SPONSOR
Sponsored by the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club, Call Box
599, Sterling, VA 20167.
OBJECTIVE
To promote amateur radio activity in the 95 Virginia Counties
and 38 Virginia
Independent Cities.
DATES
Saturday, 18 March 2023, 1400 UTC - Sunday, 19 March, 0400 UTC
and Sunday, 19
March, 1200 UTC - 2400 UTC.
(For
Virginia, this is Saturday 10 AM - 12 Midnight and Sunday 8 AM
- 8 PM Virginia
local time.)
ENTRY CATEGORIES
Operator Categories
Single Operator - One person performs all operating
and only one
transmitter may be on the air at a time.
Multi Operator / Single Transmitter - Two or more
operators with one
transmitter on the air at one time.
Multi Operator / Multi Transmitter - Two or more
operators with two or
more transmitters on the air at one time.
Station Categories
Fixed Station
Mobile – A station operating from a vehicle which
is capable of
operating while in motion and operates stationary in the
same configuration,
i.e., able to travel at any time without having to
disconnect any wiring or
change any antennas in order to move. A mobile station is
self-contained and
capable of legal motion (land, water or air) while
operating. Commercial power
may not be used. Contacts may be made while moving or
stopped.
Expedition – A
station that moves
between two or more Virginia non-permanent station
locations. All radio
equipment, power supplies and antennas must be transported
to each operating
site. Commercial power may be used. Mobile radios,
equipment, and antennas
installed in, on or attached to a vehicle wholly for normal
mobile operation
are not permitted to be used in this class. The vehicle may
be used as part of
the setup once stopped in the temporary location. An
expedition may not make
contest contacts (including contest QSO coordination) while
moving regardless
of origin or destination.
Rover – A
vehicle-mounted
designed for contesting and is not a mobile or expedition
station. The rover
may make contacts while stationary and/or while moving. The
rover may change
equipment and antenna configurations. The rover may operate
from a vehicle
and/or off a vehicle. The rover may or may not use
commercial power.
Power Categories
High (greater than 150 watts), Low (150 watts or less) and
QRP (5 watts or
less)
Band Categories
Multi-Band or Single Band
Mode Categories
Phone, CW, Digital, and Mixed
Club Entry
Club - Minimum of three valid contest entries each
indicating club affiliation.
SAFETY
All stations should operate safely. For mobiles and rovers,
motion is optional
and discouraged during operation, unless there is a separate
driver who is not
operating while driving.
VALID CONTACTS
Virginia stations work all stations. Out-of-State stations
work Virginia
stations only. Work fixed stations once per band/mode.
Work Virginia Expeditions, Rovers, and Mobiles in each
Virginia County or
Independent City from which they operate. Stations on County
or Independent
City lines count as one QSO and one County/Independent City
multiplier. Mobile,
Rover, and Expedition stations must use appropriate suffix in
call sign.
Satellite contacts allowed.
No cross-mode or repeater QSO's. Spotting nets, DX clusters, etc., may be used to locate other stations - no self-spotting permitted.
Logs with a significant number of QSOs with the same station will be categorized as check logs.
EXCHANGE
Exchange QSO number and QTH (Virginia County or
Independent City
for VA stations; State, Province or "DX" for others).
Virginia Stations log QSO's by Virginia Independent City or
County of
operation.
Identify all QSO's with band/mode, sequential QSO number
sent/received and
date/time of contact in UTC.
Please follow standard contest practices by making and
responding to "CQ
Virginia QSO Party" calls.
Multiple transmitter stations may maintain sequential QSO
numbers independently
for each transmitter.
SCORING
QSO Points:
QSO's count 1 point per Phone, 2 points per CW, 2 points per
digital mode
(RTTY, PSK31,etc.), and 3 points per contact made with a
Virginia Mobile,
Expedition, or Rover.
Multipliers:
Multipliers are only counted once, i.e., contacting the
same Virginia
County, Independent City, State, Province or Country using a
different band or
mode counts only as a new QSO, not as a new multiplier.
Virginia Mobile, Rover, Expedition, and Fixed Station
multipliers are the total
number of Virginia counties, Virginia Independent cities, U.
S. States (except
Virginia), Canadian Provinces, and DX entities. No extra
DX multiplier for
U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii), Virginia, and Canada.
Mobile, Rover, and Expedition stations that
contact 10 (ten) or
more different stations while operating from a county or
independent city may
claim it as a multiplier, if not otherwise worked.
Outside of Virginia station multipliers are the total number
of Virginia
Counties (95) and Independent Cities (38) worked.
Bonus Points:
Virginia Mobile, Rover, and Expedition stations receive a
bonus of 100
additional points for each Virginia County/ Independent City
from which they
log a valid QSO.
Final score:
Final score is the number of QSO Points multiplied by the
number of
Multipliers plus Bonus Points.
FREQUENCIES
160 meters and up, except no WARC band QSO's permitted.
Suggested frequencies:
CW - 1805 KHz and 50 KHz up from band edge
on others.
PHONE -1845, 3860, 7260, 14270, 21370 and
28370 KHz.
Novice/Tech Plus - 10 KHz up from the edge
of the CW band
and 28370 KHz on PHONE.
VHF - 50.130, 144.200 (CW & SSB),
146.580 and 223.50
MHz.
UHF - 446.00 MHz.
Digital contacts should use normally
accepted sub-bands for
these modes.
ENTRIES
For award purposes, Fixed, Expedition, Mobile and Rover
operations will be
considered separately. Please submit separate logs for Fixed,
Expedition,
Mobile, and Rover operation.
Multiple operator stations should list all operators by call
sign.
Electronic (preferred) or paper logs, summary and dupe sheets
(200 or more
QSO's) are required for all entries. The summary and 'dupe
sheet' requirement
is waived if recognized contesting software is used. Paper
forms are available
at the contest web site.
For Club Competition purposes, be sure to indicate club name
on summary sheet
and log.
Submit log entries by 15 April by online portal; mail to the
VA QSO Party, Call
Box 599, Sterling, VA 20167; or by email to [email protected].
If you have
problems, please send an email to [email protected].
A $1.00 donation to help defray the costs of printing and
mailing is
encouraged.
AWARDS
VA participants will automatically receive a certificate. All
others should
include “CERTIFICATE: YES” in the Cabrillo log file to receive
a
certificate.
The Plaques to be awarded are identified on the contest web
site.
INFORMATION
Additional information may be obtained by mail at VA QSO
Party, Call Box 599,
Sterling, VA 20167; from the SPARC website
www.qsl.net/sterling; or by email to
[email protected].