Welcome to my PA QSO party website. Please do not confuse with the Official Pa QSO Party website. I actually have no link to the Nittany ARC. Heck, I don't even live in Pennsylvania.

On this site, you'll find per-county data for every PA QSO Party since 1987. From 1987 - 2010, I posted the per county scores, for the purpose of comparing different counties, and years. From this page, you can view the data for any county, by either clicking on the county map above, or from one of the links to the left. Besides the county links, there are also links to handy map which shows the difference between EPA & WPA, and the maps of the rarest counties, since 1987

Begininning with the 2010 data, I am posting the number of QSO's from each county. This seems to be a more useful format for those of us who like to activate rare counties during each years contest. This change was prompted by a suggestion made by Jim, K8MR (See, I do read my e-mail!), after the 2010 contest. After I thought about it, and coded some test pages, I realized that it was a great suggestion. For now, I have only 2010, & 2011 info posted in the new format. I might add more years as the mood strikes me.

I hope you'll notice fewer broken links on the site. Notice I didn't say "no broken links" Since this site is just one part of a much larger, and ever changing website, 100% functionality will likely never be achived.

That being said, I still consider you, the visitor to my site as my best proofreaders. If you see anything that need to be tweaked, please e-mail me. I can be reached at kd8mq1@gmail.com.

The PA QSO Party is one of the best state QSO parties in the country. Run by the folks at the Nittany ARC, in State College, PA, it always proves to be one of the friendliest contests you'll find.

A Little History - Back in 1987, WI8T, and I were planning to come to PA, to operate portable from some rare county. After consulting previous years results, and talking with Doug, W3HDH, who was the chairman at that time, we chose INN for our first attempt. It rained all weekend. we operated from an open pavillion, and slept in a tent. The high temp that weekend felt like 48°. Despite the inhospitable conditions we had fun, and resolved to return the next year. It was about four years later that we wised up and found an indoor QTH.

The Database - Around that time, I began tabulating the total points per county, and storing it in a database. This data helped us to plan the next years effort, as well as helping us predict which counties would likely be the next "rare ones". When the web came along, it seemed perfectly logical to post the data there for everyones benefit. I didn't let the fact that I knew nothing about HTML deter me.
Using Front Page, I constructed a set of 75 pages, and uploaded them to qsl.net. I quickly learned why "Friends don't let friends use Front Page", and took some classes to learn HTML.
I hope you find this site useful. My goal is for this to be a tool that can benefit those of us who take our rigs out to the great outdoors, and activate rare counties. Someday, I'd like to add some graphs, but who knows if I'll ever get around to it.
If you have any questions, or ideas on how to improve, this site, please contact me.
73 de John, KD8MQ