QQP is simply the abbreviation of the Quebec QSO Party. It's contest for amateur radio operators in which the participants make as many contacts as possible during the a specific time period. The QQP runs on the Saturday immediately before June 24th; for 2005 this will be on June 18. There are ten (10) hours of competition from 17h UTC until 03h UTC the next day. Can I participate in the QQP ? If you're a licensed amateur radio operator, yes you can. It doesn't matter where you are. We will await your logs. What do I have to do in the QQP ? First, get yourself a copy of the rules. They're available in PDF format from this web site. Second, when the contest starts start calling "CQ QUEBEC QSO PARTY" on the air. If you're a Quebec station you can contact anyone participating. Other stations, not in the province, can only contact Quebec stations. What's a Quebec station ? How do I know one when I hear it ? There are four definitions of a Quebec station for the purposes of the QQP. First, if you're an amateur radio operator of a fixed station licensed in Quebec (callsign starting with VE2 or VA2); second, if you're an amateur radio operator with a mobile station within the boundaries of the Province for the duration of the contest (with callsign starting with VE2 or VA2) and using "/M" with your callsign; third, if you're a licensed amateur radio operator NOT licensed in Quebec but you're within the Province's boundaries for the duration of the contest and use "/VE2" with your callsign; finally if you're a Quebec licensed Maritime Mobile station with using "/MM" with your callsign. These stations qualify as Quebec stations for the QQP and can communicate with all participating stations. All other stations have to look for those operators during the QQP.
What do I have to say when I contact a station ? For each contact made in the QQP you have to send AND receive the following information: 1) A signal report in the form of RS(T) and 2) a Province, State (for American stations) or DXCC Country. Quebec stations send (instead of Quebec) their region. Once you've sent and received that information the contact is now official. What are the regions that the Quebec stations will use ? There are 17 administrative regions in the Province of Quebec. Those regions are the ones being used in the QQP. The last page of the rules contain all of the regions and their abbreviations. The use of abbreviations is recommended for simplicity and ease. I don't have HF privileges. Can I still participate ? Yes ! We wish to invite participation of all amateur radio operators. The contest can be run on 6 and 2 meters. Excluding the use of repeaters of course... If your log is in cabrillo format (a good template to use would be the NAQP), send it via email to qso-log@raqi.ca. If your log is electronic ASCII format but not Cabrillo, please send it in as well. Those without email capabilities can send their paper logs to the address given in the rules PDF. |
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