::.  RULES Michigan QSO Party Sponsored by the Mad River Radio Club

MORE INFO Text-only page MiQP Web Site MiQP File Downloads MRRC Web Site

1) Object:

For amateurs outside the state of Michigan to make contact with as many Michigan stations as possible. Non-Michigan stations may work only Michigan stations, while Michigan stations may contact anyone.

2) Contest Period:

The Michigan QSO Party occurs on the third Saturday in April. For the year 2005, the contest will start on Saturday, April 16, 2005. The contest period runs from 1200 EDST to 2400 EDST (16Z Saturday until 04Z Sunday). 1600 UTC Saturday April 16 - 0400 UTC Sunday April 17, 2005 All stations may operate the full twelve hours.

3) Frequency Bands and Modes:

CW and SSB on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. Stations may be worked once per band and mode; i.e., K8CC may be worked on both 40 CW and 40 SSB for QSO points credit.

4) Entry Categories:

(a) Single Operator - Entries where one person performs all operating and logging functions. Use of spotting nets (operator arrangements involving assistance through DX-alerting nets, PacketCluster or Internet) is not permitted. Single operators who receive any form of assistance such as spotting nets are classified as multi-operator. Only one (1) transmitted signal on the air at any time. Single operator entries will be categorized by output power: QRP (less than 5 W output), low power (less than 100 W output) or high power (greater than 100 W output). (b) Multi Operator - Entries where more than one operator performs the operating and logging functions. Multi-operator entries are categorized in two ways: Single-Transmitter - Entries with only one transmitted signal on the air at any one time. Multi-Transmitter - Entries with multiple transmitted signals on the air at any one time. Multi-operator entries must operate under a single callsign. Multi-operator entries are not categorized by power. (c) Mobile - Entries which are self-contained (radio, antenna, and power source) and capable of motion while in operation. Motion is not required. Mobile entries are categorized in two ways: Solo Operator - One person performs all operating, logging, driving and navigating functions. It is permissible for other people to be in the vehicle during operation. Multi-Operator - Where more than one person performs the operating, logging, driving and navigating functions. All mobile entries are limited to a single transmitter of 100 W output or less. Mobile entries may submit separate logs for each geographic area activated, or a single overall log. If a single log is submitted, the county operated from must be shown clearly for each QSO.

5) Contest Exchange:

(a) Michigan stations send a sequential serial number beginning with 001, and their Michigan county. All Michigan stations are encouraged to use the official MQP county abbreviation in their exchange on CW. (b) Non-Michigan W/VE stations (including KH6/KL7) send a sequential serial number beginning with 001, and their state or province. (c) DX stations outside of W/VE send a sequential serial number beginning with 001, and "DX". (d) Mobile stations are allowed to maintain a continuous sequence of serial numbers for all contacts, or may begin with serial number 001 for each separate geographic area activated. The only requirement is that no serial number be repeated within one geographic area.

6) Scoring:

(a) QSO Points - Each complete non-duplicate SSB contact is worth one point. Each complete non-duplicate CW contact is worth two points. Duplicate contacts are worth zero points. (b) Multipliers - Multipliers are counted once per mode. Working the same multiplier on both CW and SSB counts as two multipliers. For Michigan stations, multipliers are 49 American states (excluding Michigan), 83 Michigan counties and 14 Canadian provinces (NF, LB, NB, NS, PEI, QC, ON, MB, SK, AB, BC, NWT, YT, NU). DX stations do not have any multiplier credit, but may be worked for QSO points credit only. For all other stations, multipliers are the 83 Michigan counties. (c) Final Score - For non-mobile stations, multiply total QSO points by the total number of multipliers. For mobile stations, multiply the total QSO points from all counties activated by the total number of unique multipliers worked from all counties activated. (d) Club Competition - Scores attributed to any Michigan amateur radio club will be credited towards that club. All Michigan clubs with at two or more credited scores will be included in an overall ranking of those scores with a plaque awarded to the club with the highest score. It is not necessary for the Michigan club to submit a roster or list of claimed entrants. As sponsoring club, the Mad River Radio Club is excluded from this competition, although its members may attribute their scores for other Michigan clubs to which they belong.

7) Suggested Frequencies:

CW - 3.545, 7.045, 14.045, 21.045 and 28.045. SSB - 3.850, 7.225, 14.250, 21.300 and 28.450. Fixed stations are urged to call CQ away from these frequencies to keep them clear for mobile stations. Look for 28 MHz activity during the even-numbered daylight hours, and 21 MHz activity during the odd-numbered daylight hours. Look for SSB activity on the hour and CW on the half hour.

8) Miscellaneous:

(a) Callsigns and exchanged information must be received and confirmed by both stations for a complete QSO. (b) No cross-mode contacts - CW contacts must be made in the CW portions of the band. (c) A transmitter used to contact one or more stations may not be subsequently used under any other callsign during the contest period, with the exception of family stations where more than one call is assigned. Under these circumstances no individual shall make QSOs utilizing more than one callsign. (d) Portable stations are categorized the same as fixed stations. All contacts for a given portable entry must be made from a single county, state or province. A portable station may change locations during the contest (subject to rule 8.e below) and operate from multiple counties, states or provinces, each of which is a separate entry. (e) Mobile or portable stations that change geographic area (counties for Michigan stations, state or province for others) are considered to be a new station and may be contacted again for QSO points and multiplier credit. No station may claim simultaneous operation in more than one county, state, or province. A mobile or portable station must move a minimum of 500 feet before claiming to be in a new county, state or province.

