May marks the end of the main contesting season. Sure, there are contests all year-round but the big contests (CQ WW, ARRL DX, ARRL SWEEP, CQ WPX) run October through May mainly leaving the Summer for state QSO parties and Field Day. There are two contests this month that are of note to NARS members: the NEQP and CQ WW WPX CW.
New England QSO Party [2000Z, May 4 to 0500Z, May 5 and 1300Z-2400Z, May 5]
The exchange for New England states is RS(T) + county + state. Outside of NE sends RS(T) + state/province/DX. Take a look at the NEQP website to see the standard county abbreviation list.
CQ WW WPX Contest, CW [0000Z, May 25 to 2359Z, May 26]
This is a serial number contest so set up your logger to automatically increment the sent serial number for each QSO. The full exchange is RST + serial. Everybody sends the same exchange. If you are not a great CW operator this is a great contest to play in. First, it isn’t quite so cut-throat as CQ WW. Secondly, the exchange is nice and simple. Listen (listen! listen!). It might take a bit to finally get the serial number, but once you do make your call and put it in the log. At risk of repeating myself, this is one of my favorite CW contests.
7th Call Area QSO Party [1300Z, May 4 to 0700Z, May 5]
First, note the overlap with the New England QSO Party! The exchange for this contest is also RS(T) + state and county. Check out the list of counties to expect here. The point is: you just record the exchange and the contact should be good for two contests.
Indiana QSO Party [1500Z, May 4 to 0300Z, May 5]
Exchange: Get RS(T) + county, we send RS(T) + state. The website has a list of five-letter county abbreviations that is worth printing out and hanging by your computer for this one.
Arkansas QSO Party [1400Z, May 11 to 0200Z, May 12]
Exchange: Get RS(T) + county, we send RS(T) + state
Hamvention and Contest University
Finally, the annual Contest University held in Dayton is one of the highlights of Hamvention. If you have any interest in contesting, it is well worth your time to sign up for one of these events. You MUST pre-register for the upcoming event on May 16th, and it is getting late for that, but I’d like to plant the seed of an idea that you should consider putting this on your “bucket list.”
I’m going to try to be in the New England QSO Party. Get on the air for 15 minutes or 15 hours and hand out some points!
Scott, NE1RD
The QSO parties this weekend give you a great chance to work some states that are difficult because there are not very many people in them (much of area 7, RI, and DE — as a relocated Delawarean, I hope I can get away with saying that even though I’ve never lived in RI or area 7) or are challenging to work on certain bands because they are so close to S. NH (i.e. the rest of New England).
Another thread on this site has links to ways of handling multiple, simultaneous QSO parties in your logger: I also keep pencils and scratch paper handy in the shack as a backup for the logger.
Back in the ‘old days’ (1960 era) I logged paper logs with my left hand while sending Morse but with the right. Layne AE1N