Rules

Rules

Last Updated: August 28th, 2023

Objective: To encourage Parks on the Air amateur radio operation from North Carolina’s state park entities.

Contest Period: 1200z (8:00am EDT) September 9th, 2023 through 2359z (7:59pm EDT) September 10th, 2023

Disclaimer: NC State Parks on the Air nor any of its members are responsible for injury or any other damages that occur during this event. Standard safety measures should be observed, and all local, state, federal, FCC, and park rules and laws should be observed at all times. These contest rules are subject to change any time before the start of the contest.

Locations: Qualifying North Carolina State Parks as shown on the list found at ncpota.org. Stations must be located within the park in accordance with standard POTA rules.

Modes, Bands, and Exchange:

  • All modes of operation are permitted. Each band/mode/operator combination counts as a separate contact.
  • You may only make one contact per band/mode/operator/park combination for credit.
  • Use of repeaters, digipeaters, internet gateways, etc is not permitted.
  • Observe all standard band plans within the privileges of your license class.
  • Standard digital modes such as FT8, PSK, and RTTY are permitted.
  • Exchange: Standard exchange as per the POTA rules.

Operator Entry Classes:

  • Single Activator – One single activator using one call sign for the entire duration of the event.
  • Club Activator – Two or more activators using one call sign for the entire duration of the event.
  • In-state Hunter – One hunter using one call sign for the entire duration of the event. The operator and all station equipment must be physically located within the state of North Carolina during the event. Operation while mobile/portable is permitted, so long as all contacts take place inside NC borders.
  • Out-of-state Hunter – One hunter using one call sign for the entire duration of the event. For hunters located outside of the state of North Carolina.

Special Rules for Club Entries:

  • You may not claim any contacts or activations completed while operating a club station for an individual entry. You may enter a separate submission as an individual, but with separate contacts and activations.
  • Clubs may run multiple stations, but all stations must comply with the parameters of the desired entry category. (Example: All stations must use QRP for all contacts to claim the QRP category)
  • No more than one station is permitted on a given band/mode combination at any given time.
  • All stations should be located within a 1,000 ft diameter circle of each other inside the same park boundaries.
  • Club stations should use one unified call sign for all operations during the entire contest. This can be a club call sign or a special event (1×1) call sign.
  • Clubs are not required to submit a list of operators, but it is recommended so that we can give those operators due credit on our results page.

Power Classes:

  • Activator QRP – 5 watts or less on CW/Digital, 10 watts or less on Phone. All contacts must be made at QRP levels for the entire duration of the event to qualify for the QRP category.
  • Activator Full Power – 100 watts or less on any mode. No station, regardless of category, may operate more than 100 watts.
  • There are no differentiating power classes for hunters. Participating hunters are also required to run 100 watts or less.

Activator Scoring:

  • Each QSO from a qualifying park counts as one point.
  • Park to Park contacts with another qualifying park count for an additional two points.
  • Final score = (QSO points) * (Number of unique qualifying parks activated with at least one QSO) + bonus points

Hunter Scoring:

  • Each QSO to a qualifying park counts as one point.
  • Final score = (QSO points) * (Number of unique qualifying parks worked) + bonus points

Bonus Stations:

  • The North Carolina QSO Party team will be operating several bonus stations from various parks across NC.
  • All bonus stations will use call sign NC4QP.
  • For each valid contact with an NC QSO Party station, you will earn an extra 2 points in addition to the standard credit for that QSO.

Submission:

  • All logs must be submitted by 0400z (12am EDT) October 1st, 2023. Late submissions will not be accepted.
  • If, during the contest, you operate as both an activator and a hunter, you must submit these logs separately. They will be scored separately, and awards will be given separately.
  • Logs must be submitted in standard POTA ADIF format to submissions@ncpota.org by the deadline given above to qualify for credit.

Awards:

  • The top scoring stations in each category will receive a printable certificate by email after all scores have been tabulated.
  • All scores will be posted to the ncpota.org website after all scores have been tabulated.
  • The amount of time required to tabulate the scores will vary based on the number of submissions received. We will make our best effort to tabulate them as quickly as possible after the contest concludes.