Excellent participation and decent conditions made for a very good Spring Rally. We had 27 logs submitted that showed 104 different stations making QSOs during rally week. A 26% log submission rate is actually not that bad, although we'd sure like to see it increase in the future. If everyone sent in a log, that would make this event one of the largest VHF operating events in North America, after the ARRL's "big three" each year. And that, in turn, would have the effect of getting more people interested for the following year.

Savvy operators racked up big scores by exploiting the lucrative points awarded for unscheduled/random QSOs. All the high scoring stations had a significant contribution from randoms. Even bigger points are available on 222 MHz, but we did not get any reports of QSOs on that band. We did, however, get our first-ever log submission from south of the border -- XE2AT, Alvaro made this a truly North American event!

As can be seen on the awards page, only half the available certificates got claimed. That would certainly change if more logs were sent in. Perhaps it's time to eliminate the high/low power distinction? And what about the difficulty of 144 MHz compared to 6-meters? It's generally accepted that it's harder to make QSOs on the higher frequencies -- should 2-meter QSOs score higher? Post your thoughts on these and other subjects on the message board.

We hope to see you all again in December for the next big WSJT Group event during the Gemenids shower.

-- The Rally Committee; June 15, 2005