Rules for the 57th Annual Spring and Fall QCWA QSO Parties of 2013

QCWA invites all licensed radio amateurs world-wide to participate in the QCWA QSO Parties. The QCWA QSO Parties are friendly operating events in the format of a contest.

Schedule: The date for the Spring QSO Party is 16 March 2013, and the date for the Fall QSO Party is 7 September 2013. Both events commence at 1800 UTC and run for 24 hours.

Modes: Mode classifications are CW/Digital, Phone and Mixed. Digital modes are included within the CW category. Stations employing the QsoNet (CQ100) service are a separate category and are required to submit separate logs for QsoNet (CQ100) operations. QsoNet (CQ100) operations cannot be combined with on-the-air operations for scoring. All entries are Single Transmitter even if more than one operator and in one power category.

Frequencies: Bands from 160 meters through 6 meters may be used except for the WARC bands at 10, 18, and 24 MHz and the channelized band at 5 MHz. Stations operate according to the privileges of the operator's license. No cross-band, repeater, satellite, IRLP, or EchoLink operations are permitted.

Suggested starting frequencies for CW: 1.810 3.540 7.035 14.040 21.050 28.050
Suggested starting frequencies for Phone: 1.845 3.810 7.244 14.262 21.365 28.325

Exchange: Stations exchange their chapter number, operator's name, and the operator's year first licensed shown by the last 2 digits. QCWA members belonging to more than one chapter should choose one of their chapters for the exchange. QCWA members who are not affiliated with a chapter send "999." Non-members of QCWA send "NON." 999 and NON are not additional multipliers for scoring. Example exchange: 119 Ted 62.

Scoring: Completed CW/Digital QSOs score at 2 points; phone QSOs score at 1 point. The score calculation is the number of completed and logged QSO points multiplied by the number of chapters worked. Stations may be worked on multiple bands and modes. Each chapter number counts only once for the whole event. Additionally, 100 additional bonus points are awarded for each QSO with QCWA Station W2MM on bands and modes, and duplicate QSOs on a band/mode do not count for additional bonus points.

Certificates: Certificates will be issued for the top 3 world-wide winners of the CW/Digital, Phone, Mixed, and QsoNet (CQ100) modes. A certificate will also be issued for the overall winner in each represented chapter.

QCWA Club Station Special Multiplier: The QCWA station W2MM is expected to be active and counts for an additional 100 points bonus points for each QSO by band/mode, but duplicates on a band/mode do not count for additional bonus points. W2MM will use the exchange elements for the operator.

Logs: Send written logs to Robert Buus W2OD, 8 Donner Street, Holmdel, NJ 07733-2004 or digital logs in Cabrillo format to W2OD at aol dot com. Deadline for submissions will be 30 days after the event date. Stations operating the QsoNet mode are to be logged on separate forms and will only be scored within their QsoNet mode category.

These rules and printable paper log forms are published on the QCWA website at www.qcwa.org/qso-party.htm