Contest Protocol

[Tigerbrew]

Hi all.

Forgive me for asking what might sound like a dumb question but as a returnee to amateur radio and now able to use the HF bands as a G6 I have been listening around tha bands and notice there are lots of contest stations hunting for contacts.
One thing I have noticed is the fact that these various contest stations seem to exchange some sort of reference number which I am led to understand is simply a QSO number.
Now I can understand contest to contest stations exchanging this ref number but if like me you are a non contest station wanting to make a contact I don't have a ref number to give because I'm not "in contest" as it were, having said that, I'm not particularly interested in contest but I would find it interesting to get signal reports from various locations and it presumably gives them an extra QSO to log.
I've tried looking in books for the answer but they tend to deal with the subject from a contesters point of view and don't address the subject from the casual callers angle.

So in conclusion what is the crack for calling up a contest station when YOU are not participating in contest ?

Regards, Steve G6JEF

[ADPreparedham]

Steve

Check out either ARRL or QRZ contest page. They might have a reference on there about the contest, the required responses from both the CQ side and your side.

http://www.arrl.org/contest-calendar

http://forums.qrz.com/index.php?foru...ial-events.15/

Respectfully
Mark
AD1E

[K7KBN]

You might try www.arrl.org and navigate to the Contest Calendar. That lists most contests - it's probably not possible to list them all. The RSGB/OFCOM might also have listings.

[Tigerbrew]

Here is an example of what I mean....... This is rule 4a and b of the RSGB HF contest rules.

Note the text in red says there must be a "contest exchange" and that the exchange must contain "appropriate information".

4. Contacts

(a) A contest contact requires establishment of communication and a two-way contest exchange. The information contained in a contest exchange consists of an incrementing serial number starting from 001, acknowledgement of the call sign received and of the contest exchange received. Individual contest rules may vary this exchange.

(b) Incomplete contacts must be logged. Points are not lost if a station does not send appropriate information, but a report must be logged and any other contest exchange sent must be recorded. The full contest exchange must be sent to all stations worked.

Does this mean that as a non contest station I have to send an arbitary sequence number even though it has no relevance on my side of the contact or am I excused under the "points are not lost" part of the ruling ?

[2E0FVL]

What you can do is give points away by calling that station and give ØØ1,2,3,etc but you must work more than one so that you are shown in other logs that are taking part!
You will not get much sense from the reports returned as they will all be 5/9 as will be the reports you give even if they have ten attempts to hear you it will still be 5/9, the only good thing if you want to check your DX capabilities, if their desperate for points they WILL hear you!!

[M0TTB]

Hi all.

Forgive me for asking what might sound like a dumb question but as a returnee to amateur radio and now able to use the HF bands as a G6 I have been listening around tha bands and notice there are lots of contest stations hunting for contacts.
One thing I have noticed is the fact that these various contest stations seem to exchange some sort of reference number which I am led to understand is simply a QSO number.
Now I can understand contest to contest stations exchanging this ref number but if like me you are a non contest station wanting to make a contact I don't have a ref number to give because I'm not "in contest" as it were, having said that, I'm not particularly interested in contest but I would find it interesting to get signal reports from various locations and it presumably gives them an extra QSO to log.
I've tried looking in books for the answer but they tend to deal with the subject from a contesters point of view and don't address the subject from the casual callers angle.

So in conclusion what is the crack for calling up a contest station when YOU are not participating in contest ?

Regards, Steve G6JEF

As already stated, the 'serial number' is simply an incremental number of the qso's you have made in the contest. Your first qso would be 59 001 and your next qso would be 59 002 and so on.
However, not all contests use incremental serial numbers or use serial + something else. For example, CQWW you just give 59 and your CQ zone which is zone 14 for us in the UK. I think there's one big contest where you give your age, some the year in which you were first licensed.
So it's worth checking online at a contest calendar which will have details, here's one that I use
http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/weeklycont.php

One thing is for sure though, you will be 59 with all of them Due to the need for speed in computer logging, keen contesters tend to stick exclusively to 59 reports.

[ADPreparedham]

Tiger

When I have ahd problems finding the correct contest protocol I have asked the CQ contest calling station for info to locate the correct exchange protocol and in most cases they will be happy to give you the URL where rules can be found or tell you the correct. Sometimse just listening you can pick it up.

If I am not in the contest, i will start a paper log with the contact # and call sign so I dont give 2 or more stations the same contact # with my call.

Respectfully
Mark
AD1E

[K7KBN]

CQDX contests require me (for example) to send "5903" (meaning five by nine signal report; I'm in CQ Zone 03).
Some contests, it would be "5906" (five by nine; ITU Zone 06).
JARL contests: "5971" (five by nine; I'm 71 years old). Next year, it'll be "5972".
And so on.

And no, the "five by nine" portion is not necessarily a correct report, but it really disrupts a participant's rhythm to have to consciously log a "five by seven" instead.

If you're in a CW contest, the exchange is the same except the signal report is 599. This is often sent as 5NN, using "cut numbers", and it's perfectly legal. Similarly, zeroes in serialized QSOs are sent as "T": a 599 on QSO #200 would be 5NN2TT.

After a CW contest or two, this'll all make perfect sense.

If it sounds as if a contest is taking place - usually on weekends - listen to a few exchanges sent from the same station. See if he sends the same thing each time or maybe incrementing at each exchange. And again, the Contest Calendar, Contest Corral, or whatever it's called in whichever magazine or website you read should be able to provide definitive information.

[ADPreparedham]

There is a contest that just started here in the US. Details of this and other contest can be found here http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/contestcal.html

Here are the details for the Sprint. You answer a CQ on a freq, give the details below and after the QSO is over, youmthen have the channel and you call CQ. Once someone answers, exchange details and then that freq is theres to call CQ. And repeate as necessary.

North American SSB Sprint Contest: 0000Z-0400Z, Aug 30
Mode: SSB
Bands: 80, 40, 20m
Classes: Single Op (QRP/Low/High)
Max operating hours: 4 hours
Max power: HP: 1500 watts
LP: 100 watts
QRP: 5 watts
Exchange: [other station's call] + [your call] + [serial no.] + [your name] + [your state/province/country]
Work stations: Once per band
QSO Points: NA station: 1 point per QSO
non-NA station: 1 point per QSO with an NA station
Multipliers: Each US state + DC (including KL7 and KH6) once
Each VE province once
Each North American country (except W/VE) once
Score Calculation: Total score = total QSO points x total mults
Submit logs by: 0400Z September 6, 2015
E-mail logs to: (see rules, web upload preferred)
Upload log at: http://ssbsprint.com/submit-log/
Mail logs to: Chris Tate, N6WM
12450 Del Valle Rd
Livermore, CA 94550
USA
Find rules at: http://ssbsprint.com/rules/

[Tigerbrew]

Cheers guy's for that, that gives me something to go on.

Regards, Steve, G6JEF