Hello all,
In case you haven’t figured it out by now with my Groups.io posts or VP Says messages on the K6MEP website, I really enjoy HF contesting. I think contests are a great opportunity to: get on the air without having to worry about rag chewing; find your on-air voice and hone your HF operating skills; figure out what works and what doesn’t work with your station; compete against yourself; work stations in states/countries you might not have QSOs with otherwise; and have fun!
Well, we have a great contest coming up for us California stations. The CA QSO Party (CQP) is a little over two weeks away. It starts at 9:00am Saturday, October 5th and ends at 3:00pm Sunday, October 6th (if my GMT to Pacific Time math is correct). Like most HF contests, it’s SSB and CW on 160m-10m (no WARC bands). Now, why is this such a great contest for us in California?
In most contests, California stations are not desirable contacts/multipliers. In the biggest contest, CQ World Wide, our Zone 3 is probably the easiest to get. For the CQ WPX contests, most of our prefixes (W6, K6, N6, KN6, etc.) are also the easiest to get. The same goes for all the other big contests. There’s no real reason for stations to actively seek us out.
But in the CQP, we are the targets! Every station outside of California wants to make a QSO with us… which is awesome! This is a great time – maybe the best time – to call CQ in a contest and hopefully experience having a mini pileup wanting to contact you.
So, I wanted to find a way to encourage club members to take part in the CQP. Here’s what I came up with:
This year, we are going sponsor a few awards for club members who participate in the CQP. Highest score, best first-time contester, best effort with a small station… we’ll figure that out later. Awards will be presented in the form of a certificate printed on nice paper stock suitable for framing. Hopefully this helps create a little friendly and fun competition between club members.
Last year, the official results for the contest weren’t tabulated until February. Four months isn’t that long, so we may wait until then to give out the awards. Or we may do it immediately based on the raw scores of anyone who participates. That is TBD.
As the start of the contest gets closer, I will respond to this thread with more information about what exchange you need to give, what exchange to expect from the other stations, etc. If you would like to explore on your own, this is the website for the contest:
If you would like to participate, or have any questions about the CQP, please respond to this thread or email me directly. It would be great to get at least a few club members involved.
Hope to hear you on the air!
Jacques
KN6VQ
EDIT Sept 18, 2024:
I wasn’t planning on giving another CA QSO Party update so quickly, but they sent out an email with some updates so I thought I should!
[I’m not exactly sure how I ended up on their email list, but I think it was from signing up to their participant list here. Go ahead sign up if you’re going to operate, if you want.]
The organizers of the CQP have added a few fun challenges for this year. These are in addition to the normal contest categories:
1. Time Challenge – most contact for operating max 6-hour, 12-hour, 18-hour, and 24-hour
2. POTA Challenge – for those operating from a POTA- eligible park
3. Video Challenge – best video featuring you participating in the CQP
Multiple winners for each of the challenges, with prizes awarded. More information here.
These are the rest of the links from the update email for you to explore at your convenience:
2. cqp.org main home page, software page and FAQ page were updated today. You may need to force a reload/refresh on your web browser in these pages to see today’s updates.
https://cqp.org
3. Tell us that you plan to be active. If you have not already done so, please fill out the activation form at:
https://www.cqp.org/register.html
4. See which CA counties need your help the most in CQP 2024:
2024 County Tracker page:
https://www.cqp.org/tracker.html
5. Chase one of 25 plaques awarded to CA operators:
https://www.cqp.org/Awards.html
6. Find a record to beat in CQP 2024. See updated records in a new format at:
https://www.cqp.org/Records.html
7. Fine tune your operating plan by reviewing graphs from CQP 2023 and other helpful strategy documents:
https://www.cqp.org/graphs.html
https://www.cqp.org/Strategy.html
8. Get inspired for CQP 2024 by watching the 15 videos from CQP 2023:
https://www.cqp.org/av.html
73,
Jacques
KN6VQ
