Maine QSO Party, Maine's Premier International HF Contest, which takes place annually in September. Maine Radiosport, Maine ham radio, amateur radio HF contesting

Maine's Premier International HF Contest

Mission: The Maine QSO Party is designed to encourage Maine stations to expand their knowledge of DX propagation on the HF and MF bands, improve their operating skills, and improve station capability by creating a competition in which W/VE, and DX stations have the incentive to work Maine.

Contest Period: 1200 UTC Saturday, September 28 to 1200 UTC Sunday, September 29, 2024.

Bands and Modes: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10, CW, and phone (SSB, FM, AM).

Exchange: Stations in Maine send signal report and county. Stations outside of Maine, but within either the United States or Canada, send signal report and state/province. DX stations send signal report and "DX."

QSO's: Contacts with stations in Maine are worth 2 points. Contacts with stations outside Maine are worth 1 point.

Multipliers are the same for all participants: Use Maine counties (16), States (50), Canadian Provinces (14), and DXCC entities as multipliers. You may work any station once on each of the two modes, on each of the six contest bands.

Multiplier notes: For U.S. states, DC and MD will be counted as a single multiplier. For Canadian Provinces, use the following abbreviations: NB, NS, QC, ON, MB, SK, AB, BC, NT, NF, LB, YT, PE, NU. Please note that Newfoundland (NF) and Labrador (LB) will count seperately.

Maine County Abbreviations: Sixteen in total, (Maine's counties). Each multiplier may be counted once on each mode on each of the six contest bands. The counties are: Androscoggin (AND), Aroostook (ARO), Cumberland (CBL), Franklin (FRA), Hancock (HAN), Kennebec (KEN), Knox (KNO), Lincoln (LIN), Oxford (OXF), Penobscot (PEN), Piscataquis (PSQ), Sagadahoc (SAG), Somerset (SOM), Waldo (WAL), Washington (WAS), York (YOR).

Cross-mode, cross-band, and repeater QSO's are not permitted.

Use of a DX spotting system, including Skimmer and similar technologies or any type of Packet Cluster network during the contest is encouraged.

It is prohibited to make CW contacts in the conventional phone sub-bands and phone contacts in the conventional CW sub-bands. Soliciting QSO's through a repeater during the contest period is not allowed.

Final Score: The total QSO points from all bands multiplied by the total number of multipliers from all bands.

Categories:

Single Operator High Power (>100 watts)
Single Operator Low Power (max. 100 watts output)
Single Operator QRP (max. 5 watts output)
Single Operator Mobile (max. 100 watts output)
Multi-Operator Single Transmitter High Power (>100 watts)
Multi-Operator Single Transmitter Low Power (max. 100 watts output)
Multi-Operator Multi-Transmitter, any authorized power

Entry Deadline for logs: October 14, 2024

Entries with 100 or more contacts must be submitted electronically in Cabrillo format to: maineqsoparty@gmail.com

The contest committee recommends the N3FJP Maine QSO Party software, as well as N1MM logger, with the Maine QSO Party update, and EI5DI's SD log. All are available as downloads. Special thanks to all the programmers who included Maine QSO Party updates in their softwares last year and to those who continue to support our contest.

Paper mail entries must contain a summary sheet showing score calculation, multiplier check, and a dupe sheet listing calls worked on each mode on each band. Log sheets must show time, band, mode, call sign of station worked, exchanges sent and received and claimed for each QSO. New multipliers must be clearly marked in the log. Contest entry forms will be available on the WSSM website.

Send paper entries to:

Wireless Society of Southern Maine
Maine QSO Party
P.O. Box 6833
Scarborough, ME 04074 USA

It is strongly suggested that logs be sent as soon as possible after the close of the event. It is also recommended that DX logs be sent via AIR MAIL to ensure that they are received in good time. Any logs received with a post mark date after the deadline date will be handled as a check log. Any logs received more than 15 days after the entry deadline, regardless of postmark, will be discarded.

For those of you who are interested in chasing counties, but run into trouble when contest abbreviations don't carry through to your ADIF log, AD1C's ADIF County Conversion software will support this year's Maine QSO Party. Click here to learn more.

FUTURE DATES:

The Maine QSO Party always takes place the last full weekend in September:

1200 UTC Saturday 27 September to 1200 UTC Sunday 28 September 2025
1200 UTC Saturday 26 September to 1200 UTC Sunday 27 September 2026
1200 UTC Saturday 25 September to 1200 UTC Sunday 26 September 2027
1200 UTC Saturday 23 September to 1200 UTC Sunday 24 September 2028
1200 UTC Saturday 29 September to 1200 UTC Sunday 30 September 2029