[CQ-Contest] CQP this weekend - final updates, practice Friday

[Dean Wood]

Hi cq-contest list,

CQP is this weekend.

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2024 California QSO Party
1600Z October 5 - 2200Z October 6, 2024
https://cqp.org
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Final Updates:

1. Friday Practice and Net
Participate in the practice session on Friday evening.  Check into the 80m
net after the practice.
Details:
https://www.cqp.org/pdf/CQP2024_Practice.pdf

2. Solar Conditions
02-Oct-2024 at 1505 UTC
SFI = 245   A = 6   K = 2

You may have heard there was a strong X-class flare yesterday.
Don't panic.
Quoting spaceweather.com: "Although the CME was propelled by a powerful
X-flare, it does not appear to be a powerful CME. Its impact on Oct. 5th
will most likely cause only a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm."

Also, a new, large sunspot will be facing Earth by this weekend, hopefully
beneficial overall.

3. All 58 California counties will be active
https://cqp.org/tracker.html
* Some stations will only be active one day in rare counties.  Look for
them in the spreadsheet and contact them the day that they're active.
* Review our detailed county activation spreadsheet.
* Weather this weekend in California is forecast to be hot.  This could be
the warmest CQP weekend in CQP history.  Please understand if some of our
planned expedition stations end up canceling or operating less time than
expected due to the high heat.

4. County-Line Stations and 1x1 Stations
There will be 10+ county-line stations and 20+ 1x1 callsigns active in CQP
this weekend.
Make sure you know how to log a county-line station in your software logger.
https://www.cqp.org/files/cqp_how_to_log_a_county_line_qso.pdf

5. Chase Something
Time Challenge: 6-hour, 12-hour, 18-hour, 24-hour champions
POTA Challenge
Video Challenge
Plaques
Records
Win a gourmet California cheese gift box or a CQP POTA hat with your name
and callsign.
https://www.cqp.org/pdf/CQP2024_Fun_Contest_Challenges.pdf
https://www.cqp.org/Awards.html
https://www.cqp.org/Records.html

6. Fine tune your operating plan by reviewing graphs from CQP 2023 and
other helpful strategy documents:
https://www.cqp.org/graphs.html
https://www.cqp.org/Strategy.html

73...
-Dean - N6DE
CQP Chairman
https://cqp.org