9) Reporting:

(a) A minimum MiQP entry consists of a log of all contacts made and an entry summary. Logs must clearly indicate band, mode, date and time, received callsign and both sent and received exchanges for all QSOs. All entries are encouraged to use the official MiQP county abbreviation for logging the received exchange from Michigan stations. The entry summary must at a minimum show the entrant’s callsign, operating location (county, state or province) and mailing address. Michigan entries that are members of a Michigan club should indicate such on their summary sheet so that their score may be credited to their club. All logs will be re-scored by the MiQP Contest Committee so scoring the log and reporting a claimed score is optional. (b) All entries are encouraged to submit their entry in computer-readable format. MiQP is supported by both the NA and TRLog contest logging programs. Entries may be submitted in the native file formats for NA (.QDF) or TRLog (LOG.DAT), Cabrillo or a plain ASCII file. Electronic entries in TRLog or plain ASCII formats must also include an ASCII summary sheet file (no word processor documents). Entries may be submitted via e-mail to: E-mail: logs@miqp.org Logs can also be mailed on an IBM compatible, MS-DOS formatted 3½ inch diskette to the contest address in section 9.f. (c) All entries (hardcopy or electronic) must be postmarked no later than 30 days after the end of the contest. No late entries can be accepted so that the results can be published in a timely manner. (d) Entry forms (rules, summary sheet, log sheet and county abbreviations) are available for downloading in MS-Word format from the MiQP web site at http://www.miqp.org. (e) Final results of the contest will be posted on the MiQP web site. A hard copy of the final results can be obtained by including a business size SASE with your entry. (f) Paper logs or diskettes are to be sent to: Mailing address: Mad River Radio Club c/o Dave Pruett 2727 Harris Road YPSILANTI, MI 48198 USA

Date of info: 12 April, 2005	Source: Michigan QSO Party Web Site - Rules

The Michigan QSO Party Awards Program:

The Michigan QSO Party Awards Program recognizes entries for their accomplishments that year through a variety of plaques and certificates. Plaque Program The winners of each major category will be awarded a handsome plaque engraved with the year of the contest and the details of the winning effort. Plaques will be awarded in the following categories: High Score - Michigan Single Operator - High Power High Score - Michigan Single Operator - Low Power High Score - Michigan Single Operator - QRP High Score - Michigan Multi Operator - Single-Transmitter High Score - Michigan Multi Operator - Multi-Transmitter High Score - Michigan Mobile - Solo Operator High Score - Michigan Mobile - Multi Operator High Score - Michigan Combined Club High Score - Out of State Single Operator - Eastern/Central Time Zone High Score - Out of State Single Operator - Mountain/Pacific Time Zone In addition, the contest results will recognize the top ten stations (both in-state and out-of-state) ranked by the number of Michigan counties worked overall. The top station (both in-state and out-of-state) will be awarded a plaque if that station has not already won a plaque in another category. Certificate Program The certificate program recognizes single-operators at the local level, and additional recognition overall in the non-single operator categories. The following certificates will be awarded: The top single-operator score in each Michigan county making at least 50 QSOs. The top single-operator score in each state, Canadian province or DXCC county making at least 25 QSOs. The 2nd and 3rd place scores in the Michigan multi-single, multi-multi, mobile-solo and mobile-multi categories. The MiQP Awards Program is supported by donations from clubs and private individuals from within the state. Groups or individuals who wish to contribute towards the MiQP Awards Program should contact MiQP Awards Manager Mike Van Buren, WD8S at wd8s@comcast.net. Note: The MiQP Committee reserves the right to refrain from awarding plaques in instances where there was insufficient competition within the category during the event.

