[CQ-Contest] QSO Party Rules

[James Duffey]

> On Sep 20, 2022, at 11:00, K9YC wrote:
> 
> The way most of these parties work, mobiles get another mult for each 
> state they work for each county from which they work them. If a mobile 
> works me from 20 counties on 2 bands, we each get 40 mults; if he works 
> KA6BIM (in OR) from 25 counties on 2 bands, they both get another 50 
> mults. And so on.


This is not the way the QSO Party rules I am familiar with work. In the QSO Party rules I am familiar with, if I, a mobile, work you from 20 counties on two bands, you do indeed earn 40 mults, but I only get two, one each for your SPC per band. Sometimes, only one per contest.  I am not sure I understand your KA6LIM situation as Oregon does not have its own QSO party, but rather participates in the 7QP. Mobiles get credit for the states in the 7QP, not the counties. Multipliers usually do not accumulate from county-to-county, at least in the State QSO Parties I am familiar with. Some only count the SPC once per contest not once per band. It does help to work mobile-to-mobile in state QSO parties, but, in my experience it is not worth the time searching them out to the detriment of running stations. 

The one SPC multiplier per contest by a mobile, regardless of county in which it is worked, applies to the contests you cited as having unfavorable rules, although some QSO Party rules award bonuses to mobiles for working a certain minimum number of QSOs per county they activate. The closest thing for incentivizing  mobiles to work intrastate, mobiles only, is the Texas QSO Party:

"Texas Mobiles—...Add five hundred (500) bonus points to your FINAL SCORE for each Texas mobile worked in five (5) different counties regardless of band or mode. If you work the same Texas mobile in five (5) additional counties, you add an additional five hundred (500) bonus points to your FINAL SCORE, etc. However, for bonus points you can only count one (1) contact per county per mobile.”

So, you may have a point with regard to TX about it having rules slanted to intrastate QSOs for mobiles, but it isn’t the cumulative multipliers you cite. I think that TN, PA, NE, and WA have the same multiplier structure for mobile and fixed stations, perhaps with a bonus for a minimum number of QSOs per county by mobiles in some of the contests.

If there are state QSO parties that calculate multipliers the way you say “most" do, I would like to know about them. Sounds like fun mobiling with a giant score looming. I am not aware of any, but I have not looked exhaustively at all the state’s rules, but in addition to the above, the ones I have operated inor contemplated operating in mobile do not.

As I said in myv earlier post, it is nice to have QSO Parties with different rules and one can choose to operate those with rules they like and not operate those with rules they don’t like. - Duffey KK6MC