Leading all single operators was Scott Lehman, N9AG, operating as W8EX in the High Power class from Darke county. Interestingly, Scott beat theQSO total of last year's winner (WX3M operating at W8AV) by two QSOs! W8EX did have ten more multipliers than W8AV had in 2002, which was enough to set a new record single operator score.

The low power winner, and second overall, was Mike Tessmer, K9NW, who operated from N8BJQ's station in Champaign county. Mike was also the low power winner in 2002.

The Ohio QRP category was won by Ethan Miller, K8GU, another repeat winner, from Holmes county. Second place was the all CW effort of W8TM in Hamilton county.

Last January Tim Mitchell, K9TM, reserved the special event callsign K8O, and then kept the news under wraps until OQP time. He invited 3 Michiganders, K8CC, KT8X, and W8MJ, down to join him at his Lucas county QTH (only about 500 feet from the Michigan line!) and proceeded to demolish the multiop record. The number two score was turned in by last year's winner, AD8J, in Jefferson county.

Winning the mobile category, in another repeat victory, was the team of K8MR and W8DRZ, who operated from 21 counties in southeast and eastern Ohio.

The Ohio YL award, new in 2003, was won by Carolyn Donner, N8ST, from Brown county.

All Ohio Scores

For much of the OQP, close in qsos on 40 meters were a major challenge. This made it tough for guys in Ohio to work other Ohioans. But if you were 400 miles or so away, you had a good shot into Ohio. Located a prime distance away, and fully prepared to take advantage of it, was Jim Funk, N9JF, in western Illinois. He broke the existing low power out of state record by 50%, and came within 150 points of breaking the overall (e.g. high power) record as well. Hal Offutt, W1NN, had hoped to be operating from Ohio, but scheduling problems arose, so he operated from home in EPA and took second place. The top high power effort was by K9OM in Florida, which was also the third overall out of state score.

The winning out of state QRP score was from Dennis Cobb, WA8ZBT, in Texas. He's no foreigner to Ohio, having previously lived in Fostoria for 25 years.

The out of state YL winner was Louisiana's Deandra Norred-Forrest, KD5MDO. And despite miserable propagation to Europe for most of the contest period, Zoli, HA1AG, managed 59 Ohio qsos to earn the top score from outside W/VE.

All Out of State Scores

Once again the Ohio Club competition was won by the North Coast Contesters, led by the 232K point multiop score of AD8J. Within close distance in second place was the Lake County Amateur Radio Association. LCARA's efforts were again reflected in Lake county being the most worked county.

Winning the out of state club competition was the Society of Midwest Contesters, with a record breaking 128K total.

There were 24705 qsos reported in the 2003 OQP. SSB narrowly beat out CW, 12,435 to 12,270. By band and mode, we had:

     80   40   20   15   10
SSB  3186 5701 3374 169  5
CW   2468 7347 2366 86   3    

The OQP log checking revealed qsos reported from 87 of Ohio's 88 counties. Missing in action was Madison county, located just west of Columbus. All the other Ohio counties had at least double digit numbers of reported qsos.

With the adjustment of the Canadian multipliers to reflect what Canada is really like (i.e. Labrador is really part of the province of Newfoundland, and we lumped together the three northern territories of Yukon, Northwest, and Nunuvut, where nobody lives anyway), we had all the multipliers outside Ohio worked! Of course there is lots of room for improvement, as there were only single qsos reported in Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and the Northern Territories.

If you ever heard someone in Lake county working someone in Pennsylvania, that was normal! Lake, Lucas, and Cuyahoga were the most worked Ohio counties, with Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida the most reported locations outside Ohio.

A number of state qso parties have awarded small prized to top entries in their contests. Most notable has been the California QSO Party, which gives out bottles of wine. Not to be outdone, the OQP sponsors considered various things of note from Ohio, and decided we do have one thing unique and very dear to the hearts of ham radio operators - the Dayton Hamvention!

