county. In the non-bonus counties we will try to be on 20 and 15 m until around our sunset at 0150 UTC when we will add 40 and possibly 80 m. Our frequencies will be around those ending in 0635, such as 14.0365 and 21.0365 MHz. Watch the RBN to see what frequency we are on. You can work us each time we change bands or counties.
Here is a schedule of when we hope to enter and leave each county plus a color coded map of the Idaho counties we hope to operate from.
Saturday, March 8, 2025 (UTC)
Shoshone (SHO) 1900 - 1953
Benewah (BEN) 1953 - 2056
Latah (LAT) 2056 - 2159
Nez Perce (NEZ) 2159 - 2305
Lewis (LEW) 2305 - 2340
Idaho (IDA) 2340 - 2359
Sunday, March 9, 2025 (UTC)
Idaho (IDA) 0000 - 0118
Adams (ADM) 0118 - 0142
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Adams (ADM) 1500 - 1547
Washington (WAS) 1547 - 1641
Payette (PAY) 1641 - 1732
Gem (GEM) 1732 - 1827
Boise (BOI) 1827 - 1859