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IK6ZDE > HF 20.10.09 19:59l 300 Lines 14388 Bytes #999 (99) @ EU
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Subj: (ENG)(SSB) RSGB 80m Sprint Contest
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RSGB 80m Sprint Contests 2009
A series of short sprint contests to complement the 80m Club Championship
events earlier in the year. These events will introduce different contesting
skills through the ‘sprint’ format. This requires stations to QSY often, and
not maintain a ‘run' frequency.
The general rules apply to this contest
Dates: August to November 2009 (see calendar for specific dates)
Time: 19:00-20:30 UTC (Aug, Sep, Oct) 20:00-21:30 (Nov)
Mode: CW & SSB, see the calendar
October 1900-2030. 80m Club Sprint 8th – CW; 21st – SSB.
Exchange: Your callsign + Other station’s callsign + serial number + name.
Each station may use only one name during each Sprint event.
Please note that both stations must repeat both callsigns during their
exchanges.
1. Sections: (a) 100W maximum output power; (b) 10W maximum output power.
Stations may be single or multi-operator.
2. Frequencies: CW 3.520-3.570 (QRS Corral around 3.560); SSB 3.600-3.650 &
3.700-3775
3. Special QSY Rule: if any station initiates a call (by sending CQ, QRZ?,
etc.), they are permitted to work ONLY one station on the same frequency. They
must thereafter move AT LEAST 2 (two) kHz before they may call another station
or solicit (CQ, QRZ?, etc.) other contacts.
4. Scoring: One point per. contact.
5. Entries: Each session is a contest in its own right, and log entries must be
submitted to http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfenter.pl within seven days of the
contest. For example for a contest on 13th August, the deadline is 23:59:59 on
20th August. Entries must be in Cabrillo format, see here for information on
preparing a Cabrillo entry. In order to count towards the total for an
affiliated society, the society name must be clearly indicated on the entry.
Societies may wish to appoint a coordinator who can ensure that entries contain
all required information and are emailed on time.
Entrants should set up their contest logging software as per the EUSprint
contest, which is supported by SD, N1MM, Writelog, Wintest etc.
As an alternative to using logging software during the contest, details can be
logged on paper and entered directly onto the web form here after the event
Further information regarding the Cabrillo Format
6. Awards: Certificates of merit to the highest-scoring stations in each
section for each contest., and a certificate to the highest scoring affiliated
society.
See the feature here for further information on the QSO format used in sprint
contests
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
General Rules for RSGB HF Contests
1. These rules apply to all RSGB HF Contests, except where superseded by the
specific Contest Rules.
2. UK means England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and
Isle of Man.
3. Entrants must abide by their licence conditions.
4. Contacts:
(a) A contact consists of an exchange with incrementing serial number
commencing from 001 and acknowledgement of receipt of callsign and contest
data. Incomplete contacts must be logged with zero points claimed. Points are
not lost if a non-competing station does not send appropriate information, but
a report must be logged and any other exchange sent by that station must be
recorded. The full contest exchange must be sent to all stations worked.
(b) One contact only with the same station per band counts for points,
regardless of that stations operator or callsign. More than one contact with
the same operator using different callsigns may not be claimed. Contacts with
stations which have no other contest contacts may be disallowed. Duplicate
contacts must be logged, with zero points claimed.
(c) Cross-band contacts do not score.
(d) Contacts scheduled before the contest do not count for points. Schedules
may only be made during the contest.
(e) Simultaneous transmissions on more than one frequency below 30MHz are not
permitted, but in multi-operator / assisted events use of VHF/UHF to access the
DX cluster is permitted. Access must be to the public cluster network, private
clusters are not permitted.
(f) The active use (posting messages, arranging skeds, self spotting etc) of
the DX Cluster and other spotting networks (including internet facilities for
example ON4KST) to assist an entry is not permitted.
(g) Proof of contact may be required.
(h) For contest purposes, /AM and /MM stations are treated as /M stations in
their own country. Other stations are regarded as being in the call area /
country indicated by their callsign as sent.
5. Multipliers: where applicable, are scored per band, and consist of:
(a) for UK stations: Countries as per the DXCC countries list, except that JA,
W, VE, VK, ZL and ZS call areas count as separate countries.
(b) for non-UK stations: one for each UK district.
