Some new records, all Wisconsin counties on, some very determined mobile stations, decent weather for a contest for mobile stations, and a new club taking the honors in the Wisconsin club competition. In a nutshell, I think that mobile station WK9O summed it up real nicely "great driving in scenic country, great propagation ... and none of the gear blew up. Is this heaven or what?" Now for the details.

We had 35 mobile stations on the road, covering a lot of counties. Adding them all up, they represent 258 counties. Thats a lot of driving in my view. I think the comments made by several of them in the Soapbox section typify their efforts - "19 counties, 439 miles" - "single op mobile CW is a little tricky while driving a 5 speed" - "we had planned on a 16 to 20 county journey ... but had to stop at 5 after the vehicles clutch gave out." I think that shows why WQP is so very popular - lots of mobile activity. Lots of mobile stations putting themselves out for WQP. I know their efforts are appreciated. The 35 mobiles was not a record, but a close second. 1998 had 43 mobiles. I ask you take the time to look at Qs and number of counties the "mobile" categories recorded so you can appreciate their efforts. We did have a new record set this year in the Multi Operator Mobile category by N9KI, which is the club station call for the Bay Area Wireless Club. Their entry produced a total of 100,935 points, which took the honors away from KJ9O, who just last year scored 72,025 points. The new record is a 40 percent increase in this record. I think that record will stand for a while. Please take the time to notice the mobile only entries and how well they did. When you see them, or talk with them, give them a big thank you.

In our most popular category, single operator - fixed, WE9V finally got his home station together and actually operated from it this year. He managed to break our record for this category with 110,556 points, with 242 CW Qs and 512 phone Qs, in 60 counties, 45 states and 6 Canadian provinces. Chad was the holder of the previous record for this category, which he set in 1998. We had 79 entries in this category in Wisconsin this year.

The Multi Operator Multi Transmitter - Fixed record was also broken, by the previous holder of the record. Super station W0AIH managed 1435 phone Qs and 396 CW Qs,in 71 WI counties, 50 states and 8 Canadian provinces, with 7 operators, to produce a final score of 287,283 points. This is a 40% improvement over last year's score. He missed Menomonee County.

And lastly, we had a new record set for an out of state entry. W9ZR, from Ohio, managed 195 phone Qs and 146 CW Qs, with 67 counties, to produce a total of 32,629 points. That betters the previous record by 41 percent. We also had two other out of state stations beat the old record, K9NW also of Ohio and N2CU of New York. That is an interesting trend. I hope it continues in future WQPs. I suspect band conditions helped a lot. I understand this was one of the better years for favorable skip. I note in particular that a number of Michigan stations commented on how well conditions were on all bands into Wisconsin.

Our WINNING club was the Fond du Lac ARC. They had 12 entries and managed to accumulate 523,399 points. They almost broke the standing club record of 540,970 points that has been in place since 1986. Fond du Lac ARC missed scooping the old record by 3.4%. They will be receiving our WQP 2000 Plaque for their First Place score in the Wisconsin Club Competition. Congratulations gentlemen and ladies.

This year we had 205 entries, with 132 from Wisconsin and 73 from outside of the state. WQP 2000 was the 5th best overall. Our best year was 1998, where we had 250 entries, closely followed by 1999 with 223. 1997 had 217 and 1996 had 216. We had 9 of the 12 categories represented this year. 28 clubs entered the club competition. 28 states sent in logs as well as 3 Canadian provinces. We also got an entry from Lithuania this year.

I do want to mention that, with the 2001 WQP, we will be returning to our previous policy of allowing 30 days from the date of the contest to the deadline for log submission. Since we no longer publish printed results in Badger State Smoke Signals, it will not be necessary to have a short submission deadline.

It is also possible that some changes will be made before WQP 2001 happens. We suggest you visit out web site for further information. We are open to suggestions for improvements for WQP also. The site is www.warac.org. Visit us often. If you do not have access to the Internet, we are still available at - West Allis Radio Amateur Club, P.O. Box 1072, Milwaukee, WI 53201.

To make it official, Chad Kurszewski, WE9V, will be receiving our Single Operator Plaque and a taste of Wisconsin, as our in-state winner. Randy Schaaf, W9ZR, from Ohio, will be receiving our Single Operator Plaque and a taste of Wisconsin, as our out-of-state winner. The Fond du Lac ARC will be receiving our Wisconsin Club Competition Plaque. Congrats to all of you.