[CQ-Contest] QSO Parties

[Kenneth E. Harker]

Dave, NC7W, utahfolk at konnections.com wrote:
 
> 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!
> 
> I take a QSO Party as a CONTEST.  In a contest I want to work lotsa
> stations!  If you are an outsider (outside the sponsoring state)
> you are not going to be able to do much as far as runs go or anykind
> of rate ... in most of the QSO Parties.  Why?  Because there is
> not that much activity.  

A few of the state QSO Parties are actually kind of big contests.
In particular, I've seen some impressive QSO totals from the California
QSO Party and the Texas QSO Party.  

The rest of the state QSO Parties are kind of like mini Field Days.  They
are an opportunity for groups to get together special event stations 
or a casual multi-op effort, and expose some new people to the contesting
format.  They are also a great opportunity for those people (and especially
DX stations) looking to fill in holes in their 5BWAS tables.  

-- 
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Kenneth E. Harker      "Vox Clamantis in Deserto"      kharker at cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin                  Amateur Radio Callsign: KM5FA
Department of the Computer Sciences         President, UT Amateur Radio Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124               Maintainer of the Linux Laptop Home Page
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA            http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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