(c) IOTA and SSB Field Day contests, see specific rules.
6. Portable stations
(a) Entrants must operate from the same site for the whole contest.
(b) Stations must not be located in a permanent building or shelter.
(c) No permanent building or structure may be used as an aerial support (trees
are acceptable).
(d) Power must be obtained solely from on-site batteries, portable generators
or solar cells, without use of mains.
(e) All equipment, aerials and supports must be set up on site no more than 24
hours before the start of the contest. This does not apply to short term
storage of equipment on site.
(f) All portable stations will still be required to sign /P when taking part in
any RSGB contest with a portable section even though new licence regulations
make the use of the /P suffix optional when operating portable.
7. Entrants
(a) All operators of UK stations must be RSGB members except visiting amateurs,
not normally resident in the UK. UK stations may not use special (eg GB, GX
etc) callsigns nor be /MM or /AM.
(b) A single-operator station is operated by one person, who receives no
assistance whatsoever from any other person in operating, log-keeping, checking
and so on, and who does not receive notification of callsign information by
packet, telnet, telephone or any other method including skimmer and
skimmer-like technologies.
(c) Multi-operator entries are those not covered by 7(b). One operator must act
as Entrant and submit the entry.
(d) All transmitters and receivers used by the entrant must be located within a
single 500-meter diameter circle or within the property limits of the station
address, whichever is greater. All antennas used by the entrant must be
physically connected by wires to the transmitters and receivers used by the
entrant. An entrant’s remote station is determined by the physical location of
the transmitters, receivers, and antennas. Only one station may be used by the
entrant during the contest period. That means, for example, that an entrant may
not work himself by use of a second, remote, station nor may that second
station be used to aid the operation of the entrant's station.
8. Adjudication
(a) Errors in sending / receiving are penalised by the loss of all points for
the QSO.
(b) Points may be deducted or entries disqualified or excluded for any breach
of the rules or spirit of the contest. The decision of the RSGB is final.
9. Entries.
(a) Log entries may be submitted by email, on 3.5in disk or on paper. Paper
entries are acceptable only if logging during the contest was not done on
computer. The adjudicator reserves the right to treat a paper entry derived
from a computer as a checklog. Unless specified otherwise in a particular
contests rules, the entry must be sent no more than 16 days after the end of
the contest. Log entries become the property of the RSGB.
(b) The preferred log format for computer entries is Cabrillo. Where a contest
exchange includes information not covered by the basic Cabrillo definition, the
contest specific Cabrillo format is defined on the RSGB HFCC webpage
www.rsgbcc.org/hf Entrants unsure of what information is required for a
particular contest are encouraged to use software which provides full support
for RSGB contests, such as SD by EI5DI.
(c) Computer entries must be named with the stations callsign and the extension
.log. Portable stations should use a hyphen, eg g3xyz-p.log. For Cabrillo
entries this is the only file that is required. For a limited period other
ASCII formats may be accepted and for these, in addition to the log file a
summary file (eg g3xyz-p.sum) must also be submitted.
(d) Each RSGB contest has a specific email address for log entries, given in
the rules for that contest. Log entries should be sent as an e-mail attachment,
and the subject line of the e-mail must include the stations callsign. An
automatic acknowledgement of the entry should be received after a short period
but if no acknowledgement is received please allow a few days before
resending.
(e) Disk and paper logs should be sent to RSGB G3UFY, 77 Bensham Manor Road,
Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 7AF, England. Acknowledgement will be sent if a
stamped, addressed postcard or IRC is enclosed.
(f) Paper logs (and any not in Cabrillo format) must ensure the following
information is shown for each contact: Time, Callsign worked, RS(T)/serial
sent, RS(T)/ serial received, other data (specific to the contest), new
bonus/multiplier, QSO points. Send a single log in time sequence, not separate
logs for each band.
(g) Paper summary sheets should include the following declaration "I declare
that this station was operated in accordance with the rules and spirit of the
contest and within the conditions of my licence. I agree to the data from this
entry being entered into a computer for the purposes of contest adjudication
and production of statistics. I agree that the decision of the Board of the
RSGB shall be final in all cases of dispute." Submission of an entry in
Cabrillo or any other format implies acceptance of the wording of this
declaration.
