In a message dated 5/4/99 10:52:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
utahfolk@konnections.com writes:
>
> I don't want to start a thread here ... just toss out a couple of ideas
> and
> see if someone wiser than I can formulate a better contest ....
>
> Except for a few, these (State) QSO PARTIES ARE A WASTE OF TIME!
>
etc.
Hey Dave,
Are you bummed out that you aren't in Box Elder County and therefore can't be
the hunted in the Box Elder County Utah QSO Party this weekend? ;-)
(BTW, has everyone checked out those rules? They are a hoot. I still
haven't quite figured out Net Control Operator points.)
State QSO parties certainly are not the be-all/end-all of contesting, but
they do have a place. I find them a good way to hack around at the radio
among all the usual weekend tasks and projects; sit down and operate for
five or ten minutes, then go do something useful for half an hour. In that
time the mobile expeditions have moved onto a new county, and maybe another
home station or two shows up.
Three things absolutely necessary for a successful state QSO party:
1. Good promotion within the state. The PA and CA guys are the best at
this, turning out lots of otherwise inactive or semi-active contesters.
2. Some well organized mobile operations, preferably enough to make a
"clean sweep" possible. (This assumes enough counties to make it all
worthwhile - sorry Delaware, with your three counties).
3. A time frame appropriate for the activity. I think the single day,
12 hour format for a state the size of Michigan was ideal. California can
justify 20 hours out of 30. I suspect 24 hours will be a tad long for Box
Elder County Utah.
Simultaneous QSO parties for several states would be great, but there
is a computer problem: the major logging programs only run one contest at a
time, so switching contests requires dumping out of the program and
restarting with the other contest. I have avoided working guys in the
Illinois party because my computer was doing the PA party at the same time.
Any solutions out there?
See you all in the BECUQP this weekend ;-) !!
Jim K8MR
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