Why no 80 Meters?

We’ve resisted including 80 Meters in the FQP for a number of reasons. First, we wanted the FQP to be more than a regional QSO Party. Any activity on 80M is likely to be regionalized. Secondly, we wanted the mobiles to be on equal footing. Erecting a mobile antenna for 80M is non-trivial, especially one that tunes on both modes. Thirdly, there are only 2 hours of darkness in Florida out of the 20 operating hours. In higher sunspot years, 20 Meters remains open the entire time and it’s hard enough to get people to move to 40 for a little while, let alone 80. We don’t want to change the rules several times each sunspot cycle to accommodate the conditions of that period. Fourth, we actually have some empirical evidence. We included 80 Meters in 1998, the first running. Activity levels there were dismal. I believe we took a survey after that event and the vast majority voted to remove 80 Meters.