2017 Virginia QSO Party
Tidbits



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On 16 March 2017, John, KX4O, emailed:

All,

The spotting network for VAQP is ready for action again this year.

  http://www.qsoparty.com/

You can use the web interface or traditional telnet. It's all part of the same independent system.

Please spread the word and enjoy.

73
John, kx4o

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On 15 March 2017, Andy, K1RZ, emailed:

Gordon,
  I ([email protected]) will be running an experimental APRS tracker server during the upcoming VaQP.  Please advertise as you see fit.  I'm looking to collect the call signs of all mobiles in VaQP who will have APRS capabilities.  This would include stations running smart phone APRS/GPS apps as 

Android APRSDroid https://aprsdroid.org/download/ 

iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aprs-fi/id922155038?mt=8 

The benefit of my tracker over such sites as aprs.fi or other trackers is I am running my tracker in conjunction with my VaQP counties overlay map.  VaQP APRS stations will be seen during the contest in real-time here

http://www.k1ra.us/vaqp-aprs/

Currently I am plotting all VA stations posting a lat/lon position, but I'm now collecting call signs to filter and only show VaQP mobiles this coming weekend.  Again this is experimental, but hope to assist both fixed and mobile stations with keeping track of Va mobiles when they enter a new county or independent city.

Stations MUST register their call with me if they expect to be plotted on this special APRS VaQP county tracker.

73

andyz - K1RA (KW4VA /M in VaQP)

[email protected]
http://k1ra.us/

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On 13 March 2017, David, KK4ZUU, emailed:

If you monitor the following accounts on twitter (no login req) you can keep up on any road closures/openings.

Shenandoah National Park
https://twitter.com/ShenandoahNPS

(example: 3-13-17)
Dig out the snowshoes and cross country skies! Skyline Drive closing at 5:00 p.m. today. 6 to 12 inches of snow predicted. (49 minutes ago) -latest tweet from SNP-

Blue Ridge Parkway
https://twitter.com/BlueRidgeNPS

Good luck & safe travels.
--
73,
david kk4zuu

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On 12 March 2017, Jeff, N3JS, emailed:

Thanks for the reminder - I'll definitely be participating from my home in Accomack County again. I should have a low dipole up for 40 meters this time, I'm hoping that will help me hear other Virginia stations better than I did on my vertical. Planning on SSB in the mornings and RTTY/PSK later in the day.

 73 - Jeff N3JS
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On 10 March 2017, we provided some additional guidance on a new rule. 

The new rule is: "Logs with a significant number of QSOs with the same station will be categorized as check logs."

The intent is to preclude two or more mobile operators from only having QSOs with each other.  This is similar to the ARRL rule to prevent pack roving abuse in VHF contests restated as "A mobile or expedition station may not make more than 100 QSOs with any other one mobile or expedition station."

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On 7 March 2017,  Kevin, KJ4OAP, emailed:

Thanks for the reminder e-mail here.  I've been planning for a few weeks on the route for a mobile operation again this year.  Would you mind posting this to the website?

I've got some other things happening Saturday morning that will keep me from getting on until closer to noon EDT.  That is as long as my radios keep working this year (thanks again to the stations last year coming through my radio troubles).  Because of the later start and my QTH, I'm flip-flopping Days 1 and 2 as I've usually done in the past.  For day 1 (Saturday) I plan to activate:

Salem (SAX), Roanoke City (ROX), Roanoke County (ROA), Franklin (FRA), Henry (HRY), Patrick (PAT)[noticed this had zero QSOs last year, so hope to put it on the map], Martinsville (MVX), Pittsylvania (PIT), Danville (DAX), Halifax (HAL), Charlotte (CHA), Mecklenburg (MEC), Lunenburg (LUN), Nottoway (NOT), Price Edward (PRE), Cumberland (CUM), Buckingham (BHM), Appomattox (APP), Campbell (CAM), Amherst (AMH), and Lynchburg (LYX)

I can't remember how long that took last year when I did it, but if I can I'll try for Bedford (BED), Rockbridge (RBR), Buena Vista (BVX), and Lexington (LEX) as well.  I may run out of time before getting to those though.

