Boring Amateur Radio Club
Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge
17th STEW PERRY TOPBAND DISTANCE CHALLENGE
1. Contest period: 1500Z December 29th to 1500Z December 30th, 2012. Operate for a maximum of 14 hours. Off times are 30 minutes minimum and a maximum of four off periods are permitted. A separate warm-up event will be held on October 20th/21st with the same time period and entry categories. A Summer event will be held on June 16/17th - again with the same time period and categories. 2. Bands and mode: 160 meters CW only. 3. Categories: Single operator or multi-operator; high, low or QRP power. Low power is 100 watts or less output. QRP is 5 watts or less output. High power is 1500 watts output or whatever you can legally run in your country - whichever is less. 4. Exchange: Four character grid square (i.e. CN85). RST is optional. 5. QSO Points: The number of QSO points for each contact depends on the distance between the two stations. This is computed by taking the distance between the centers of the two grid squares. Count a minimum of one point per QSO and an additional point for every 500 kilometers distance. For example, a QSO with a station 1750 kilometers away will count for 4 QSO points. No additional distance for long path is allowed. QSO Points are multiplied by 2X if you work a low power station and 4X for working a QRP station. This is done based upon received logs and is computed automatically during the log checking process. Do not worry if your logging software does not compute the QSO points. Our automated log checking software does this. 6. Welcome to Rule 6. We will try our best to describe what you can and can't do for each of the categories. We realize that the beat of technology does not stop - even for the TopBand. Because of this, we will try to start with a statement expressing the intent of these rules, to give the reader something to go on if some previously distinct line is blurred due to advances in technology. If you are single-op - we intend for you to not be assisted by other humans during the event. Any communication with humans other than the exchanges that take place over the air can be assistance. Obviously, you can ask your wife to bring you a sandwich - and say hello to an old friend who happens to call in. But - if the assistance starts to do things like telling you that VK6VZ is on 1829.3 kHz, then that is going too far. So - packet spotting is right out. Using a chat room for setting up skeds is out. This is the "boy and his radio" category. Furthermore, the technology has advanced to the point where it can give assistance that is on par with a human. Having a skimmer, or reverse beacon network, or whatever people come up with in the future that can tell you that VK6VZ is on 1829.3 kHz is also viewed as assistance. Use of this technology is not allowed in the single-op category. We do realize band scopes can show that someone is on 1829.3 - but since they don't tell you who is actually there, that is okay. We suppose this allows the use of "blind skimmers" but we would really like to encourage you to turn off the skimmer and enjoy the contest the way we did back when Stew Perry was around. We do realize that some stations use remote receivers to eliminate their local QRN issues. We wish to include them in the contest - but need to put some kind of limit on it as we do not intend for people to have remote receivers on the other side of their country - or in other continents. That would totally destroy the concept of awarding extra QSO points for copying QRP stations. Therefore, remote receivers are okay as long as they are not more than 100 kM form your transmitter site. This equates to roughly a grid square. If you are multi-op, you can get assistance from other humans in your shack. We still do not want to encourage the use of packet during the contest, so would rather you not do that. If you have a skimmer - go ahead and use it. Remote receiving sites within the 100 kM are okay. If a networked connected skimmer is within 100 kM of you, go ahead and use it (perhaps that is what is known as a Reverse Beacon Network, but we get very concerned when we see "Network"). If you want to do something that doesn't fall into one of these two categories (and still want to get on and make QSOs) - this is still a good thing and you can submit your log as a check log. We will still process your log and print your score. You can explain what you were doing in your soapbox comments for all to see. Perhaps if enough people are submitting logs that are doing the same thing you were - we will consider creating a category for that type of operation. We are sorry that this rule is so long. We really wanted to keep this simple, but that didn't seem possible anymore. If you have any questions after reading this - please let the Boring Amateur Radio Club know and we will be happy to add a few more paragraphs. Oh - we should mention cheating isn't allowed either - in case that was not clear. This includes operating more than 14 hours and trying to make it look like you operated only 14. It means running more power than you are supposed to in your category and/or country. It also isn't nice to use QRZ.COM to fill in those missing or questionable grid squares. This is a RADIO contest and you should put in your log what you heard during the contest - not what you found on the internet afterwards!! Thank you for reading rule six. 7. Score: Final score equals the total number of QSO points. There is no multiplier for different grids worked. Stations running more than 5 watts, but no more than 100 watts multiply their score by 1.5. Stations running less 5 watts or less multiply their score by 3. Scores will be grouped by category. 8. Reporting: Your log can be sent via the internet to TBDC@CONTESTING.COM using the Cabrillo format within 30 days of the contest. You can also use the form provided by WA7BNM on the web to enter your ASCII or paper log data - http://www.b4h.net/cabforms/stewperry_cab.php. Paper entries will only be accepted for logs with fewer than 50 QSOs in them and must mailed to BARC 15125 SE Bartell Rd; Boring, OR 97009. No paper logs will be accepted for the warm-up or summer events. 9. Plaques will be awarded for categories we have sponsors for. To volunteer to sponsor a plaque, contact Lew Sayre, W7EW at w7ew@arrl.net. A list of the plaques sponsored can be found on the web at http://www.kkn.net/stew/plaques.txt. There are no plaques or other awards for the warm-up or summer events. To "apply" for a plaque such as a first time entry - or other special category, please include this information in your SOAPBOX fields on the Cabrillo log. Information contained elsewhere in your e-mail may not be seen by the log checkers. Only one plaque can be won by any station for a specific contest. BARC will make decisions about which plaque you will win in cases where you qualify for more than one. Stations may enter two categories (i.e., QRP and High Power), but must use a different callsign for each operation. Results are published on the web in the spring. Look for an announcement on the topband and contest reflectors. Warm-up results will be published before the real event in December.http://www.kkn.net/stew/
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