Has anyone thought of starting a county award on eQSL? Any thoughts ? How do we start?

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W8AKR Richard R Hale

Every US members profile contains the name of his county and eQSL has been collecting that information since day 1 in anticipation of one day offering a county award. I'm not sure where that is on the list of priorities but I know that the Awards committee is currently working toward getting the troublesome eGrid awards up and running.

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73, Rich - W3ZJ

I would love to see a county award happen.

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AC4BB Bryan L. Gaither

Brian AC4BB said I would love to see a county award happen. Count me in on that one as well.

Regards. 73.

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Michael Fitzgibbons G8VHB

I'm going for all the NM counties tonight in the NM QSO Party, see you there!

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KF5KWO Jeff Nyberg

The county award would be a great idea.

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WD6CWE Doug Graham

I agree there should be a county hunters award. In fact, I am in favor of an EQSL award for EVERY existing award that will not accept EQSL's.

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W5VGR Don Rinker

There is a WAC in GA now. I am in Murray county if anyone needs it- I am on 10 after work, look around 28.380-28.410. Email me and i will do my best to get you a few- I travel everyday to work, I hit Murray, Gordon, Pickens, Gilmer, Forsyth and Cherokee.

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KB2SEO Drew R. McCarsky

I support DON'S ( W5VGR ) statement ...

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KK4HEG Fred J. Gaisser

The eQSL system has been set up to handle County eAwards since February, 2012.

The issue is that we need more volunteers to manage new eAwards. Validating eAwards does take time and effort and presently, the existing volunteers are already overloaded.

Dave, N5UP, is looking for more volunteers to help manage the new eAwards. Please contact Dave if you are willing to help out (even 10 hours a month would be most welcome).

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VE3FWF Bernie Murphy

I am in favor of an eQSL County Award. Perhaps it would encourage county hunting if it was offered in levels of 100,200,300,400 and at 500 move to the CQ Award. I think sometimes the 500 level is discouraging to some amateurs. I think this is definitely the case on the digital modes.
I was a county hunter years ago and earned USACA #1150. Due to personal situations etc. I was inactive for many years. I since got my license back in 2011. Unfortunately, I still hold the award but over the years lost
my records. USACA doesn't have them either---- so am starting over.
Since I am mainly working the Digital modes with some CW, will do it that way. Perhaps at some point, more amateurs will operate portable/mobile in the digital modes

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KC9UNL Curtis Gidding

I am very new to any kind of contesting, and would NEVER entered it if someone had not asked for a contact by email.

I am in WA state KLI county, and will try to accommodate anyone anywhere for KLI. 180m is almost impossible, and of course VHF/UHF are rather hard to begin with, and I only have FM mobiles for that. I am considering getting my motor home set up for portable / mobile HF with a decent field antenna. I have gotten some new DX countries by scheduling county contacts!

On topic, I think a per State listing of contacts for the award MIGHT gather interest, and should be able to be automated. The eQSL system has better safeguards than QRZ, but as far as I have been told, some of the county hunter clubs are just "Good Old Boy" clubs that do not encourage new hunters, unless you are very rare! Personal experience is seeming to bear that out.

SO... Those are my thoughts. I see this thread is not too old so Maybe we can get something going.... AND if it can be automated .... how about some State County parties -- submitting logs to eQSL? Only automated verifications count and AG.

Would that increase the number of members? I would pay 2 cents per contact submitted to cover a bit of the cost, and by whatever means is cheapest to do it .... Add to bring up to at least $2.00 for submitting fee/gift by PayPal? You certainly would not be buying an award. ($5.00 or more counts toward subscription).

Just think - Worked all States in one eQSL party and Worked all Counties in a State or two at the same time. You get all counties in WA (39) and the WA operator may get 30 or more States confirmed and it costs under $5 to get the log AUTOMATICALLY verified. Depending on the size of the State/Map it could be possible to have the call for each county automatically printed on the county on the map! {(OK, I may be dreaming at that point, but a programmer could make it work: For an additional cost.)}

Just a thought on the party idea, Limit the expected hours by charting the propagation / bands. That way, only a few would miss sleep. The Salmon Run was 2 days, but most of my contacts (total 207) were in 4 - 3 hour blocks.

eQSL confirming for points to count -- logs close in 5 - 10 days. The CQ will be eQ -- SL (State) contest! Or e-QSL (State) contest. (or party might be better).

Scoring idea: AG required for ANY recognition. In addition to points, below:

A Clean Sweep = Work all Counties during party - PDF PARTY Certificate, with one (first) call verifed for each county listed on Certificate or on the county - as available.

Party State = 4 points for each contact in another state, and 2 for one each of their own State's counties - (OK, that might not be fair for me with only two active generals or above in county). AND a multiplier (only if possible to automate this one) for each time zone (up to 23).
Worked All States During Party certificate. (PDF)

Out of state:

Extra 4 points for each Party state county worked. One point for any other contact outside your own call area. --- With part of the exchange to be a plug for eQSL sponsoring the contest....

Certificates (emailed PDF) just for submitting log, And fee/gift, showing participation in support of eQSL. Additional certificates -- as can be automated for each MODE, band, and/or county - high or threshold score (ie, 80% of States counties worked).

Snail mailed certificates will have additional mailing/handling charge for Personal signature / seals / special papers / or as determined by eQSL.

There are a lot of possibilities / challenges to doing this. including a contest submission robot address, which recognizes PayPal receipt numbers, mailing address for checks and logs on memory cards -?-. Paper logs not accepted... If it isn't paid, it will be logged into the data base, but not scored for the party. But then, subscribed members logs could be scored -- extra fees optional for subscribers... Automated again - be sure subscription verified before submitting log!

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K7EVI Douglas P Garman