The last Saturday of August once again gave the hams of Ohio their chance to be the hunted in the Ohio QSO Party. We suffered a bit through an afternoon solar radiation storm reaching the R1 blackout level, but it subsided and by evening conditions had improved greatly. The QSO totals were up from 2021, while the number of received logs was slightly down.
As usual, there were familiar calls as well as new ones in the winners list. Bob Hayes, KW8N, a familiar winner in the Ohio Single Op High Power category again took that award. The Ohio SOLP winner was Hal Offutt, W1NN, operating from Medina county as K8MAD, with Anthony Luscre, K8ZT, from Summit county repeating his 2021 victory in the Ohio SO QRP category. WA3C and W3NO operating as K8T from WA3C’s QTH in Jefferson county was again the top Ohio multiop. K8RYU/R and K8MR/M once again took the rover and mobile categories. The Preble ARA, K8YR, won the Emergency Operation Center category.
The top out of state score was from an old Buckeye, Jeff Clarke, KU8E, now living in Georgia. An Ohio native and OSU graduate, Jeff was also the chairman of the Ohio QSO Party when the Mad River Radio Club brought it back to life in 1999. Jeff Hartley, N8II took the out of state low power honors, and another Georgian, Alan Sykes, KR4AE, was a first time winning out of state QRP entry. And of course, the DX award goes to Laci, OM2VL, who does incredible things in many of the state QSO parties, as well as many other contests.
The OhQP does not have official single mode categories, as we encourage people to get on both modes, especially if that activates an otherwise rare county on the other mode. But we do appreciate and recognize those single mode efforts, with repeat winners Vic Kean, K1LT, on CW, and Jeramy Duncan, KC8QDQ, on SSB.
The North Coast Contesters, featuring the K8MR/M and K8O/M mobile efforts, was the top Ohio club, and the Southeast Contest Club the top out of state club.
Lorain county, anchored by KW8N and an excellent second place multiop effort at NW8S, was the most worked county. Pennsylvania was the state most worked by folks in Ohio. All 88 Ohio counties were worked on CW, with only one, Huron, with less than ten CW QSOs. Seven counties were absent on SSB, largely missing the activity of the mobiles, for whom SSB with a weak mobile signal can be quite difficult.
The Ohio QSO Party is sponsored by the Mad River Radio Club. We welcome all Ohio contesters, as well as southern Michigan and northeastern Indiana. We will again be out in the Flea Market at the Dayton Hamvention in May, where we hope many of you will stop by to say hello and share OhQP stories.
The 2023 Ohio QSO Party will again be on the fourth Saturday of August, the 26th. We hope you’ll all be back for that, and bring along some friends to enjoy the fun as well!