With all this activity, no less than 30 stations outside CA managed a complete CA sweep. Compare that with only 14 sweeps last year! The very first sweep was made by WO4O when he worked W0EAX/6 in Yolo county at 23:35Z. That’s only 7 hours and 35 minutes into the contest. Congratulations!

In CA, 49 stations found all 50 US states plus the eight Canadian call districts for sweeps.

Although the top scores were not record breakers themselves, a total of 31 new records were set this year. 12 county records fell. 16 out of state records fell including the 5 year old South American record. So many new records were set this year that they are now tabularized below.

I do want to give proper credit to Gary, VE7NTT, for his all time high score from anywhere outside CA last year. That very significant achievement was under reported in last years’ results. At 164,604 points I expect that high standard will last for some time. Certainly no one came close this year.

This growing information age we live in continues to affect CQP. The number of "soft logs", or logs submitted that can be read by computer (email or floppy) almost doubled from last year to 213 (40%) out of a total of 538 logs. Virtually all of the top scoring stations used computers to do logging and submitted soft logs. There were two logs that were manually typed! Only 130 logs (24%) were written by hand with pencil or pen. 117 logs (22%) looked to be computer generated, but the owners didn’t see fit to send in a machine readable copy; only a print out. We’ll have to work on those guys next year!

So how active was the ’98 CQP?

There were 63,587 CW QSOs (34%) and 124,459 SSB QSOs (66%) reported in all the logs received. This generated a total of 24,380,814 points. However, that is not the whole story. By analyzing the soft logs received, there appeared to be about 5,684 valid, non-unique call signs in use during CQP. These ranged from 4N1DX to ZS6XL. That means only 10.5% of CQP participants sent in logs. We really need to work on those other guys to send in their logs next year!

Log checking was tackled by AD6E, W6OAT, NF6S, W6ISO, N2ALE, N6DE, and K6III. Log checking rules were established by the team as follows: Any simple copying error such as wrong NR, wrong QTH, or wrong call was penalized by reducing the score by ½ of a QSO. Double copying errors (ex: wrong call and wrong NR) or worse were penalized by removing the QSO. The team used extensive search software to be as accurate as possible. Only QSOs that were either proven to be in error, or had a very highly probable error were reduced.

My thanks go to the log checkers who put in many hours of effort to get these results out. Their efforts have made these results more credible. Anyone who submitted a "soft" log can get a check file that details each and every deduction. Please send your request to cqp@contesting.com.

I would like to give my personal thanks to Bruce, W6OSP for letting me use his station to set a new record in Napa. This is my first record, and I now understand the exhilaration of planning such an assault, meeting the challenges that Murphy throws in your path, and succeeding.

This story could take a few beers to tell, and if you find me at the DX convention I’ll be glad to tell the tale. I now have the greatest appreciation for Wendel, W6FSJ who held that record for 9 years. I’m already thinking about the next challenge.

Very different from this side of the country. ... K4XU/7

This was my first real contest and I had fun! ... KB9THU (Alyssa, age 9)

I put up a new antenna yesterday morning. Your contest was a great way to test the performance. Next year I'll block out some time to compete for score. ... KB9PQV

Thanks to NCCC for the effort required to sponsor this event. My third CQP and first SWEEP. Last county was Imperial... Thanks ... KQ6QW

Great contest. SF found me late..tnx N6RA. Had fun with Joel. His first time on radio. KD5ETC (Daniel) and Joel are brothers.... Could not find Yolo for sweep. ... K5KB (M/S: K5KB, KC5NYE, KD5ETC age 13, Joel age 10)

One guy told me 'get 100 QSOs for a shirt'. So I went for it. Getting ready for our (PA) QSO Party on the 10 + 11th. ... KB3AGE (101 Qs)

Had I known how close I was to the TN record for this game I may have played longer, harder and smarter; but, nevertheless, I had FUN as usual. There were other unknowns, too. TR Log wasn't correctly tracking Mults worked, so I played this entire game not knowing which Counties I needed! Actually, it was kinda fun flying by the seat of my pants. Later, I realized the misconfiguration of TR Log was due to my copying the TN QSO Party file and forgetting to edit it. Duh. I could've manually tracked the Mults, of course, but it just didn't seem to be that important. After 500+ Qs, a good night's rest and before going to Sunday school, I reconfigured the log. ... WO4O

Had a great time this year. Conditions on the bands were great, and the score was way up thanks to some big runs on 10M and more CW qso's (thanks to those who put up with my constant asking for repeats!). 20M was not really great on Sunday, everyone was on 10 and 15! Finially worked Del Norte county Sunday afternoon for the sweep, but I wasn't first this year. Oh well. Looking foward to next year. Thanks to all the California stations, NCCC for the great contest, and NB1B for the great competition. ... KE1FO

Got on to get a T shirt, had so much fun chasing counties, went for the sweep. Then had so much fun, I kept going most of the rainy weekend. ... K3WW

