From Golden To Keystone; State QSO Party Battles Head East To Pennsylvania This Weekend

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted October 6, 2008

After focusing on the California QSO Party last weekend, the battleground shifts back to the East Coast of the United States, as the Pennsylvania QSO Party grabs center stage.

For those of you chasing counties out there, Pennsylvania has a familiar number of 67 counties - as does Florida and Alabama oddly enough - and all of them from Adams to Wyoming County were active in 2007.

Nine ops managed to find all 67 last year, N3XLS, K3YTL, AA3LX, N3ZK and N3RM from inside the Keystone State, while W8MJ, W1UE, VE3NBJ and N5JB hit for the cycle from outside of Pennsylvania.

For Ken Meier W8MJ, it was the second straight year that he had found all 67 from his post in Michigan, as he again won the out of state competition, as a low power entrant.

Winning single operator honors last year from inside Pennsylvania was the familiar name and call of Joseph "Bud" Trench AA3B, who will again be warming up for CQWW DX in this test.

For those working up their strategy to tick off each of the 67 counties in 2008, you might want to stop by a web offering from John Myers KD8MQ.

While Myers is from Ohio, he's done his share of operating in the PAQP over the years, and has compiled an unrivaled and in-depth look at activity around the Keystone State.

Looking at Pennsylvania's "Rarest Counties", Myers has detailed the least active counties in the Pennsylvania QSO Party over the last 12 years.

In 2007, it was Adams County, home to Gettysburg that had the least activity, as only one fixed station and one mobile were on from there, generating only 4,034 points.

Not far behind that was Indiana County, the self proclaimed Christmas Tree Capital of the World, which also had only 2 ops, totaling 5,912 points.

2007 saw seven mobiles hit the roads of Pennsylvania, up one from the previous year. We'll see how the even higher cost of gasoline affects that this coming weekend.