I've always liked the fact that the state QSO parties are spread throughout
the year. Thanks to them, there is nearly always at least one operating
event during most weekends. If I happen to miss a major contest due to a
business trip or a family get together, it's nice to know that I can work a
few stations in the Podunk Hollow QSO Party the next weekend.
Some of these state QSO parties are major events with long histories and
lots of activity. Putting another QSO Party on the same weekend as the
Pennsylvania, California, Florida or Texas parties (or, God forbid,
combining them all) would, IMHO, merely serve to water down these very
enjoyable events and would possibly engender resentment on the part of the
sponsors and participants.
And let's not forget the role that the state QSO parties play in getting
newcomers interested in contesting. The easy operating pace of many of
these events is an excellent training ground for the major contests. The
more of these there are throughout the year, the more opportunities people
have to learn discover the fun of contesting.
It is certainly true that there are some pretty sad examples of QSO parties
out there. Often there is little or no activity to be found in some of
these events. While it certainly does no harm if some club wants to
schedule a QSO party that it does't bother to promote and that no one
operates (Except printing their rules wastes a lot of magazine space. Why
not just print the dates and refer readers to a web site for the rules?),
combining some of them certainly has merit and could produce some fun
events. If George or someone else can persuade some of these sponsors to
combine their parties into regional events, so much the better. But I
would hope they could be spread around the year and be kept separate from
the established events.
73,
Hal W1NN
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