How To Submit An Electronic MiQP Entry  By Dave Pruett, K8CC

Entries for the Michigan QSO Party can be submitted in either electronic or paper form. Both types of entries are treated equally. Paper logs are typed into electronic form by volunteers on the MiQP committee, then all entries are subject to the same level of scrutiny in checking to determine the final, official score. Obviously, the MiQP committee would prefer to receive electronic logs. This saves us the effort to type logs into electronic form and thus reduces the time required before the results of the MiQP can be published. Electronic file submittal also benefits the entrant in that typing errors from the manual entry are avoided. Several of the popular contest logging programs can be used to operate in the MiQP. K8CC’s NA Logging Program, N6TR’s TRLog and W5XD’s WriteLog all offer MiQP support. Other programs may be used as well as long as the file submitted is in ASCII form (i.e., a simple text file, not a word processor or spreadsheet file) and all of the necessary information is present. In 1999 the ARRL developed the Cabrillo File Specification in an effort to bring some standardization to the process for the electronic submittal of contest log files. Cabrillo offers the contest sponsor a single, consistent format of the log data which can be reliably brought into the sponsor’s log checking process. It also benefits the entrant with the confidence that the Cabrillo file contains all of the necessary data to define their entry. Cabrillo has been the required format for electronic file submittal for all ARRL contests since November 2001, and it is the preferred (though not mandatory) format for electronic MiQP logs. Cabrillo files usually (but not always) have the filename extension .LOG. The files can be viewed or opened with any ASCII text editor such as Windows Notepad. A typical Cabrillo file is shown below. START-OF-LOG: 2.0 CREATED-BY: NA Version 10.55 CONTEST: MI-QSO-PARTY CALLSIGN: K8CC OPERATORS: K8CC W8MJ CATEGORY: ALL LOW MIXED ROVER CLAIMED-SCORE: 510 CLUB: Mad River Radio Club SOAPBOX: SOAPBOX: NAME: David Pruett ADDRESS: 2727 Harris Road ADDRESS: Ypsilanti, MI 48198 QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1822 K8CC 0001 AREN K8DX 76 OH QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1824 K8CC 0002 AREN N8CQA 48 WASH QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1826 K8CC 0003 AREN W9MSE 23 WI QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1827 K8CC 0004 AREN K8KIC 20 LENA QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1827 K8CC 0005 AREN AD8J 29 PA QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1827 K8CC 0006 AREN K9CW 12 IL QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1828 K8CC 0007 AREN K9PL 25 IL QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1829 K8CC 0008 AREN WA3HAE 73 PA QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1829 K8CC 0009 AREN K5IID 27 WV QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1830 K8CC 0010 AREN K8AA 237 LENA QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1831 K8CC 0011 AREN W3HDH 41 IL QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1832 K8CC 0012 AREN K8AE 33 WAYN QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1833 K8CC 0013 AREN K8VFR 8 MACO QSO: 7000 PH 2002-04-20 1836 K8CC 0014 AREN W3HDH 43 IL QSO: 7000 PH 2002-04-20 1837 K8CC 0015 AREN K8DX 88 OH QSO: 7000 PH 2002-04-20 1838 K8CC 0016 AREN VA3SWG 1 ON QSO: 7000 PH 2002-04-20 1840 K8CC 0017 AREN AA8SN 88 GRTR QSO: 7000 CW 2002-04-20 1843 K8CC 0018 AREN N9RV 81 IN QSO: 14000 CW 2002-04-20 1845 K8CC 0019 AREN K4BAI 56 GA END-OF-LOG: The Cabrillo file starts with START-OF-LOG: and ends with END-OF-LOG:. The first lines in the file include important summary information about the entry, such as the callsign used, the category and the return address so that we can mail the entrant his plaque or certificate :-). Every QSO in the log starts with QSO: and includes all the required information about that QSO: frequency, mode, date, time, your call and sent information, the station worked and received information. There are no notations for duplicate QSOs or multipliers as the intent is that the Cabrillo log will be completely rescored by the contest sponsors. The three major contest logging programs mentioned above (NA, TRLog and WriteLog) all can generate Cabrillo format files for Michigan QSO Party. There may be other programs which can do so as well. The MiQP committee can also accept logs in the native log format generated by the NA Logging Program. These are referred to as QSO Data Files with the .QDF filename extension. .QDF files contain all the information about the entry, including scoring summary information. No other files need to be submitted with a complete .QDF file. Many entrants using the TRLog program submit the .ALL file which this program generates. While this file can be accepted for an MiQP entry, it omits your callsign and sent exchange information. Also, because there is no entry summary information in the .ALL file, a separate summary sheet file must also be submitted. If possible, a Cabrillo file from TRLog is preferred because it’s less work for the committee and the entrant, but an .ALL file and summary are sufficient as well. Log files from other logging programs may be submitted as MiQP entries as well, however the entrant should open the file with Windows Notepad or a similar ASCII editor to make sure all of the necessary information is present. Here are the important points to check: Does your file include all the information to properly classify your entry? This would include your callsign, and entry category (including power sub-category if single-op). Don’t forget your address and operator’s callsigns (if this is a guest or multi-op entry). Does each QSO line include all of the information necessary to define that QSO (i.e., date, time, band, mode, your callsign, sent exchange, station worked, and receive exchange)? If information is missing such as your callsign or sent exchange, is this information contained elsewhere in the file or in the associated summary file? Submitting an electronic file is easy if the entrant has access to Internet e-mail. Simply address an e-mail to the MiQP Committee at logs@miqp.org and include your entry file as an attachment. It is also helpful if the subject line of the e-mail includes your callsign and the words "MiQP Log" or something similar. Those entrants without e-mail access can also mail their logs on floppy disk or CD-R to: Mad River Radio Club c/o Dave Pruett 2727 Harris Road Ypsilanti, MI 48198 USA MiQP entries must be received within thirty days of the event. In the event of logs with damaged files or missing information, the Committee will make every attempt to contact the entrant to obtain corrections, however the responsibility of the file submittal lies with the entrant.