[CQ-Contest] Ohio QSO Party Rule Changes

[K8MR via CQ-Contest]

The  Mad River Radio Club and Ohio QSO Party Committee are pleased to 
announce  significant changes in the Ohio QSO Party, effective for the 2015 event 
which  will be held on Saturday, August 22.


We  have decided to replace the serial number in the contest exchange with 
a signal  report. While it was fun to watch the competition in real time, we 
believe the  confusion caused with an exchange format different from that 
used in other  concurrent events caused people to avoid participating in the 
OhQP if they were  also involved in one of the other contests. So now, one 
can just treat the  multiple contests as one big one covering several states 
and work everybody with  the same exchange. 


Secondarily,  keeping track of serial numbers made things difficult for 
mobiles while in  motion, and often caused confusion for multioperator efforts 
using several  operating positions.


We  will be contacting software developers to update their software to the 
new OhQP  exchange. While we hope all will be able to get updated logging 
software in time  for the 2015 OhQP, for now we will still be able to process 
logs showing a  sent serial number; just log the received RS(T) in the 
received number  field.


In  a second, relatively minor change, the use of CW Skimmer and similar 
automated  spotting tools will be allowed for single operator stations. (Note 
- the use of  the regular spotting networks by single operators has been 
allowed for many  years). We do hope that stations using Skimmers will share 
their bounties of  cool OhQP stations found with the rest of the world via the 
regular DX  Clusters. 


We're  looking forward to seeing lots of you in the 2015 Ohio QSO Party, 
Saturday,  August 22, 1600Z to 0400Z August 23!




73  -  Jim  K8MR
 
OhQP  Chairman