To define a CRS, select from the (Gnome, OSX) or (KDE, Windows) menu. Custom CRS are stored in your QGIS user database. In addition to your custom CRS, this database also contains your spatial bookmarks and other custom data.
Note that the Parameters must begin with a +proj=-block, to represent the new coordinate reference system.
Defining a custom CRS in QGIS requires a good understanding of the Proj.4 projection library. To begin, refer to the Cartographic Projection Procedures for the UNIX Environment - A User's Manual by Gerald I. Evenden, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 90-284, 1990. This manual describes the use of the proj.4 and related command line utilities. The cartographic parameters used with proj.4 are described in the user manual, and are the same as those used by QGIS.