Save the Date! The Virginia QSO Party is held during the 3rd full weekend in March. The 2024 Virginia QSO Party will be held during the weekend of 16-17 March 2024. · Saturday, 16 March, 1400 UTC - Sunday, 17 March, 0400 UTC and · Sunday, 17 March, 1200 UTC - 2400 UTC. VQP Contest Rules. The rules are posted. They are available in three formats (PDF, HTML, and DOC). Comments may be mailed to vqp@verizon.net. Rule Changes. During October and November, we considered rule changes. We received several comments. They have been resolved as follows: 1) Allow self-spotting. Concur. We will allow self-spotting. 2) Separate SO1R plaque into SO1R/CW and SO1R SSB plaques. Concur. We added caveat that this is for HF-only logs and limited to Virginia Stations. 3) Initiate a HF-only plaque. Concur. See below. 4) Re-evaluate Mobile, Rover, and Expedition categories. Resolved to leave these categories as is for another year. The objective is to provide more opportunity for non-fixed stations to earn a plaque. 5) Clarify allowing FT-8/4 contacts. Resolved that we require the defined elements of the exchange, i.e., call sign, RS(T), and SN. We do not know anyway this can be currently accomplished in FT-8/4. Also, a consideration was that both parties to a contact should be aware they are participating in the Virginia QSO Party. Pre-Party Briefing: A presentation providing information about the upcoming 2024 Virginia QSO Party, statistics from previous years, etc. Plaques: The tentative list of plaques for the 2024 VaQP has been updated on 13 January 2024. We are awaiting responses from some sponsors of plaques from last year. In addition, we have a plaque that needs a new sponsor. We have a new plaque for this year and have redefined an old plaque from last year. The plaque Single-Operator Single-Receiver has been split into two plaques Single Operator Single Receiver CW HF-Only and Single Operator Single Receiver SSB HF-Only. These are available only to Virginia stations. Worked All Virginia Award: The "Worked All Virginia" award is offered by the Rappahannock Valley Amateur Radio Club. Presentation Offer and Schedule: SPARC will give a presentation on the Virginia QSO Party to any group in Virginia. Planning Calendar: The calendar is available for review. Comments, questions, and recommendations should be emailed to vqp@verizon.net.
Always, especially since I am a member of SPARC, but also because it is a great fun easy contest. And I'm also participating in the QSO Party Challenge and got them all last year and 3 years ago missed one 2 years ago. StateQSOParty.com
Enjoy 47 State, Province & Regional QSO Parties with 2024 State QSO Party Club Challenge- & http://tiny.cc/stqspc
VAQP is one of the enlightened ones which includes other DXCC entities as multipliers, making it rather more interactive with the rest of the world. It probably makes it more interesting for the VA ops as well.
As you are from the Atlantic coast, I hope to have at least one contact with you during the tiny window of greyline propagation! I am at UTC +5.30 and I presume that starting time on second day will be better for me. Recently I had a contact with @KE5EE during greyline propagation on SSB. Please do update operating frequencies which you are likely to beam on long path. Though I am barefoot and on a simple dipole for 20 and 40 m, we do have a few VUs with good stations and antennas who beam long path during greyline propagation. I usually pick up US stations by listening to their QSOs. 73 de Jon, VU2JO
