[CQ-Contest] QSO Party Rules

[Jim Brown]

On 9/18/2022 4:54 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR wrote:
> Nonetheless, I have to wonder why anyone would boycott a particular QSO 
> party because of its rules.

It matters whether the "home" QSO parties are there to work on the bands 
where distant participants can work them. It's no fun to work a QSO 
party when you can't hear the guys you're trying to work, which causes 
you not bother with those parties. Many of us LOVE state QSO parties 
WHEN we can work them, and the serious in-state participants need us as 
mults, just as they need US as mults.

Contests are about competition, and if I can't work mults, I'm not 
competitive, and it's no fun. Many of us ENJOY tracking mobiles through 
dozens of counties. That's an important part of the better QSO parties.

The guys who coordinate and participate in CQP work very hard to make 
sure that all CA counties are workable from all of NA. Our CQP team 
activates one or more CA counties with serious multi-setup portable 
operations, and we've activated 5-6 rare NV or UT counties for 7QP with 
stations that are easily workable on the two or three bands with prop to 
all of NA. Our goal is to make working CQP and 7QP fun for out of state 
participants throughout NA. and even EU. There are EU stations who take 
these contests seriously, all because we don't sit on 40M and work 
locals for in-state mults.

Scoring rules MATTER -- they establish the nature of the contest, who 
can have fun because they are competitive, who can't. QSO parties are 
more fun for both in-state/region participants if they have more 
stations to work, and stations that need the higher bands to work them 
will water their lawns when they can't.

73, Jim K9YC