Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party Details
The Bruce Kelley Memorial QSO Party for 2026
By Dave Parker, WB7WHG
November 14-16 & 21-23, 2026
The information below can be downloaded as a PDF by clicking on the button to the right.
TThe Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party is an annual AWA-sponsored event where participants either have acquired or have built their own transmitters using 1929 or earlier designs, techniques, and tubes. Hand Keys or Vibroplex-type Keys should be used. Non-AWA members with 29-Style rigs are welcome to join in! Since we use early designs, it is a cacophony of whooping, chirping, buzzing, clicking, drifting, swishing, swaying, warbling, and other interesting signals. For two weekends in November, 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.
Dates: Sat. Nov. 14, 2300 UTC to Mon. Nov. 16 0300 UTC, and Sat. Nov. 21 2300 UTC to Mon., Nov. 23 0300 UTC. The ending time for each Sunday Evening is 0300 UTC Monday.
Bands: 160, 80, 40 and 20 Meters. The QSO Party typically operates between 1800 to 1820 KC, 3550 to 3570 KC, 7050 to 7070 KC, 7110 to 7125 KC, and 14060 to 14070 KC.
40M – 7050-7070 gets busy the first weekend, so try 7110-7125 for the 1st Weekend, and 7050-7070 for the 2nd Weekend.
Logs: Please use the AWA Bruce Kelley Fillable PDF Log Form (Dec 2023), and submit your log (using UTC Time!), so we can see who you worked and acknowledge your effort.
It’s quite easy to use the PDF with a PC, but if you need to, you can submit a legible hand-written copy using that form, and mail it to me. If you end up with a dupe on your log, please “blank out” the entire line for the duplicate log entry.
Objective: Contact as many 1929 stations as possible. Contact exchange consists of RST, Name, QTH State (such as MN or NY), last two digits of the year of the transmitters design or publication (such as 29 or 27 or 24, or pick a year if you’re not sure), type of transmitter (such as Hartley, MOPA, etc.), and Input (not Output) Power (such as 6W, 25W).
Rules: To be scored, transmitters must be 1929 or earlier types of self-excited oscillators such as a Hartley, MOPA, TNT, Tuned Plate Tuned Grid, Colpitts, etc. No crystal oscillators. Tubes must have been available during or before 1929. Typical tubes 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 (not a modern TX), including non-AWA members who send all their exchange info. Call “AWA AWA AWA DE (your call) to avoid calls from non-1929 transmitter stations.
Input Power: Transmitters are limited to a power input of 25 Watts or less. Power input is calculated by multiplying plate voltage X 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.
Your Band Totals, and Overall Total number of contacts should be shown on the last page only, of your log (a maximum of 29 Contacts per page). Each page could also have its own totals, but only for that page. If you are making a lot of contacts, you could use one page per band, or one page per weekend. Mark pages 1 of 2, 2 of 2, etc. Please don’t insert photos or comments into your log.
If you can email a filled-in PDF document to me, that will help a lot! You could also email a scanned paper copy of the PDF log (not a photo). Please email your soapbox comments and photos, also! Use a separate JPG file (< 1Meg) for photos, and a separate text file for comments. My email address is wb7whg [at] gmail [dot] com
Please list your call sign in the Subject Line.
I will acknowledge receipt of all emailed logs. If you mail in a paper log, and want an acknowledgement, please include an SASE or an email address. My mail address is Dave Parker, 1107 NW 15th St, Bend, OR 97703, and my phone number is 608-515-3466.
Scoring: Scoring is simple. Just add up the number of complete 1929 QSOs that you had. The results will be published on the AWA website and in the AWA Journal. This year’s deadline for logs will be December 14, 2026.
73, Dave WB7WHG