The 2026 South Dakota QSO Party runs from 1 PM Saturday, October 10, to 1 PM Sunday, October 11 (Central Daylight Time, 1800Z). If you hold a license and live in South Dakota, you are the station everyone else is trying to find.
Stations outside the state spend the weekend chasing South Dakota stations and counties. Stations inside South Dakota can work anyone. Every contact you make from home gives someone in another state a county for their log, so ten contacts on a Saturday afternoon still count for a lot.
The exchange is short. South Dakota stations send a signal report and their county. Out-of-state stations send a signal report and their state, province or DXCC country.
Bands and modes. Phone, CW and digital all count, on 160 meters through 70 cm (no WARC bands). Repeater contacts don’t count, so plan on HF or simplex.
New Technicians, this includes you. You can work SSB phone on 10 meters, CW on parts of 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters, and anything on 6 meters, 2 meters and 70 cm simplex.
Pick your spot. Operate from your shack, set up portable at a park, or drive to a county that doesn’t get on the air much. The rules include an in-state Mobile (Rover)/Portable category.
Send in your log. Logs go in Cabrillo format by email to Bill Nixon, W0EJ, at w0ej@arrl.net. The deadline is 8 AM CDT on Saturday, October 24. In-state operators who submit at least 100 valid contacts go into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate, and certificates go to high scorers.
The party is sponsored by the Prairie Dog Amateur Radio Club. Read the full rules, including scoring, bonus stations and entry categories.
Make some contacts and tell us how it went at the next meeting.