[OhQP-mail] Why chØØse NØH for the ØHQP?

[w3hkk at roadrunner.com]

Hank, aka "The Salmon":  almost singlehandedly, you closed another door.  Used to  be if an op was county-hunting for mults in the OhQP, s/he could stop listening and start tuning as soon as a number other than 8 came out of the headset or speaker. Now we actually have to deprogram years of  finely tuned habit, and listen to your exchange before  deciding to work you or go elsewhere. I must admit, the first couple of years I probably missed some good mults due to this reflex action.  

But now I recognize there are some good mults out there provided by ops other than native born 8's, so I only penalize myself by ignoring them.  ( TNX OhQP reflector for updating us on who, what and where, prior to the contest.) 

I even resorted to working CW as part of a club M-O ( WW8OH/FAIR) to avoid using my  "foreign" callsign. And it works! ( even though the double-W prefix  throws some folks for a loop, most spot the OH suffix and "get it.") Club M-O's are great fun  and camaraderie. Plus you often get better antennas in the process ( like  host AC8GX's 70 ft high 160m horizontal loop that is gangbusters on 160-10! )

But the single  factor that most facilitates Life for everyone is those kind folks with unusual calls who  sign: "XX1XX/Carr.   My ears perk up when I hear the addendum county and I mentally say "Bless You" to the savvy operator.

Yes its extra work for the casual op without any form of a memory keyer, but for the growing numbers (i.e. my IC-7600 has one built in - but with only four CW memories -BOO, ICOM!) it's a godsend to preload a few choices for variety (the spice of Life) and  work my finger to the bone calling CQ OhQP ! The rig also has a "cycle" button for eternal CQing if you choose.  Only problem with this is when someone comes back I have to hit a dit on the bug to turn it off, which causes me to miss part of the  calling station's call sign, and have to ask for a repeat.

I don't know why I wrote this. Nothing I said will come as News to most.  But it's early and Im still working on my first cup of coffee, following a good day's rest after  a long 12  hrs behind the bug.

PS I apologize to those I worked,  especially during the final six hours.  The ole bug started sputtering on the dits and for the life of me I couldn't get it to clean up no matter how I tried. Need to burnish the contacts sometime today, after I unload the gear from the car. 

PPS Then I'll  check out CONTESTING in eHAM to read the handful of  posts regarding crazy contesters deliberately QRMing a net or  roundtable, to see if anything can be learned.  I guess Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 


---- Hank Greeb <n8xx at arrl.org> wrote: 
> In 2011 I was asked, "Why in the %$#^&@ would one choose to operate as 
> N1L , a 'foreign' prefix number - not 8."   It seemed that some 
> "uptight" members of the sponsoring organization thought such a call was 
> inappropriate.  In 2012 there was some concern when I operated K6JSS - 
> until I explained that this was the QRP ARCI club call, and they were 
> trying to get stations on from all 50 states during state QP's (or 
> regional QP's like NEQP, 7QP, etc)
> 
> I replied with a question, "Is there something illegal, immoral, or 
> against some OHQP rule to use ANY call which is OK with the Friendly 
> Candy Company?"  The answer I received was, "No, of course not."
> 
> But, this year's choice brought even more questions - particularly 
> amongst friends and close colleagues, about my choice NØH. Below is a 
> reply I sent to one fellow:
> 
> "WhØ wØuld be  stupid/idiØtic/liddish enØugh tØ chØØse NØH in the ØhiØ 
> QSØ party when KS was encØuraging multiple (20 Ør mØre, by my cØunt) 1X1 
> zerØs fØr bØnus pØints/added wallpaper during their KS QSØ Party?
> 
> "He must either be an idiØt, Ør have a GRRRRRR8 sense Øf twisted humØr 
> (Ør bØth :)"
> 
> It WAS "interesting" to say the least, on 20 and 40 meters where the 
> skip seemed much better for Kansas than for Ohio - so I visited the KSQP 
> probably too often and I'd call one of the 1x1's who were calling "CQ 
> KSQP" and have an exchange.  It usually would start out with them 
> sending "5NN WYA" (or whatever county they were in), to which I replied 
> "NR 123 WARR 5NN OH - pse i need a number for the OHQP."   It's too bad 
> that Kansas Counties don't count for multipliers for the OHQP, because 
> I  have 7 in the log.  Kansas was the most prolific out of state entity 
> which was on the bands.  I even worked 5 of these KS ops on 20 meters!  
> Otherwise 20 meters was a real drag.  I didn't try very hard on 40, but 
> I did work 2 KS stations on 40 - and probably could have worked many more.
> 
> I'll probably look at whether KS is running their KSQP on the same date 
> as OHQP next year, and, if so, I'll probably choose a different call 
> area, or use a club call or somesuch.  But, if you ain't figured out 
> that I like to have fun, rather than competing with blood and guts, 
> well, that's YOUR problem.
> 
> 72/73 de n8xx Hg
> QRP >99.44% of the time
> Operated N8Q/HENR in OHQP 2010
> Operated N1L/BROW in OHQP 2011
> Operated K6JSS/UNIO in OHQP 2012
> Operated NØH/WARR in OHQP 2013
> 
> p.s. And, each time I had LOTS of fun, even with 20+ hour days setting 
> up, testing, operating, and tearing down.