Vienna Wireless Society
North American QSO Party
January 15-16, 2005

Revised January 4, 2005

On January 15 and 16, 2005, the Vienna Wireless Society will be operating in the North American QSO Party, at the Inn at Town Hill in Western Maryland. This site is located on a ridge overlooking scenic Western Maryland and is not far from the C&O Canal along the Potomac River. We will be operating Multi Operator Two Transmitter (this contest limits entrants to two transmitters.)

This is where we'll be operating NAQP January. This is a bed and breakfast which is normally closed in January and February. The owners are opening it up just for us, but will not be providing anything other than the heated building. There are 13 bedrooms priced from $75 to $115. One or two of the rooms have twin beds, but most have a single double bed. For as long as they last, members are welcome to rent a room by themselves at the above rates, however most likely we'll sleep two to a room, one in the bed and one on the floor. Details like this can be worked out between individual members. Pete Norloff, KG4OJT, will be collecting reservations and payments for the rooms.

This is the 65 person dining room that we'll use for our radio stations. The windows are the low windows on the bottom right of the outside view of the building at the top of this page. We are free to rearrange this room any way that suits us for the contest. Click on the image for a more detailed view.

Rules for the contest are available here on the VWS page or on the National Contest Journal web page.

The contest starts at 1:00 PM local time on Saturday, January 15 and ends at 1:00 AM local time on Sunday, January 16. Some of us will arrive on Friday however most of us will start gathering at the Inn starting at 9:00 AM on Saturday to set up the operating positions, antennas, etc. Food details will be the same as last year in Harpers Ferry -- each of us will bring food to share for lunch and a pot luck dinner on Saturday. At 1:00 AM when the contest stops, some or all of us will sleep in the house, pack up the equipment in the morning and head out to breakfast at a cafe at the bottom of the hill.

To get to the Inn at Town Hill, take I-495 to I-270 to Frederick. Take I-70 west out of Frederick past Hancock, MD. From there, pick up I-68 west. I-68 takes you through one of the more amazing road cuts on this side of the country at Sidling Hill. Past Sidling Hill, take exit 68, bear right 1/4 mile to scenic Route 40, turn left and go to the top of the mountain. Directions on the Town Hill B&B web site read "We are located 2 hours and eighty-three years from Baltimore, Washington and Pittsburgh.

On December 4, we made a reconnaisance mission to Town Hill to look at the Inn and meet the owner. I shot a few photos inside the inn, but filled up the camera memory card before I could shoot the trees and views outside. The dining room photo above is from that trip. Here are the other photos, mostly of a number of the bedrooms. You may notice that the Inn bears little resemblance to a hunting lodge. I may create smaller versions of these images soon:

This event is being coordinated by Pete Norloff, KG4OJT. Email address is [call sign] at arrl.net. Please contact Pete if you're interested in participating.

Past NAQP operating events:
August 16, 2003, Lake Fairfax Park
January 17, 2004, Harpers Ferry, WV
August 21, 2004, Lake Fairfax Park