Summary
The 2009 Virginia QSO Party was held
during the 3rd weekend in March.
(1800 UTC on Saturday, 21 March 2009 through 0100 UTC on Monday, 23 March 2009)
Its objective is to promote amateur radio activity in Virginia's 95 Counties and 39 Independent Cities.
(1800 UTC on Saturday, 21 March 2009 through 0100 UTC on Monday, 23 March 2009)
Its objective is to promote amateur radio activity in Virginia's 95 Counties and 39 Independent Cities.
Table
of Contents
Awards Ceremony
Pictures of SPARCies
Plaque Awardees
Log Scoring Party
Stories
Log MetaData
Certificate
Party is Over
2009 VQP Rules
Plaques and Plaque Sponsors
Pre-Virginia QSO Party Briefing
Contest Logging Programs
VQP Summary Sheets
Virginia Counties and Independent Cities
Cabrillo File Format
Worked All Virginia Award
Presentation Offer and Schedule
Planning Calendar
Awards
Ceremony: 25 Jun 09: The Awards ceremony was held at the Manassas
Hamfest on 14 Jun 09. Pictures
of the awards ceremony are available for viewing. The presentation
briefing, including statistics, is posted in pdf format and
available in MS Powerpoint format by emailing [email protected].
SPARCies: 23 Jun 09: Pictures
of members
of Sterling Park ARC, sponsor of the Virginia QSO Party, at the
Manassas Hamfest.
Log Scoring Party:
SPARC holds a log scoring party to review the paper logs. This picture shows (from
left to right) Henry, K2BFY; Bill, WF1L; Don, K7CS; Gordon, NQ4K; Bud,
W4KSN; and Dick, W2YE.
LogMetaData: 26 May 09: Reposted.
A few minor updates and corrections. 23 May 09: Reposted.
A few minor updates and corrections. 17 May 09: Reposted.
Numerous corrections resulting from comments from participants and
rescoring of electronic logs with a newer vsion of scoring software.
Please email [email protected] with corrections. 12 May 09: Log MetaData is
available for review. This will be updated as additional data is
obtained and errors are corrected.
Certificate: 14 Apr 09: Certificate posted.
Party is Over: 22 Mar 09: We had
fun. Hope you did also. Certificate: 14 Apr 09: Certificate posted.
1. There is no limit
on the number of
callsigns that can be used with a single transmitter from a single
physical location, fixed or mobile;
2. Use of packet spotting (except self spotting) is encouraged and does not affect the entry catagory.
19 Oct 08: The draft rules for the 2009 Virginia QSO Party are posted for review and comment.
The changes from the 2008 rules are:
1. A high power category was added. The power categories are now High, Low, and QRP.
2. The SWL catrgory was deleted. There were not entries last year and only 1 entry for the past 5 years.
3. The VQP will start on Saturday at 2:00 PM local time and end on Sunday at 9:00 PM local time in Virginia.
The following items were considered but not changed:
1. Change the data exchange from serial number to name.
2. Change suggested frequency to 35KHz from bottom of band, esp on 40m.
3. Eliminate or reduce the multipliers for DX.
8 Feb 09: The 13 Canadian provinces/terrorities are Alberta (AB), British Columbia (BC), Manitoba (MB), New Brunswick (NB), Newfoundland-Labrador (NL), Nova Scotia (NS), Nunavut (NU), NW Territories (NT), Ontario (ON), Prince Edward Island (PE), Quebec (QC), Saskatchewan (SK), and Yukon Territories (YT).
Plaques and Plaque Sponsors: 19 Oct 08: 23 plaques will be awarded for the 2009 VQP. changes were made to the list of plaques based upon comments from Virginia operators and participation in last year's Party. The changes are:
1. Three high power plaques were added (VA SO High Power, VA SO Phone High Power, SO CW High Power).
2. Two plaques were combined (VA SO Digital and Outside VA SO Digital became SO Digital, SO Novice/Tech and SO Rookie became SO Novice/Tech/Rookie).
3. One plaque was deleted (SWL).
If you are interested in sponsoring a plaque, please email Gordon, NQ4K at [email protected].