(h) Ensure that the section or category being entered is clearly shown in the
Cabrillo header or summary sheet. Entrants are encouraged to use soapbox lines
in the Cabrillo header to give information about the equipment and antennas
used as well as comments about the contest.
10. Awards.
Trophies as specified will be presented at the annual HF Convention and will be
held for a maximum period of one year for any particular annual event.
Certificates of Merit will be awarded to leading stations in each category /
band as appropriate.
Note: A variety of contest logging programs can be used in RSGB contests. The
most popular is SD by EI5DI, and its the only one which supports all the
Society's contests and produces a correctly scored log. Full details can be
found on the website www.ei5di.com or by writing to EI5DI, QTHR (e-mail:
paul@ei5di.com )
If you use a different logging program you must take steps to ensure that your
entry is correctly formatted and that QSO points, bonuses and multipliers are
correctly shown for each contact.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RSGB 80m Sprint QSO Format
The Sprint format requires stations to QSY if a contact was solicited on a
frequency, and means that different skills and operating style are needed
compared with a traditional contest. To reduce the risk of confusion between
stations because of the QSY element, the contact exchange consists of both
callsigns. A serial number and first name or nickname are also exchanged, and
as a departure from the norm, no RS(T) exchange is required. The contest
exchange and scoring is the same as the popular EUSprint contest, which is
supported by SD, N1MM, Writelog, and WinTest amongst others already. The
preferred order of the exchange is also different depending on whether you
solicited the contact or not. See the examples below.
The fun of the sprint format is that numerous stations will use and call CQ on
the same frequency in a short amount of time. A criticism of traditional
contests with limited available bandwidth is that those with the strongest
signals, or those who get on air first, occupy the frequencies for calling CQ.
Here, a relatively weak station can call a ‘big gun’ and, after their QSO,
immediately claim the frequency as their own to call CQ. Of course, that same
frequency must then be given up following the next QSO on the frequency.
A common practice is to call CQ for a first contact, then QSY, search for
someone else calling CQ, and work them for a second contact. Then you can call
CQ on that frequency for a third QSO, before searching again for a fourth.
You could still entirely work Search and Pounce and never call CQ. For a
domestic contest with many similar signal strengths and a high band occupancy,
a tactic of trying to only call CQ, maybe on alternating frequencies, is not
likely to be very successful.
Example SSB QSOs: (Use of phonetic alphabet needed in real life on-air)
3715 kHz:
M0AAA: “CQ Contest M0AAA M0AAA Contestö
G4ZZZ: “G4ZZZö
M0AAA: “G4ZZZ, M0AAA 001 TOMö
G4ZZZ: “M0AAA, 002, BILL, from G4ZZZö
(Note the different order that the contact information is given in. If you
solicit the QSO, you should give your callsign immediately after your QSO
partner. If you are responding to a CQ, you should give your callsign at the
end. This enables anyone else who tunes across the QSO in progress to know
which station will take the frequency and make the next QSO. This lowers the
risk of confusion and frustration when searching for new stations. When done
efficiently, the next station can call in without a QRZ? or CQ call being
needed to identify who has taken the frequency, improving the QSO rate as
well.)
M0AAA: “QSL. Good Luckö
(M0AAA needs to now QSY up or down at least 2 kHz to call another station, or
to start calling CQ himself. G4ZZZ can now call CQ on the now vacant 3715, if
no-one calls immediately.)
G4ZZZ: “CQ Contest, G4ZZZö
2E0YYY: “2E0YYYö etc.
Example CW QSOs:
3525 kHz:
M0AAA: “CQ TEST M0AAA M0AAA TESTö
G4ZZZ: “G4ZZZö
M0AAA: “G4ZZZ M0AAA. 001 TOMö
G4ZZZ: “M0AAA 002 BILL G4ZZZö
M0AAA: “TUö
(M0AAA needs to now QSY up or down at least 2 kHz to call another station, or
to start calling CQ himself. G4ZZZ can now call CQ on the now vacant 3525.)
G4ZZZ: “CQ TEST G4ZZZö
2E0YYY: “2E0YYYö etc.
With so much changing of frequencies, some accidental QRM is unavoidable.
Please remember to be considerate and polite, and to ask if the frequency in
use, or send QRL? before calling CQ.
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