[South Florida DX Association] The AWA AM QSO Party

[Bill Marx]

The AWA AM QSO Party
by Randy Haus, KB2PLW


   For the last two years, AWA has held an on-air AM event to increase
participation and encourage the use and/or construction classic phone rigs.
The original intent of this event was to showcase the AM equipment and
circuit designs of the 1930s. The event has gone through several changes
based on member comments received at the amateur seminar held at the yearly
conference.

This year, as a result of further member input, the AM event is being
modified again. First of all, it will be open to all amateurs, whether AWA
members or not. This is the first AWA on-air get-together to be open to the
general ham public. We hope it will result in a livelier event and make new
friends (and members) for AWA. Press releases to publicize the contest will
be sent to QST and CQ magazines. Our other ham events will remain AWA only
as has been the practice.

Scoring methods have also been revised to make them more consistent with
those used in other AWA contests. In addition, the event is being expanded
to include more bands and to accord Old Time status to all AM rigs
commercially built before 1966 or home built from designs in use prior to
that year.

Logs will be sent out to regular AWA contest participants during the first
week of February, 2005. However, a printable PDF copy of the Contest Log
Sheet is available here for the convenience of non-members as well as
members who did not receive one in the mail. If you don't receive an OT DX
Contest Log by February 15th and are not internet-equipped, please write to
Randy Haus, KB2PLW, P.O. Box 665, 303 Pennsylvania Avenue, Trumansburg, NY
14886.

Dates and Times: 2300UTC Saturday to 2300UTC Sunday (February 26th-27th,
2005).

Objective: Contact the greatest number of AM stations. When calling, uwse
"CQ AWA this is KB2PLW" or something similar. Once contact is made, exchange
RST, name and year of equipment such as "TX 55" for a 1955 transmitter and
"RX 38" for a 1938 receiver. Send "MOD" for 1966 or later gear.

Rules: A station will be scored only once on each band.

Frequencies: 3837 to 3885 kHz; 7270 to 7290 KHz and 14250-14280 kHz, +/-
QRM.

Scoring: QSO Zones: "E" eastern zone US Districts 1,2,3,4,8,9 plus VE1, VE2
& VE3; "W" western zone, US Districts 5,6,7,0 plus VE4, VE5, VE6 & VE7. "DX"
zone: All others.

QSO Points per Contact by Zone: "E" to "E" or "W" to "W" 1 point; "E" to "W"
or "W" to "E" 2 points; "E", "W" or "DX" to "DX" 3 points.

Equipment Multipliers: MOD TX and RX=1; OT TX or RX=2; OT TX and RX=3. All
AM rigs commercially built before 1966 or home built from designs in use
prior to that year are considered OT.

Power multipliers: Input to final up to 40 watts=5; 40+ to 80 watts=4; 80+
to 200 watts=3; 200+ to 400 watts=2; 400+ watts=1.

Determining total points per QSO: (1) Find QSO Points for contact. (2) QSO
Points X your equipment multiplier X your power multiplier = total points
for the contact.

Scoring examples: Example 1, KB2PLW contacts WlFPZ; (a) both are in "E" zone
for one QSO point; (b) both have OT TX and RX for a 3 multiplier; (c) both
are operating at 10 watts for a 3 multiplier. Therefore the contact is worth
1 pt x 3 x 3 = 9 points for the contact for each operator. Example 2, W6TDP
contacts W2FCH; (a) "W" to "E" contact counts as 2 QSO points; (b) W6TDP has
OT RX and OT TX running 20 watts; (c) W2FCH has MOD RX and OT TX running 50
watts. Therefore the contact is worth 2 x 3 x 3 = 18 points for W6TDP and 2
x 2 x 2 = 8 points for W2FCH.

Logs: Please send AM QSO Party completed logs to Marc Ellis at P.O. Box
1306, Evanston, IL 60204-1306 no later than March 1st, 2005!!

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