[PaQSO] County Line History

[doughdh at aol.com]

Hi all,

Perhaps a little history on the county line situation and how it 
started.  Back in 1974 or so when I took over the QSO Party management, 
we had a total of 20 or 25 entries total.  No one came close to a 
sweep.  The final results consisted of one page, one side included with 
the NARC Newsletter.  Needless to say, it was a very boring weekend 
with those few who entered pleaded for QSOs.  Those results reside 
somewhere in the NARC archives, but I believe the winner made maybe 100 
or so QSOs.

So, for the next couple of years we tried to increase the number of 
participants and general activity.  Personally, I loaded my FT107 and 
Hustler antenna in the car and operated mobile CW only. Getting any 
QSOs on SSB was difficult, so I didn't even try.  But, knowing that 
many were operating SSB only, I would stop at a county line, throw a 
rock over a tree with one end of a 40 m dipole, tie the other end to 
the back bumper and call CQ on 40 SSB. After usually 30 minutes, I had 
worked the band dry; took the dipole down and off to the adjoining 
county operating CW.  The whole point was to give out as many QSOs in 
as many counties as possible during the Party.  County line stops were 
always made in the rarer counties. This was just one way we used to 
increase the participation.  For others, read the history that I think 
is still included with the PA QSO party home page.

Personally, I would much prefer to operate portable in one county, then 
move to a second.  Twice the QSO potential - twice the fun.

73,  Doug W3HDH