From The NYQP Site here are some of the changes for this year. It promises to be a good one.
Added the Portable class. We recognize that many operators make special trips for NYQP that may not fit well into another operating category. We want to recognize these ops for their efforts and encourage more portable activity for NYQP.
Added county line operation for Portable and Mobile entrants. County line operation has become widely accepted in state QSO parties, because it gives single-operator mobiles the opportunity to activate more counties, makes it possible for all entrants a better chance to work all New York counties in the contest, and makes the contest more fun. It makes log checking more interesting, too, and it adds work for the logging software vendors–so be sure to thank your logging software providers (most of whom are volunteers) for their work to support these features.
Expanded the former Mobile class to include Multi-Single and Multi-Multi classes. As more mobile operators take to the roads for NYQP, we want to allow the mobile ranks to expand while providing an opportunity for mobiles to choose a transmitter class that matches their ambition for the contest.
Added self-spotting for Mobile and Portable classes only. One of the main challenges for mobile and portable operators who change location is getting the word out about where to find them. Again, in the interest of providing more people the opportunity to work more counties and more NYQP operators, it was time to add this option for the Mobile and Portable operator classes. We encourage people not to overuse this capability–please be good self-spotting citizens.
Updated overlays and special classes (School is now an entry class rather than an overlay, which aligns better with other contests and logging platforms).
Changed our log submission platform from email (!) to use nyqp.contesting.com with the generous support of WWROF. Log submission, log checking, logs-received list, and self-service certificate printing are some of the benefits of this move. This is part of a significant modernization of our log checking process overall, which will allow us to get the results out much faster.
Be sure to check out all the rules at NYQP.org.