Archive for January, 2008

Ten ways to score high in the Virginia QSO Party

The Virginia QSO Party is an excellent mix of many operating styles, habits, skill levels and license levels. For the past several years the Fauquier Amateur Radio Association has worked very hard to bring home individual and club plaques. Here is a top ten list of individual operations that did well…

N3FJP State QSO Party Log

Before I start I have to admit I am a big fan of the whole N3FJP suite of programs. Created by Scott, N3FJP, these programs share a core base almost ten years old. This is not free software, but at $6, $10 or $40 takes all, these might as well be free. I use the ACLog, FDLog, FDNet and all the contest loggers with amazing success. So now I must remove my bias and see how this program stacks up. First though let’s explore the contest logger for the Virginia QSO Party v.1.2.

QSO Party ‘Contest Logging’ Software

If your participation in a QSO Party is very brief, using a hand log is really the easiest and simplest thing to do. Many QSO Party sponsors provide templates you can print and use. The Virginia QSO Party sponsor (Sterling Park ARC) has a good example in their 2006 info page at…

PC and Rig Interfacing

QSO Parties are about fun, but let’s not forget they are also contests.

Doing your best is part of the fun.  One way to improve your QSO performance is by automating some aspects of your station.

Near Vertical Incident Skywave

How to make the most of localized ham radio contacts within one state during a QSO Party.

Diagram showing how NVIS can bridge in state locations via HF radio

Why QSOParties.com?

I was putting together some tips and techniques to help new operators who are interested in participating in the many QSO Parties that occur all year long. As the information for QSO Parties came together it suddenly made sense to put it under this new name. This discussed here might include review of rules for various events, good antenna tips to maximize in-state contacts, etc.