2007 Virginia QSO Party

Updated:  11 Jun 07

(Updated material shown in red)



All Time High Scores


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.


Table of Contents

Awards_Ceremony_Briefing
Pictures are Posted
Certificates are Mailed
Plaques are Mailed
Awards Ceremony Over
Plaque Recipients
Logs Meta-Data
Awards Ceremony
The Party is Over
Plaques and Sponsors
2007 Virginia QSO Party Rules
2005 & 2006 Coverage Data
Scoring Program
Contest_Logging_Programs
Cabrillo_Format
VQP Summary Sheets
Virginia Quadricentennial Commemorative Certificate
Worked All Virginia Award
2007 Virginia QSP Party Certificate
Virginia Counties and Independent Cities
Presentation Offer
Planning Calendar
Previous Virginia QSO Parties



Awards Ceremony Briefing: 23 Sep 07: The presentation given at the awards ceremony is available in MS Powerpoint and PDF.

Pictures are Posted: 1 Jul 07: A collection of pictures from the 2007 Virginia Awards Ceremony have been posted. If you want a high resolution of a picture, please send an email to [email protected].

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.

Plaque Recipients: 6 May 07: The tentative list of Plaque Recipients had been posted for review and comment.

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.



Previous Virginia QSO Parties

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