The Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party and

W2ICE Special Event Station

Transmitter Build Information, use button to right.

2017 Event Details

The Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party is an annual AWA-sponsored event where participants build their own transmitters using the designs, techniques, and tubes that were available in 1929 and earlier, and try to contact as many other 1929 stations as possible.  Since they use early designs, it is a cacophony of whooping, chirping, buzzing, clicking, drifting, swishing, swaying, warbling, and other interesting signals.   This is what ham radio sounded like in 1929 and for those two weekends in December it’s 1929 again on the ham bands!  The 1929 QSO Party was started in 1991 and was championed for several years by Bruce Kelley, W2ICE, an AWA co-founder.  The tradition was carried on by John Rollins, W1FPZ and Scott Freeberg, WA9WFA.
New This Year:  First: As an experiment, the power input limit has been raised to 25 Watts Input, day or night to help extend the party to the whole of the USA.  Second: You can submit your greatest miles-per-watt number, (i.e. 500 Miles, 2 Watts Input, equals 250 MPW).  Enter your highest miles-per-watt contact on the bottom of the log form, if you wish.  (Everyone will be looking for Steve, VE7SL!)  There will be an Honorable Mention for the greatest MPW contact.  Third: We have a new event Manager!  My name is Dave, WB9WHG, and I’ve been a 29’er since 2008, when I was recruited, helped, and encouraged by Harold, KB0ROB., and now it is my honor to keep it going.  We need your help to keep this great event going, invite a friend!
Again this year, we hope to have one of our stations activate Bruce Kelley’s W2ICE call sign as a 1929 SPECIAL EVENT STATION!​
Dates:  Sat. Dec. 09 @ 2300 GMT to Sun. Dec. 10 @ 2300 GMT
            and   
            Sat. Dec. 16 @ 2300 GMT to Sun. Dec. 17 @ 2300 GMT

Bands: 160, 80 and 40 Meters

​​​​Objective:  Contact as many 1929 stations as possible.  Contact exchange consists of RST, Name, QTH (State such as ME or MN or NY), last two digits of the year of the transmitters design or publication (such as 29 or 27 or 23, or pick a year if you’re not sure), type of transmitter (such as TNT or TGTP or MOPA or COLPITTS), and input power (such as 6W or 25W).
Rules:  To be Scored, transmitters must be 1929 or earlier types of self-excited oscillators such as the Hartley, TNT, PP tuned grid tuned plate, MOPA, Colpitts, etc.  No crystal oscillators.  Tubes must have been available during or before 1929.  Typical tubes often used are Type 10, 45, 27, 211, 71A, 01A.  Individual stations can be worked only once on each band over the course of two weekends.  You can use any vintage or modern receiver that you wish.  The event is open to all 1929 stations including non-AWA members and AWA members.!
​Input Power:  Transmitters are limited to a power INPUT of 25 Watts or less.  Note that this is INPUT power.  Power input is calculated by multiplying PA plate voltage x total PA plate current.   Example: my plate voltage is 300 VDC, and plate current is 30 mA, so total input power is 300 x 0.030 = 9 Watts Input. Don’t forget, the power limit is 25 Watts Input.
​Frequencies:  The QSO Party typically operates between 1800 to 1810 KC, 3550 to 3580 KC, and 7100 to 7125 KC, plus or minus depending on QRM.  40 Meters works well because it offers both night time AND daytime propagation! 
​Logs:  Please submit your log so we can see who you worked and acknowledge your effort!  Logs must be in the 1929 QSO Party log format, otherwise it will be difficult to score you.  An official 1929 log sheet will be available for download from the AWA website, and I can mail one to you if you don’t have email.  My email address is dgparker2 [at] wisc.edu.  I will acknowledge receipt of all email logs.  My mail address is Dave Parker, PO Box 6, Prairie du Sac, WI  53578, and my phone number is 608-515-3466.
Click on button below to download log sheet
​Scoring:  Remember that contacts with modern or high-power stations do not count.  If you are contacted by a modern or high-power station, be polite, mention the AWA QSO Party and point them to the webpage for more information, then move on, or have a QSO with them if you wish.  We will also count contacts with W2AN, the AWA club station and W2ICE.  Scoring is simple.  Just add up the number of legitimate 1929 QSO’s that you had.  The results will be published in the AWA Journal.  Please submit logs by January 15, 2018. 

​73, Dave WB9WHG