[W8MWA] The State QSO Party Challenge (observations)

[Spence Graham]

Well... since everyone is seemingly under house arrest for awhile due to
COVID-19 (wash your grubby paws, by the way)... I thought I'd take a look
at some data on the new State QSO Party Challenge results after 9 State QSO
Parties, so far there have been about 539 hams submitting their logs to the
3830Scores website for these QSO parties.  Some have worked all 9 QSO
Parties and some have worked just one or two of them.

Let's review the concept of this really fun and laidback contest...

You are ONLY competing against yourself!

You do NOT need a powerhouse ham radio station!

You are simply seeing what LEVEL of the Challenge you can attain.  You are
NOT competing against anyone else!  It also levels the playing field in
that it doesn't matter that some other ham has a different antenna,
amplifier or rig... it's ALL about YOU and a putting at least 2 contacts in
your log from a particular state based upon the time you want to play on
the radio on a weekend.  As you will see below, the true value in the
Challenge is to work as many State QSO Parties as you can so you get the
added multiplier for each State QP you participate in!

Challenge Levels: There are five recognition levels based on minimum
Challenge points:

Level Minimum Points
Diamond 50,000
Platinum 10,000
Gold 5,000
Silver 1,000
Bronze 100

Your score is based upon the total number of State QSO Party contacts your
make over the course of the contest year, multiplied by the number of State
QSO parties you worked at least 2 stations in that state!   (Let's say you
have participated in 3 State QSO Parties, so far... and in those 3 State
QSO Parties you have made a total of 40 contacts... 40 contacts X 3 QSO
Parties = 120 points to date.  You have already qualified for the BRONZE
LEVEL!  If you had worked 6 State QSO Parties your score would have been 40
X 6 = 240 points and a quarter of the way to SILVER LEVEL! )

N8II... Jeff Hartley... in Shepherdstown, WV... is probably WV's biggest
contester and I chat with him on the air once in a while just to
catch-up... he has a serious contest station and does most of the big
contests every year... he has made 889 QSO Party contacts in 8 of the 9 QSO
Parties and has 7,112 for his current score (889 X 8 = 7112) and he is on
his way to PLATINUM LEVEL already!  Out of the 539 folks participating at
this point, he is in 10th place overall by point total.  His primary goal
is to hit the DIAMOND LEVEL by the end of the year by adding more contacts
and getting the multiplier for as many QP's possible.

The State QSO Party Challenge was a brilliant idea by Dave Edmonds, WN4AFP
in South Carolina!  The goal was to encourage all of us to PARTICIPATE in
multiple State QSO Parties throughout the year, add new counties to our
logbooks, and to add more targets on the bands during the QSO Parties.  It
has worked in a HUGE way already.  I just saw the results of the Vermont
QSO Party and from 2019 to 2020 results they saw a 268% increase in
participation!  The other states have seen similar increases in
participation, too.  By the time the WV QSO Party gets here in mid-June all
of us could be LEVELED-UP nicely!

I encourage everyone to try a QSO Party... it's a VERY laid back and
leisurely way to get radio-active for a couple hours off and on during the
weekend... with lots of targets to shoot at.  You don't need a big time
contest station and everyone is a WINNER no matter what level you are
chasing.  All you have to do is submit your log to 3830Scores.com after the
contest is over by filling out their easy to use web form!  Most of the
contest logging software platforms support the State QSO Party logging
set-up and make is quite easy to log a contact quickly.  There are a lot of
QSO Parties coming up in the next 9 months, so get in on the action... it's
not too late to join the fun!

Don't forget the CQ World Wide WPX contest is this coming weekend... fun
way to socially distance yourself!

-- 
73,

Spence

*Spencer W. Graham, II*
*WT8WV*
*73 Crosby Road*
*Morgantown, WV 26508*

*2017-2019 VP of Monongalia Wireless Association http://www.w8mwa.org/
<http://www.w8mwa.org/> *
*ARRL Volunteer Examiner *
*W5YI Volunteer Examiner*
*Laurel ARC Volunteer Examiner*
*ARRL WV Section Affiliate Club Coordinator *

*Check Out My Ham Radio Blog Site...  http://kb8fir.wordpress.com
<http://kb8fir.wordpress.com>*

*(ex-KB8FIR and ex-KA8LJO)*
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