For Day 2 (Sunday):

I suspect I may have some small time in SAX and ROA again before hitting the main course of Montgomery (MON), Radford (RAX), Wythe (WYT), Smyth (SMY), Washington (WAS), Bristol (BRX), Scott (SCO), Lee (LEE), Norton (NRX), Wise (WIS), Dickenson (DIC), Russell (RUS), Tazewell (TAZ), and Bland (BLA)

Two years ago when I did this route, I was able to get a few more, so the stretch goal here is for Carroll (CRL), Galax (GAX), and Grayson (GRA)...but we'll see how that goes.

Operation will most likely be phone on 40 meters, though I'll chase up to 20m or other bands as propagation/mood hits me.

73 and good luck!
-Kevin, KJ4OAP(/m)

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On 7 March 2017, Ben, K3FQ, emailed:

Gordon-
 I haven't seen any other postings about mobile operations this year on the website, but my son's scout troop is probably camping in Chesapeake Friday night before VA QSO weekend. He upgraded to General Class, so listen for K4IMP/m on 40m and 2m/70cm on Saturday morning/afternoon in Chesapeake and surrounding counties before we head back home to OBX.
  -Ben, N3FQ

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On 4 March 2017, Fred, NS4TT, emailed:
 
Thanks Gordon.  We will be running W4CA from Douthat State Park (Bath County).
73 de Fred (NS4TT)
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On 4 March 2017, James emailed:
 
Thanks for the reminder!
Our club plans to be on the air for the party again this year...

James A. "Scott" Boyd
Secretary / Treasurer 
Russell County Amateur Radio Club Inc.

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On 20 February 2017, the Olde Virginia Hams club met in Manassas and discussed the Virginia QSO Party.  A special feature was the Olde virginia Hams VQP candy.

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On 13 February 2017, Mike, N4CF, emailed:

Hi Gordon,

Attached is a VAQP call history file created from the eight logs you sent. It has 3,764 call signs. You are welcome to put on your website, and/or you may put a link to my website: <http://n4cf.mdodd.com/files/VAQP_Call_History_from_2016_de_N4CF.txt>

Please advise users to read the instructions at the top of the file, especially the part about searching for call signs with different counties because the county was entered differently in different logs. It's up to each person to decide whether to use the first entry or choose an alternate.

Thanks very much for providing the logs.

-- 
73, Mike N4CF
Louisa County, VA USA
Elecraft K3s/100 + P3
Carolina Windom up 45'
http://n4cf.mdodd.com


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On 16 Jan 17, Eric, AJ4LN, emailed:

  I asked the N1MM Logger+ devs to update the VA QSO party scoring for
this year, which they are doing, and they passed along the additional
info below. My original request to them is also at the bottom. Please
pass along to any other club members for which the info might be
relevant.

- Eric, AJ4LN
------------------------
John Bednar
Today at 8:07 AM
Eric,

The change has been made to remove callsign bonus stations and
submitted for tomorrows public release.

The mobile station county bonus points remains.

It would be good to include in the rules that there is one digital mode.

The list the VE abbreviations is missing in the rules document. There
are only ten Canadian Provinces. The multipliers that we expect are
the ten Provinces and three Territories listed below.

...

John, K3CT

NB
NS
QC
ON
MB
SK
AB
BC
NWT
NF
LB
YT
PE
NU

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On 1/12/2017 12:03 PM, K1RA - Andy Z wrote:
> Good day SPARC,
>   I'd again like to map my VaQP Counties map available through Google
> Maps here:
>
> https://goo.gl/U7z4Lr
>
>   You can click on a color county or city in the map to highlight and
> display its name and 3 letter abbreviation.  Likewise you can click on
> the name or abbreviation on the left side of the map to highlight the
> respective county.  Click on the 134 more below the initial list to
> expand the entire list.  You can utilize all the standard pan and zoom
> features that Google make available with their mapping tool.
>
>  Note that scrolling to the bottom of the counties list on the left of
> the page allows one to toggle the underlying base map between terrain
> mode and satellite mode.  This may be most useful to mobile or portable
> stations planning routes or operating location within certain counties
> or near county bisects and trisects.
>
>   Any questions, suggestions or issues please contact me at the email below.
>
> 73
>
> andyz - K1RA

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