Twenty years ago, when I was looking for a rare location to operate from. Allen, WI8T, and myself were planning to go portable in the PA QSO Party. We're both Amateur Radio operators, and while neither of us get on the air as much as we'd like, we rarely miss a running of the PA QSO Party.
The PA QSO Party is one of the best of the regional Amateur Radio Contests. Over the course of the 2nd weekend of October, contacts are made with other ham operators. Points are awarded for each contact, and multiplied by the number of different counties & sections are contacted. The contest is put on by the folks at the Nittany ARC, in State College, PA.
So, the question was where to operate from. We wanted to set up a portable station from as rare a county as our finances, and the time available would allow. Dave, KC3CL (now K3SK) had a few of the previous years results from the party, and after pooring through them, we decided on Indiana County (INN) for our first portable operation. (Those first years were a story in themselves).
Around that time, I began entering the party results into a database, which showed the total scores per county. That made it easier to predict which counties may be rare in the upcoming party. When I started my first website, the results were posted there for all to share.
The 2008 results have been released, and my PQP pages have been updated. Some of the design has changed this year, but all the information is there. In fact, you can now look at the 15 rarest counties for each year back to 1987. I've added the code for charts, and have plans to add them sometime, however, they are extremely time consuming to produce. So, that feature may not be completed till next year.
I hope you find the pages of use. Let me know if you see anything that needs my attention.
73,
John, KD8MQ
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