The Georgia QSO Party has been held annually since 1963, making it a long-standing tradition in the amateur radio community. It is co-sponsored by the South East Contest Club and the Southeastern DX Club. It’s primary goal is to connect radio amateurs from outside Georgia with stations across all 159 counties in the state. The GQP is held every year on the second full weekend of April.
Rusty Epps, K4BVD (now W6OAT) created the Georgia QSO Party in 1963. He did all the initial log checking while still in high school. John Laney, K4BAI, took over the Georgia QSO Party from K4BVD and ran it for about 20 years with a little help from K4RHU, K4ADU, and his father, K4VGI. John did the promotion, scored all the logs (manually checking every claimed QSO against every other claimed QSO), prepared the results, and mailed them to every participant who submitted a log. He also prepared and mailed certificates for the winners in each state, province, and country. Jeff Clarke, KU8E has run the GQP since 2017.