The 1998 Ohio QSO Party

What is a QSO party

Operator Categories: Single or multiple
Transmitter categories: Single or multiple

Start: Friday, Sept. 11, 8pm EST (Saturday September 12, 0000 UTC)
End: Sunday, Sept. 13, 8pm EST (Monday, September 14, 0000 UTC)

Exchange :
Ohio Stations: Serial Number/Name/County
Non-Ohio Participants: RST/Name/State or Province
Each serial number must be consecutive and start at 001. In other words, count your contacts.
Multiple operators may use up to 5 letters in the name field of exchange acronym composed of the operators’ first initials, if nonclub group. Single operators should use given name.

How to Participate:
Phone: Call "CQ Ohio Contest"
CW" Call "CQ OH TEST" or "CQ OH"

Hunting and pouncing:
Look for stations calling CQ as described above.

Lake Erie Islands
Ohio radio amateurs are encouraged to visit and operate from the Ohio Lake Erie Islands during the contest period. Since the Ohio island are somewhat rare on the amateur bands, particularly HF, special point can be earned by working them or working from them (see below). In addition, they will be counted as separate multipliers in the scoring process.

If your station is located on the an island, use OTEI if located on an island in Ottawa County (N. Bass, S. Bass, Marblehead, Put-in-Bay) or ERKI (Kelleys Island) island as country in CW. Use "Ottowa Island " or "Kelleys Island" on phone. Islands in other counties use OTEI or Ottawa Island. On shore Ottowa and Erie county station count as garden variety counties.

YL Bonus

Roving Bonus

Scoring.

Digital (CW, RTTY, Packet, etc.) = 2 pts per QSO
Phone = 1 pt per QSO
Ohio counties and first 10 YLs anywhere and on any frequency are multipliers with maximum = 100 (88 counties + OTEI + ERKI + 10 YLs)
Each multiplier may be used only once.

Out of state contacts: QSO points x 2
(Phone contacts with other states = 2pts, CW/digital modes = 4)
See also VHF rules.

Special Island Scoring:
Ohio Lake Erie Islands are worth 5 points on phone, 10 on digital, and OTEI and ERKI count as separate multipliers. Stations operating on Ohio Islands during the party may add 10% scoring bonus after the multiplier is applied.

Special VHF RULES apply to all bands above 30Mhz.
6m all modes follow HF rules (Remember, its the "magic" band)
2m CW and SSB follow HF rules
FM phone (except 6m)
2m and above : Contacts in same county, 1 pt per QSO;
next county, 2 pts per QSO, etc.
Multipliers are the number of counties (shortest straight line) removed from your station location. E.g. Working from Franklin County to Franklin County = 1 pt, Franklin to Delaware = 2pts,. Franklin to Marion = 3 pts.
Contacts with counties in adjoining states, PA, WV, KY, IN, MI, follow same formula. ALL QSO Party contacts must be SIMPLEX (and on frequencies consistent with ARRL band plans) and must be point to point; no relays. Soliciting of contacts over repeaters is okay if repeater sponsors approve but actual QSO must be made on recognized simplex frequency.

DO NOT USE 52.02, 52.04, 146.46, 146.52, 147.555 or 446.00 MHz for contest QSOs.

Packet: 2 points per 2 way contact. Digipeaters are okay. All contacts must be in real time, keyboard to keyboard. Serial numbers must be used on all contacts, VHF, UHF and HF must use same series, eg if you make 56 contacts on HF then switch to 70cm, then first QSO on 70 cm will be number 57.

Operating Guidelines:
--Stations may be worked once per band per mode.
--Separate logs may be submitted for digital/cw and phone contacts. The digital mode includes CW, RTTY, Packet and all other non-speech modes. The phone mode includes AM, SSB and FM.
--Dupe sheets should be submitted for all stations submitting more than 200 contacts.
--Each participant (group or single) may have up to 2 transmitters operating on each band at the same time (one voice, one non-voice). Once contact is made on a band, the transmitter is committed to remain on that band for the next 5 minutes. In all cases, respect FCC rules (part 97) and ARRL band plans.