Pennsylvania QSO Party

From the contest corner comes word that the 2010 Pennsylvania QSO Party is literally right around the corner. Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark Abramovich, NT3V is here with the details:

They call it 'the friendly party' because operators here in Pennsylvania are helpful on the bands in letting others work rare stations and counties, even if they happen to be holding the frequency.

Michael Coslo, N3LI, vice president of the Nittany Amateur Radio Club and manager of the PA QSO Party, says he's expecting lots of activity for the contest the weekend of Oct. 9 and 10.

Coslo says for those who have worked the PA party in the past, there is one significant change in the scoring.

"We got rid of the 1.5 point QSOs for CW. We've changed that to 2 points for each CW QSO," Coslo says.

It used to be only 80-meter CW QSOs were valued at 2 points. Coslo says the change was recommended and made because it will make it easier to log and compile the final score sheets.

Coslo says there will also be a special event station on the air worth 200 points for each contact.

"The Skyview Radio Society will be operating under K3MJW and they are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, which is a large part of why we had them do that," Coslo says. "And, they also are recovering very nicely from disaster that hit them last year in October when they had some early snowfalls which took a lot of their antennas out."

Coslo says the club is based in Westmoreland County in western Pennsylvania, but also is planning to send out some stations to rare counties nearby.

So, if you've never worked a state QSO party, this is one worth trying out.

Hope to hear you on the air.

Mark Abramowicz, NT3V
Amateur Radio Newsline

For more on this fun event just take your web browser to www.tinyurl.com/paqso

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