Updated: 11
Jun 07
(Updated
material shown in red)
Summary
1800 UTC on Saturday, March 17,
2007 through 0200 UTC on Monday,
March 19, 2007.
To promote amateur radio activity in Virginia's 95 Counties
and 39 Independent Cities.
Certificates are Mailed: 9 Jun 07: The certificates were mailed.
If you were part of a multi-operator station, the certificates were
mailed to the person who submitted the log. If you were a Single-Op,
they were mailed to the operator. If you do not get a certificate,
please email and we will ensure you get one.
Plaques
are Mailed: 4 Jun 07: The
plaques have been mailed. Several plaque recipents were not at the
Awards Ceremony to receive their plaques. The ones taht were not picked
up were mailed today.
Awards Ceremony Over: 3 Jun 07: The 2007 Virginia QSO Party
Awards Ceremony was held at the Manassas Hamfest.
Pictures will be posted here soon. Plaques and certificates will be
mailed to those who did not attend the ceremony, proably by the end of
June.
Log
Meta-Data: 22 Apr 07: The
meta-data from the
351 logs received is available for your review until 11 May
07. If there is an error in your information or you has a
comment, please send an email to [email protected]. Updated will be posted
as comments are resolved and our logs checking continues over the next
3 weeks. 19
Mar 07: A list of the logs received. Meta-data will be posted as
we
score the logs.
Awards
Ceremony: 20 Mar 07: The
Virginia QSO Party Awards Ceremony will be held at the Manassas Hamfest (http://www.w4ovh.net/hamfest.htm) starting at 10:00 AM on Sunday, 3
June 2007.
The Party is over. 19
Mar 07: I had
a great time operating from the club station,
K4NVA, operating at the station of Dick, W2YE. I even operated a little
from my home location as NQ4K. 73, Gordon.
Plaques
and Plaque Sponsors: 24
Jan 07: Sponsors have been identified for all plaques. 8
Jan 07: Two items. First, Don, K7CS, volunteered to sponsor an
additional plaque for 2007. This is High Rookie, a Rookie being an
operator who has been licensed for 3 years or less. Second, we have
three plaques remaining which do not have sponsors. Anyone or
organization that wishes to sponsor a plaque should send an email to
the [email protected]. 7
Dec 06: A tentative list of plaques
for the 2007 VQP is
available and we have begun soliciting sponsors for the plaques. The
organizations sponsoring plaques last year will be given the first
opportunity to sponsor the same plaque as last year. Henry, K2BFY is
considering sponsoring two additional plaques for this year: "High
Virginia QRP CW" and "High Outside Virginia QRP CW."
2007 Virginia QSO Party
Rules:
7 Dec 06: The rules
are
final. 8 Oct 06: The draft
rules
are posted for review and comment. There are no significant changes
from last year. Expedition was added in several places to reflect
increased emphasis on expeditions in the party.
2005
& 2006 Coverage Data: 7
Feb 07: Several hams have asked about the least contacted counties and
independent cities, particularly in reference to their planning mobile
routes or expeditions. Here is are charts (MS_PPT / PDF) which provide data on the location of
received logs and the locations of contacts make in all logs submitted
electronically. Notice that we have many counties and independent
cities from which no logs were received and several in which no
contacts were made.
Scoring
Program: 8 Feb 07: A
new program posted to resolve a few issues. 8 Jan 07: Posted
a few minor updates to the
program. 8 Oct 06: A scoring
program (for MS
Operating
Systems only) has been developed to help SPARC score the electronic
logs of VQP participants. We are making this program available to
interested hams. Comments on the scoring program should be emailed to
Henry, K2BFY, at [email protected]. We
normally use this program to verify the claimed score. If the claimed
score and our calculated score differ, then we normally investigate
further to determine why they differ.
Contest Logging Programs. 5
Feb 07: Logging programs designed
for the Virginia
QSO Party
always help. We accept any logs, but logs
submitted electronically and compliant with any cabrillo format are
preferred. The following logging programs have been used in the past
and their authors indicated they have been modified to support the
Virginia
QSO Party.
* Andy Arnold
WV8AA, VA QSO Party
Logger is
available at http://www.lastnamesoftware.net.
He can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected]. 6
Mar 06: Andy emailed that the software ready for the 2007 Virginia
QSO
Party
and he requests reports on any problems.
* Ron, K5DJ,
WriteLog is available at the WriteLog
web site at http://www.writelog.com/.
Emailing address is [email protected].
* N1MM Logger
is available at http://www.n1mm.com.
* Scott &
Kimberly, N3FJP & KA3SEQ, Amateur
Contact Log is available at http://www.n3fjp.com/.
In the past, we have had trouble
with call signs being accepted by some programs. Specifically
expedition call signs may be not accepted because the logging programs
believe it is a duplicate call when a second contact is made from a
different county/independent city. Mobiles use "/M". Expeditions may
use "/P" for a single expedition locations, or "/<3 character
abbreviation>" like "NQ4K/CLA" or
"NQ4K/FFX" when multiple expedition locations are planned. Some
software may interpret the "/CTY" as a DX country. While adjusting the
country to "USA" is desirable, it is not mandatory as it will be
adjusted in the log checking process.
Cabrillo
Format
(MS
Word Format or html
format) for submitting
Logs: 5 Feb 07: Cabrillo format for submitting electronic logs. We will
accept logs in this format or in the format generated by any of the
programs above.
VQP
Summary
Sheets: 24 Jan 07: The Summary Sheets (MSWord
format
and PDF
format)
are used when submitting logs which are not prepared by a standard
contesting program which supports the VA QSO Party.
They provide a
mechanism for capturing the information needed to identify the
station's
operators and operating conditions as well as providing a format for
calculating the entry score.
Virginia
Quadricentennial Commemorative Amateur Radio Certificate:
8 Oct 06: The Commonwealth
of Virginia will be celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding
during the year of 2007. The Vic Clark
Chapter 91 of QCWA
(http://homepage.mac.com/rrucker/qcwa/chapter91.html) is joining in
that celebration by offering an
award to all licensed radio amateurs for confirmed contacts made on the
amateur radio bands during 2007. 3
Feb 07: The award requires "name" and location in addition to the data
exchanged
during
the VQP. Therefore operators are requested to provide their name and
location during
each QSO and when asked.
Worked All Virginia
Award: 21 Sep 06: The "Worked All Virginia"
award is offered by the Rappahannock Valley Amateur Radio Club at http://www.qsl.net/rvarc/rvarcwava.html.
2007 Virginia QSP Party
Certificate:
19 Sep 06: The Certificate
is available for your viewing. This year the certificate features the
Virginia State Fish, the Brook Trout; and the Virginia State Butterfly,
the. Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. We recommend you download the
certificate to your computer before opening the file.
Virginia Counties
and Independent
Cities: 10 Sep 06: The number and names of the Virginia
Counties and Independent Cities used as multipliers remains unchanged
from last year. Lists are available in several formats: Separate county
and city table (
html format or MS
Document) or in an
integrated list (html
format
or MS
Document).
Presentation
Offer:
24 Aug 06: Gordon Miller, NQ4K,
has offered to present a briefing to
interested
groups in Virginia
on the Virginia
QSO Party.
This includes
a review of the rules, the results of the 2006 VQP, and some thoughts
for competing in this year's events. Please contact Gordon at
nq4k@arrl.net
if you are interested.
Planning
Calendar: 24 Aug 06: The calendar
is available for review.