[nrv-hams] Virginia QSO Party

[Kay Craigie]

This coming weekend, March 19-20, is the Virginia QSO Party. The time period
is 1400 UTC on Saturday (10 am local time) to 0200 UTC Sunday (10 pm
Saturday night local time) and 1200 UTC to 2400 UTC on Sunday. That's 8 am
to 8 pm local time.

Complete rules are posted at
http://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/2016_VQP/2016_VQP_Rules.pdf

Phone, CW, and digital contacts are allowed. Repeater contacts are not
allowed.

The exchange (what we send and receive) is a serial QSO number and Virginia
county or independent city. Stations outside Virginia will send us their
serial number and state, Canadian province, or "DX." A list of the official
abbreviations for Virginia counties and cities is posted at
http://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/2016_VQP/2016_VQP_Counties&Cities.p
df

Please learn the abbreviation for your county or city. People will ask.

If you don't see quite how this works, find a station who's in the contest
and listen to how he or she does it. You'll catch on quickly.

Because serious participants want to log as many cities and counties as
possible, it is good to know that the ones we live in are fairly rare. We
can be very popular kids at this dance.

I suggest looking for in-state contacts on 40 and 75/80 meters. In the
evening, if you have 160 meters, that's good, too. For out-of-state
contacts, 10, 15, and 20 may be useful. There is no contesting on 12, 17,
30, and 60 meter bands.

Get on the air and have fun!

73, Kay N3KN