So we decided to award a ticket to the 2004 Hamvention to five out of state hams who made at least 200 qsos in the OQP. Along the way we decided to expand things, and award tickets to 5 more lucky folks from a pool of those who made at least 88 qsos. (88 being the number of Ohio counties; but the 88 qsos did not have to be from all 88 counties). A number of members of the sponsoring Mad River Radio Club chipped in to pay for these prizes. The winners were drawn by K8NZ, N8TR, and W8CAR during a lull in activity during the ARRL DX CW contest at K8AZ, and the winners are:

From the out-of-state 200+ qso group:

W1NN, K4BAI, NT5TU (operator of W5AC), K8IR, and N9JF.

From the 88+ qso group:

AB8NI, AF8C, NC8V, KW8N, and KV0T.

Thanks go to those MRRC'ers who donated to make the Hamvention ticket awards possible: K5IID, AC8E, AD8P, AD8J, AF8A, K8GU, K8MR, KU8E, N8VW, W8AV, and W8RU.

The winners will be mailed their tickets after Hamvention tickets are distributed, likely in April.

Anyone interested in helping sponsor these awards (and possibly expanding them) for the 2004 OQP, please contact OQP Chairman Jim Stahl, K8MR, at: k8mr@arrl.net

The OQP is adding a "Rover" class beginning this year. Although we have often loosely interchanged the words "mobile" and "rover" in the past, we will now have two ways to get out and see Ohio. Mobile will stay the same, limited to stations that are capable of motion (although they can operated while stopped) and also limited to 100 watts. The new Rover will be modeled as closely as possible to the definition of "Rover" as used in the ARRL VHF contests: one or two operators, transporting all equipment between locations in two or more counties. If you wish to lug a big generator and run high power, so be it. You may also make qsos while mobile between stops; just please let's have no last-hour-of-the-contest conversions from mobile to rover. (One difference from the ARRL VHF rovers: we will permit use of AC mains for power.)

Why? Lots of experience, both in the OQP and by other mobile contesters in other QSO parties, shows that while CW contacts are usually not difficult to make with a relatively weak mobile CW signal, it is rarely possible to attract much attention with a similarly weak SSB signal. So people operating phone rarely get the benefit of those travelling through the rare counties of Ohio.

The rover class will permit someone to stop, quickly put up a simple antenna (say a dipole up 25 feet) and have a pretty decent signal. It also will let people get out and enjoy the thrill of operating from some rare counties, in multiple locations, without the need or expense of mobile antennas, a rig small enough to fit in a car, or the hassles of mobile ignition (and other) noise, etc. For a solo operator who wants to travel but does not want to operate while driving, it will let him make up for the lost time of driving by being a lot louder when he does stop.

[image:54,right,5]What can be done as a rover? We have a good example right here in Ohio. Ralph Matheny, K8RYU, has been doing just that for the past few years, putting some of the rarest southern Ohio counties on the air, on both CW and SSB. Under the new system, K8RYU would have had a combined score of 116,280 vs. a sum of 42,662 from his six individual scores.

[image:56,left,5][image:55,left,5]Although we referred to simple antennas, Ralph's are anything but. Check out the photos of his installation. With that system, it's clear he does not operate while driving!

The Michigan QSO Party. Also sponsored by the Mad River Radio Club, it will take place on Saturday, April 17 (Noon to midnight, EDT). The format and rules are virtually identical to the OQP, and a number of those who were active from Ohio in the OQP will be traveling north to operate from Michigan. Full details are available at: www.miqp.org

And don't forget that many of the active out of state participants in the OQP are actively involved with QSO Parties in their own states. Make a point to get on in these events and say thanks to them for their activity in the OQP!

This year the OQP log checking was done by Pat Collins, N8VW, who is also the chief web guy for the OQP. OQP Committee members AF8A and W8AV chipped in, with Gary, AF8A, doing much of the precontest publicity and maintaining the list of OQP records.

Everett Jackson, WZ8P, is the one who handles the beautiful plaques for the category winners. Note that Everett is in the printing business - if you need top quality work for your local club or any other reason, check it out with him. OQP Chairman K8MR handles the complaint department.

Thanks to the various clubs from around Ohio who sponsored the plaques, and most of all, thanks to all those hams, both inside Ohio and out, who braved the often trying conditions last August 23 to make the 2003 celebration of Ohio's 200th anniversary a lot of fun for all.

We hope you will all join us for the 2004 Ohio QSO Party, on Saturday, August 28. Note to Mr. Murphy: the real date for you, and you only, is September 28!