Purpose

The purpose of the Texas QSO Party is to provide a competitive opportunity for Amateur Radio Operators anywhere in the world to contact as many Texas stations in as many different Texas counties as possible. It is also an opportunity for county hunters to contact rare Texas counties during the published contest time and in accordance with the rules of operation.

Rules of Operation

1. All operation must be in compliance with current FCC rules or your country’s rules.
2. The use of spotting nets on repeaters, packet nodes, simplex operation, telephone or by any other means is permissible.
3. Operation on all Amateur bands is permitted, except on 60 meters, 30 meters, 17 meters and 12 meters.
4. Operation in all modes is permitted in all contest categories except for the CW Only and Phone Only categories.
5. Contacts made through repeaters, digipeaters, internet, or gateways are not permitted.
6. Stations may be worked only once per band per mode for QSO count.
7. Texas mobiles may be worked only once per band per mode from each county for QSO count.
8. Texas mobiles may work stations only once per band per mode from each county covered for QSO count.
9. If a Texas Mobile and/or a Portable Station is on a county line or junction between 2 or more Texas Counties - A SEPARATE QSO AND COMPLETE EXCHANGE MUST BE MADE AND LOGGED FOR EACH COUNTY LISTED AS WORKED. You can't count or log a QSO that you didn't make!

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   IMPORTANT: Mobile operators considering county line operations should keep safety in mind. Operators must obtain permission to enter private property when such entrance is required in order to reach a county line(s).

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10. All logs must be submitted no later than October 31 immediately following the QSO party.
11. For purposes of clarification, separate logs may be submitted for each mode.
12. Texas mobiles can use separate logs per county but are encouraged to submit a single log of all contacts.
13. Contacts made with captive stations do not support the stated purpose of the QSO party and will not be counted. This includes contacts made with other passengers in a mobile as well as so-called California Train operations wherein a group of mobiles travel together for purposes of making contacts within the group.
14. The Texas QSO Party is SCHEDULED TO OCCUR ANNUALLY ON THE LAST FULL WEEKEND (SATURDAY AND SUNDAY) IN SEPTEMBER. Operating times for the 2012 contest are from 1400Z on SATURDAY, September 29 to 0200Z on SUNDAY. September 30 and from 1400Z to 2000Z on SUNDAY, September 30. Stations may work the entire contest period.

Exchanges

• Non Texas stations use RS/T and State, Country, Canadian Province, or maritime region.
• Texas stations use RS/T and Texas County using the TQP 4 Letter Abbreviations.

Categories

Texas QSO Party Summary Sheets and Logs must be submitted for one (1) of these 9 contest categories. Awards for the Fixed Operations will be given for both Texas and Non-Texas Stations. Awards for the Mobile Operations will only be given for Texas Mobile Stations.

Fixed Operation Categories

• SO — Single Operator Mixed Mode–(no contest power limits)
• MO — Multi Operators–(no contest power limits)
• QRP SO — QRP Single Operator–(10 watts or less phone and 5 watts or less CW and other modes)
• CWO SO — CW Only Single Operator–(no contest power limits)
• PHO SO — Phone Only Single Operator–(no contest power limits)

Mobile Operation Categories

• TXM SO — Texas Mobile Single Operator Mixed Mode–may be assisted (no contest power limits)
• TXM MO — Texas Mobile Multi Operators–(no contest power limits)
• TXM CWO SO — Texas Mobile CW Only Single Operator–may be assisted (no contest power limits)
• TXM PHO SO — Texas Mobile Phone Only Single Operator–may be assisted (no contest power limits)

Texas Club Aggregate Award

This award goes to the Texas club with the highest total score from the sum of all summary sheets submitted across all categories. The club name and call sign must be identified on each of the individual Texas QSO Party Summary Sheets to be included in the count.

Scoring

Texas Stations

• Count two (2) points per phone QSO with any station.
• Count three (3) points per CW and other digital mode QSOs with any station.

Non - Texas Stations

• Count two (2) points per phone QSO with any Texas station
• Count three (3) points per CW and other digital mode QSOs with any Texas Station.

Multipliers

• Non - Texas stations— Your multiplier is the number of Texas counties worked. The maximum possible multiplier is 254.

• Texas Stations— Your multipliers are the number of states worked (not including Texas) plus the number of Texas counties worked plus each Canadian province worked (13 total) plus each DXCC country worked excluding USA, Canada, Alaska and Hawaii.
  All additional DXCC contacts worked count for points.
  Washington DC QSOs count as Maryland contacts.

Multipliers are counted once for the QSO Party. For example, if you work NC on SSB and on CW that counts as one multiplier

Final Score

Multiply the total QSO points times your multiplier to arrive at your final score.

Bonus Points

• Non - Texas Stations—Add five hundred (500) bonus points to your FINAL SCORE for each Texas mobile worked in five (5) different counties regardless of band or mode. If you work the same Texas mobile in five (5) additional counties, you add an additional five hundred (500) bonus points to your FINAL SCORE, etc. However, for bonus points you can only count one (1) contact per county per mobile.

• Texas Stations—Add five hundred (500) bonus points to your FINAL SCORE for each Texas mobile worked in five (5) different counties regardless of band or mode. If you work the same Texas mobile in five (5) additional counties, you add an additional five hundred (500) bonus points to your FINAL SCORE, etc. However, for bonus points you can only count one (1) contact per county per mobile.

• Texas Mobiles—Add one thousand (1000) points to your FINAL SCORE per every county covered with at least five different contacts. Add five hundred (500) bonus points to your FINAL SCORE for each Texas mobile worked in five (5) different counties regardless of band or mode. If you work the same Texas mobile in five (5) additional counties, you add an additional five hundred (500) bonus points to your FINAL SCORE, etc. However, for bonus points you can only count one (1) contact per county per mobile.

Final-Final Score

 Add bonus points to your Final score.

Log Submission

Logs must be submitted by October 31, 2012.

You may use any format for your submissions, but the submission must include all the data shown in the examples available on the TQP RESOURCE link. The TQP RESOURCE link is available on the TQP website.

If you decide to submit via email, please indicate your call sign and TQP in the subject line. For example,
K5CX – TQP.
Email logs to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Snail mail logs to: (paper or disk)

TQP Committee
24415 Deep Meadow Dr
Tomball, TX 77375
USA

Results will be posted on the TQP website.

Suggested Frequencies

• CW—20 kHz to 40 kHz up from the bottom of the band.
• PHONE—25 kHz up in General segments and 28.300 - 28.500
• VHF—50.200 mHz…..144.200 mHz.