The bands were great! Over slept Sunday morning. the 40 meter was sick so didn't do much with the vertical. Thanks Jay for VY1A & Rich N7TR, for the only NV. ... NT6K

Conditions poor on Saturday. Couldn't hear the CA stations on 10M. Discovered later a bad connectoron the inline wattmeter.... Oops. (Not my station) ... W5ASP

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!! I think I could write a book about it! Thanks to AA6UN for giving me my first weep ever in the CQP. The bands were good to me - 10 and 15 meters were like pipelines to CA. Thanks to everyone for making this a super special event. ... WA3HAE

The (CQP) was my first contest, ever. I know my log is kind of messed up but here it is anyway. I had a lot of fun and I know I'll do better next time. ... K9YMY

Great weekend! I was concerned with conditions getting worse as the weekend approached but was surprised to find the bands in pretty good shape anyway. Bravo Cycle 23!!! My best effort to date - broke SLO record of 7 years. ... W6TK

Great QSO Party as always. I planned all year for this event. As it drew near I readied log sheets, dupe sheets and waited eagerly. A few days before the start I caught a cold. Did I let that stop me? No way! Armed with a box of Kleenex, coffee and soda to ease my throat, I sought out CA counties and stations with enthusiasum. I came very close to a sweep of all 58 counties. Maybe next year. Thanks guys! ... AB7PX

Love this contest! Heard (but couldn't always work) just about every CA county on CW this year. Tnx to all the FB ops who dug my flea-powered sigs out of the mud. N6MR, K6LA, N6TV, K6Z, N6O's sigs melted my earphones! ... AA1CA

Though a ham for 5 years and a general class for 2 years ths was my first contest with a real effort, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. What a blessing to have 10 meters wide open for the party. ... KD4VWN

Had a fun time. 15 meters seemed to have the most action here in VT. ... AA1SU

K6PUD said his count was 2062.. I questioned him as well as several others, but he held fast... 219 minutes into the contest. Thats 9.4 contacts per minute. Sorry, but I don't think so. Anyway - thanks for a good time - I really enjoyed it. ...KB5UJY
(ed note: K6PUD operated M/M with three stations. Since they didn't know how to deal with the serial numbers, they started the contest with ser #1 for station 1, ser #1001 for station 2, and ser #2001 for station 3. Next year they said they will do it correctly.. each band/mode starts from ser #1 for M/M)

What a fun contest! My biggest thrill was being able to call for a (fellow) YL during a pile-up. Second biggest thrill was being called by Liverpool England. Thanks for all your hard work. You are appreciated! ... K6MCP

Again a great way to spend the weekend. I have been off the air for almost three years due to TVI and a dead 10 meters. The CQP was a nice way to get going again. ... N9ICH

Operated from Mother-in-Law's driveway in Madison, Ohio. Couldn't put up any wire antennas due to rain all day Saturday. Had to attend wife's 45th Nurse Class reunion Satureday evening, so missed all 40 Meter openings to CA. Sure great to see 10 and 15 open! A great contest. ... K4UK/8

I didn't know abt the CAQP until I heard N6O calling "CQ-P" on 10M SSB. I said to myself "why not join the party?" Had 2 brazen CB'ers call me fm Calif during the contest!! Don't worry, I didn't log them, Hi. ... K8KS

A very enjoyable contest for me, over 200 more contacts than in 1997, my highest QSO total of any contest, and my best hour: 56 - (yeah, many of you might throw that hour back!). This is the first time in my not quite 3 years experience in all-band contests that 10m has been so wide open - my first JA on 10m phone was on Sunday. I hope this is just a taste of things to come. ... KQ6ES

Had a ball. I think this was the first time I put in more than a few hours in CQP. There really were a lot of stations out there calling CA. Next year I'll be a little more serious so I can break 1000 QSOs and work all multipliers. ... N6XI

Thank you for a great contest! 19 of the 41 counties worked were new ones and I will be QSLing those for USACA. Looking forward for next year! ... N0JVR

The bands were full of CA QSO out here.. The conditions were good and bands fully populated. Low power worked great above 7 MHz, slow going on 3.8 MHz. Next year I will try to be in Trinity County.. I did not hear anyone on from there! Contrary to popular knowledge.. Paridise is near to Trinity Trout Streams! ... KH6/WB6FZH

I didn't plan to participate or send in logs this year, but it rained all weekend (almost). Whenever the lightning let up, I'd call CQP. Where were the SF guys at this year? I hope everyone was able to work us here in Nebraska. There was at least 4 or 5 of us on in force! See ya'll next year (if it rains again!). ... K0IL

One of the few (maybe the only) contest where my R-7 vertical does not put me at a tremendous disadvantage and I can actually run stations successfully. I was thunderstruck when VR98BG answered my QRZ? ... W6UDX