Welcome to the State QSO Party Challenge website!
If you are new to QP contesting, please get involved with the fun. To qualify for the State QSO Party Challenge, you must make at least TWO QSOs in at least TWO SQP Approved QP contests. We would like to encourage those ONE-TIME ops to become qualified for the SQP Challenge and get involved with our awards program. Please share your SQP Challenge experience with us at the email address below, and as always, we welcome your feedback. 73 Dave WN4AFP, Director.
NEW for 2025! – State QSO Party Mobile/Portable Challenge – view rules
The SQP Mobile/Portable Challenge is an ‘overlay’ competition of the SQP Challenge program. Because the Mobile/Portable operators are ‘lifeblood’ of the QP contests, we wanted to create this competition to encourage more operators to give Mobile/Portable operating a try. The scoring will be identical to the SQP Challenge – (Number of QPs entered) x (Number of QSOs) = Score. To be eligible to participate in this competition, you must have qualified for SQP Challenge. This is an individual competition, but we do allow multi-op operations. If you are a POTA operator, this is a great opportunity to try QP contesting. We hope that this competition will encourage more participants to try operating mobile/portable at least in their home state QP.
State QSO Party Club Challenge – view rules – view leaderboard
Congratulations to the Minnesota Wireless Association for being the Overall Winner in the first year of our SQP Club Challenge! The MWA had 1,041 3830 entries including 72,976 QSOs for a total score of 75,967,669 points. The Potomac Valley Radio Club edged out the Florida Contest Group for 2nd place. A total of 116 clubs participated in this competition. Now is the time to start promoting the SQP Club Challenge in your contest club!
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Do you have a question regarding the State QSO Party Challenge/WAQP programs? If so, if so, please email us your question/comment etc. at [email protected]
Dave, WN4AFP, Director | Stan, K4SBZ, SQP Challenge Admin. | Mark, WB9CIF, WAQP Admin. | Anthony, K8ZT, Public Relations Mgr. | Jeff, N8II | Vic, VE3YT
State QSO Party Challenge Overview
The annual State QSO Party Challenge recognizes all radio amateurs’ participation in the U.S. State and Canadian Province QSO parties. It is open to any radio amateur who participates in any of the approved State QSO Parties (SQPs). Participants must simply submit their scores to 3830Scores.com to be included in the Challenge.
Participants are recognized for reaching five levels of achievement – Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Using the submissions to 3830Scores.com , each callsign’s cumulative score is calculated by totaling up his/her number of reported contacts and multiplying by the number of SQPs entered year-to-date. The use of the number of SQPs entered as a multiplier is to encourage radio amateurs to enter more state/province QSO parties. The use of the number of contacts as a metric is to encourage participants to operate longer in each SQP, increase the effectiveness of their station and improve their contesting skills. To qualify for an award level, the participant must have participated in at least two State QSO Parties. Each State QSO Party entry must have at least two QSOs. The first SQPs of most years are the Vermont, Minnesota and British Columbia QSO Parties on the first weekend of February.
Watch our YouTube Challenge Overview Video
View the 2025 SQP Challenge Program Rules
Worked All State QSO Parties (WAQP) Overview
The “Worked All QSO Parties” awards (WAQP) program is administered by the State QSO Party Group and it is sponsored by Icom America. These awards are available to all licensed amateur radio operators who meet the specified award requirements. To qualify, all applicants must adhere to the State QSO Party Challenge AND WAQP program rules. Awards include certificates for participating in at least 50% of the SQP Challenge approved contests with a goal of participating in ALL of the approved contests. The WAQP requires that the operator submit a log with at least TWO valid contacts to the state/province QSO party contest manager in addition to the 3830scores.com scores submission.