The 2019 Virginia QSO Party was held during the weekend of 16-17 March 2019.
          Saturday, 16 March 2019 1400 UTC - Sunday, 17 March 0400 UTC and
          Sunday, 17 March 1200 UTC - 2400 UTC.


Mailings:  Plaques not pickup at the Virginia QSO Party Awards ceremony were mailed to recipients on 24 June 2019.  Certificates were mailed on 1 July 2019.  

Awards Ceremony: A review of the results (results briefing) and the presentation  of the plaques (pictures of the event)  for the 2019 Virginia QSO Party was held at 0900 during the Olde Virginia Hams Manassas Hamfest. The event was held at the Manassas Park Community Center, 99 Adams Street, Manassas Park, VA 20111.  Certificates were available for pickup.  Plaques and certificates not picked up at the awards ceremony will be mailed to the recipients.

Logs MetaData:  Log metadata is information from the log summary sheets or cabrillo header and includes anticipated scores.  MultiOps data contains the names of operators for the multiple operator stations.  This data will be updated as we finish processing logs and make corrections.  Updated on  10 June 2019 12 May 2019 11 May 2019 1 May 2019 30 April 2019 23 April 2019 20 April 2019 19 April 2019.  Errors or corrections should be emailed to [email protected].  We suggest you save the file and then open it in a PDF reader.

Tidbits:  Comments we received during and after the Party.  Will include soapbox comments later. 


Spotting Network:  John, KX4O is providing the VQP spotting network once again this year.   http://www.qsoparty.com/
 
Call History file:  Mike, N4CF, generated a call history file from the largest logs submitted last year.  Here is the URL of the website that has a link to it, and instructions for using it: <http://n4cf.mdodd.com/vaqp-ch.html>

VaQP APRS Mobile County Tracker:  (https://k1ra.us/2019/03/08/vaqp-2019-aprs-mobile-tracker/  Andy, K1RA, encourages VQP mobile stations to run APRS w/ GPS on 2m (144.390 MHz) or via smartphone apps such as APRSDroid.  Stations wishing to participate to allow visual tracking of their real-time location during the contest should email Andy at [email protected] with the call sign and SSID.  This tool will help fixed stations find and track those valuable 3 pt mobile stations once they enter new counties or independent cites. 

Announced Operations:  This is a list of announced operations in Virginia.  We hope to get coverage of all the counties and independent cities identified early.  If you are planning on operating a station in Virginia, please send an email with the details and a picture to [email protected].   

We received fixed station logs from 70 of the 133 counties and independent cities in Virginia last year.  We try to improve this by contacting hams in QTHs that had no logs submitted and low QSO counts.  If you are interested in helping us improve coverage, please send us an email (vqp@verizon,net) and we will send you a list of counties to focus on.

Certificate:  The certificate for the 2019 Virginia QSO Party was designed by the Vienna Wireless Society (VWS).  This club is one of the active supporters of the VQP and is very active in the local area. 

Plaques and Sponsors:  We anticipate having  26 plaques this year, one less than last year.  Updated  14 February 2019 2 February 2019 30 January 2019 28 Dec 18 20 Dec 18 16 Dec 18 15 Dec 18 6 Dec 18 27 Nov 18 with full list of sponsors.

    We have decided to drop the plaque for young adult.  There was no entry last year and entries have been few in previous years.

    For more information on the number of competitors for each plaque, see page 21 in the VQP Briefing.

    The YOUTH plaque is a relatively recent plaque for those hams age 18 and below.  Here is more information.


VQP Briefing: (PDF format ~10 MB ) A presentation suitable for club meetings on the Virginia QSO Party. Includes rules, Party statistics, descriptions of certificates.  This will be updated aperiodically to reflect new or changed information. Last updated on 8 March 2019 29 January 2019 1 January 2019 14 November 2018.
 
VQP Contest Rules.  ( html format,   MSWord format,   PDF format )  There are no rule changes for the 2019 Virginia QSO Party.  The rules remain unchanged from last year.

The VQP rules identify the information that must be exchanged to be considered a valid contact (QSO).  This includes call sign, serial number and QTH (3 character abbreviation for Virginia counties and independent cities, state and province / territory abbreviations, or DX for others.  This information must also be exchanged by operators using FT8 to make contacts. 

Contest Logging Programs.  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.  We re-score all logs submitted, so it is important to ensure your log contains all the required information.
    * N1MM Logger http://www.n1mm.com.
    * Scott & Kimberly, N3FJP & KA3SEQ Amateur Contact Log  http://www.n3fjp.com/.
    * WriteLog http://www.writelog.com/. 
    * WA7BNM Web2Cabrillo http://www.b4h.net/cabforms/   A manual entry cabrillo file generator.  Easy to use for those with QSOs not already in a cabrillo file.  Go to the web site.  Select Virginia QSO Party.  Fill in the forms.  In the last step, the program e-mails a Cabrillo file to [email protected], with a copy to the submitter's e-mail address. 

Virginia Counties and Independent Cities: 95 counties and 38 independent cities (html format or MS Document or PDF format).

Paper Log Summary Sheets: (.pdf or .doc) Remains unchanged from last year. Used to record header information for paper logs. This form is not required for cabrillo formatted electronic logs.

Worked All Virginia Award:  The "Worked All Virginia" award is offered by the Rappahannock Valley Amateur Radio Club. 

Presentation Offer and Schedule: SPARC will give a presentation on the Virginia QSO Party to any group in Virginia.

Planning Calendar: The calendar is available for review.

Comments, questions, and recommendations should be emailed to [email protected].