Pre-Virginia QSO Party Briefing: 24 Jan 09: Attached is a short presentation on 2009 VQP rules, the 2000 VQP plaques, and the results from the 2008 VQP, including Virginia county and independent city coverage data. This is suitable for a briefing to your club. Also available in MS Powerpoint by email to [email protected].
Contest Logging Programs. 24 Jan 09: 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 they have been modified to support the Virginia QSO Party.
* Scott & Kimberly, N3FJP & KA3SEQ, Amateur Contact Log is available at http://www.n3fjp.com/.
* 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.
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 "/P1" or "/P2" for a multiple expedition locations, or "/XXX" character abbreviation like "NQ4K/CLA" or "NQ4K/FFX". Please accept dupes in software logging programs as this will be corrected when we rescore the logs after they are received by the VQP Committee.
VQP Summary Sheets: 24 Jan 09: 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.
2. Use of packet spotting (except self spotting) is encouraged and does not affect the entry catagory.
19 Oct 08: The draft rules for the 2009 Virginia QSO Party are posted for review and comment.
The changes from the 2008 rules are:
1. A high power category was added. The power categories are now High, Low, and QRP.
2. The SWL catrgory was deleted. There were not entries last year and only 1 entry for the past 5 years.
3. The VQP will start on Saturday at 2:00 PM local time and end on Sunday at 9:00 PM local time in Virginia.
The following items were considered but not changed:
1. Change the data exchange from serial number to name.
2. Change suggested frequency to 35KHz from bottom of band, esp on 40m.
3. Eliminate or reduce the multipliers for DX.
8 Feb 09: The 13 Canadian provinces/terrorities are Alberta (AB), British Columbia (BC), Manitoba (MB), New Brunswick (NB), Newfoundland-Labrador (NL), Nova Scotia (NS), Nunavut (NU), NW Territories (NT), Ontario (ON), Prince Edward Island (PE), Quebec (QC), Saskatchewan (SK), and Yukon Territories (YT).
Plaques and Plaque Sponsors: 19 Oct 08: 23 plaques will be awarded for the 2009 VQP. changes were made to the list of plaques based upon comments from Virginia operators and participation in last year's Party. The changes are:
1. Three high power plaques were added (VA SO High Power, VA SO Phone High Power, SO CW High Power).
2. Two plaques were combined (VA SO Digital and Outside VA SO Digital became SO Digital, SO Novice/Tech and SO Rookie became SO Novice/Tech/Rookie).
3. One plaque was deleted (SWL).
If you are interested in sponsoring a plaque, please email Gordon, NQ4K at [email protected].
Pre-Virginia QSO Party Briefing: 24 Jan 09: Attached is a short presentation on 2009 VQP rules, the 2000 VQP plaques, and the results from the 2008 VQP, including Virginia county and independent city coverage data. This is suitable for a briefing to your club. Also available in MS Powerpoint by email to [email protected].
Contest Logging Programs. 24 Jan 09: 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 they have been modified to support the Virginia QSO Party.
* Scott & Kimberly, N3FJP & KA3SEQ, Amateur Contact Log is available at http://www.n3fjp.com/.
* 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.
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 "/P1" or "/P2" for a multiple expedition locations, or "/XXX" character abbreviation like "NQ4K/CLA" or "NQ4K/FFX". Please accept dupes in software logging programs as this will be corrected when we rescore the logs after they are received by the VQP Committee.
VQP Summary Sheets: 24 Jan 09: 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 Counties
and Independent
Cities: 13 Oct 08: The number and names of the Virginia
Counties and Independent Cities used as multipliers remains unchanged
from last year. (html
format or MS
Document)
Cabrillo Files Format: 1 Nov 08. Cabrillo file format updated to Cabrillo v3.0. Previous versions are also acceptable.
Cabrillo Files Format: 1 Nov 08. Cabrillo file format updated to Cabrillo v3.0. Previous versions are also acceptable.
Presentation Offer and Schedule: 13 Oct 08: SPARC will present a briefing to interested groups in Virginia on the Virginia QSO Party. This includes a review of the rules, the results of the 2009 VQP, and some thoughts for competing in this year's events. Please contact Gordon at nq4k@arrl.net if you are interested.
Planning Calendar: 13 Oct 08: The calendar is available for review.