Jeff: There IS time. It's the internet age, after all. I am pretty sure the ARRL news editor would be glad to have a news item that he could put on their web page headlined:

Georgia QSO Party Fights Virus with Timely Rules Changes

A lot of clubs and groups pick up those ARRL news stories and pass them along. 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, OM. 

Jim K1TN/Florida

Jim,

I would consider that for GQP but I don't know that I have time to get 
the word out in time since it's only 9 days away.
I know it's been discussed before and rejected but allowing 80 meters in 
the FQP for just this year might be a good idea. Maybe even allow 160 
meters as well. I'm afraid that activity is going to be way down without 
having mobiles to chase around. I just updated my GQP activity map on 
the web page yesterday and we went from over 2/3 of the GA counties 
covered to less than 1/3 because I removed the planned mobile/portable 
operations.  Ouch that hurts ! Plus it didn't help that GQP falls on 
Easter weekend this year.
Jeff



On 4/2/2020 10:23 AM, James Cain wrote:

I have some ideas for last-minute rules changes that might help a little in

salvaging the GA and FL QSO parties.



1. Shorten the events to one day, Saturday, maybe 1200Z to 0100Z or

something like that.



2. Announce 15 and 10 Meter "meeting times" for in-state stations to check

those bands. It would help everybody catch any sporadic E skip and in-state

stations might be able to work some ground wave. The old ARRL CD Parties

used this trick and it really did work.



3. In the case of the Florida QP, allow 80 Meter QSOs to count.



K1TN