Hi All,

With the success of the ARRL Centennial QSO party fresh in our minds, my son Chris, KB3KCN, good friend Dave, N3HCN and I have something of a brainstorm brewing. We think it would be great fun to develop an annual, year long, Worked All States / Counties QSO Party, with a similar flavor to the ARRL Centennial! This event will facilitate reaching personal, multi band Worked All States (WAS) goals and county hunter objectives.

Everyone will start fresh each January 1, work different states / counties and DXCC entities for multipliers. Then multiply your total multipliers by the number of QSOs for a total score.

Participants will upload their ADIF logs to a web site that will display real time scores and a leader board, similar to the Centennial.

Our initial ideas still need refinement and it's not yet clear if we have the resources to put this together ourselves, but early indications are looking like this is a real possibility!

Below is an early draft of the rules. We are still in the beginning stages of this process and we'd love to hear any suggestions that you may have before we firm these up! You can e-mail me direct, or to stay more fully in the loop, you are welcome to join this e-mail group:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/StateCountyQSOParty/info

[Note, you'll find a more current, updated version of the rules here.]

Worked All States / Counties QSO Party

Early Draft (1/7/15):

Objective:

Create a fun operating event that will be engaging and encourage on air activity on multiple bands and modes for a long duration (12 months). This event will facilitate reaching personal, multi band Worked All States (WAS) goals and county hunter objectives.

Rules:

- Contest Period: This is a 12 month, annual contest, January 1 through December 31. Everyone starts fresh January 1st each year.

- Bands: All HF bands 160 Meters - 10 Meters except 60 Meters.

- Exchange: Operators may call CQ WAS, similar to the Centennial. All QSOs, including QSOs made during other contests, as well as casual operating, can be counted for points and multiplier credit. Exchange of state and county is encouraged, but not required. The county and state do not actually have to be exchanged during the QSO, but must be included in your upload for multiplier credit. Using another data source to determine the state and county after the contact and adding it to the QSO record is fine.

- Score : Multiply the number of unique counties and DXCC entities worked on each HF band and mode (SSB & CW) times the number of QSOs (QSOs are one point each).

- Multipliers: 3,077 counties and 340 DX entities are counted for multiplier credit on each band and mode. For example, assuming you work Harford County MD on all 9 bands (160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12 10), on both CW and SSB on each band, Harford County MD would be counted as a multiplier 18 times (9 CW and 9 SSB). There are 3,077 counties and 340 DX entities that can be counted as multipliers on each band on both SSB and CW.

- Categories (It is questionable whether we want to break out categories. It might be better to keep it clean and simple like the Centennial. This is still in review):

Power: High, Low and QRP.

Band: Single band, single mode, all band, all mode.

Rover: There will not be a separate rover category, but rover operation is fine. Rovers may activate any county and apply QSOs made while rover to their yearly total.

Score Tracking:

Assuming technical challenges are overcome, scoring will be handled similarly to the Centennial. Participants will upload their ADIF logs to see their score and leader board rank on line in near real time. An entire infrastructure will require development. Chris and I are working on that now. We have a ways to go, but so far so good.

Achievement Levels:

Still in review. Early thinking is as follows:

First Level:

10,000 points (Could be achieved with 100 QSOs with 100 unique multipliers)

Second Level:

150,000 points (Could be achieved with 500 QSOs with 300 unique multipliers)

Third Level:

500,000 points (Could be achieved with 1000 QSOs with 500 unique multipliers)

Fourth Level:

2,000,000 points (Could be achieved with 2000 QSOs with 1000 unique multipliers)

Top Level:

10,000,000 points (Could be achieved with 5000 QSOs with 2000 unique multipliers)

The QSO and unique multiplier values are just examples. Points can be earned with any combination of QSOs / multipliers.

So, that is the current state of our brainstorm. We are eager to hear your thoughts and suggestions!

73, Scott
N3FJP
http://www.n3fjp.com

Serving the Amateur Radio community with contesting and general logging software since 1997.

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