[CQ-Contest] The Challenge of State QSO Parties

[Stan Zawrotny]

Next weekend, February 4-5, marshals in the annual State QSO Party season.
The SQP season is accompanied by the State QSO Party Challenge. The annual
State QSO Party Challenge recognizes all radio amateurs’ participation in
the U.S. State and Canadian Province QSO parties. It is open to any radio
amateur who participates in any of the approved State QSO Parties (SQPs).
Participants must simply submit their scores to 3830Scores.com
<https://3830scores.com/> to be included in the Challenge.

Participants are recognized for reaching five levels of achievement –
Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Using the submissions to
3830Scores.com <https://3830scores.com/> , each callsign’s cumulative score
is calculated by totaling up his/her number of reported contacts and
multiplying by the number of SQPs entered year-to-date. The use of the
number of SQPs entered as a multiplier is to encourage radio amateurs to
enter more state/province QSO parties. The use of the number of contacts as
a metric is to encourage participants to operate longer in each SQP,
increase the effectiveness of their station and improve their contesting
skills. To qualify for an award level, the participant must have
participated in at least two State QSO Parties. Each State QSO Party entry
must have at least two QSOs.

Although it wasn’t an initial component of the SQP Challenge, participants
instinctively applied their own test of their contesting abilities by
attempting to work all of the SQPs. In 2021, the SQP Group formalized the
quest and created the Worked All QSO Parties (WAQP) award. 26 ops had
“perfect attendance” at all 45 SQPs that year. Last year, the popularity of
the SQP Challenge and the WAQP Award contributed to the addition of two
more QSO parties by our Canadian neighbors increasing the prerequisite to
47 SQPs.



Because the number of contacts made is one of the metrics, participation in
your own state’s QSO party can boost your standing in the SQP Challenge.
Needing just two contacts in each SQP doesn’t sound like much, but due to
propagation and the low number of hams in some states, certain SQPs can be
extremely difficult. Being an out-of-state station in 46 of the 47 SQPs,
success in these two programs is highly dependent on your search and pounce
skills and patience.



The Vermont QSO Party kicks off the season at 0000Z February 4th. They are
joined by Minnesota and the British Columbia later in the day. The season
stretches to the end of October. The most popular SQPs are California,
Florida, Pennsylvania, and the 7th Call Area. The entire schedule can be
found on StateQSOParty.com.
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Stan, K4SBZ