Rules

The 2008 CQ World-Wide RTTY Contest

September 27-28, 2008

Starts: 0000 GMT Saturday Ends: 2359 GMT Sunday

I. Period of Operation: All stations may operate the entire 48-hour contest period.

II. Objective: The object of the contest is for amateurs around the world using RTTY to contact as many amateurs in other parts of the world as possible during the contest period.

III. Bands: The 3.5, 7, 14, 21, and 28 MHz bands may be used. No 1.8 MHz or WARC bands.

IV. Terms of Competition (for all categories): All entrants must operate within the limits of their chosen category when performing any activity that could impact their submitted score. Transmitters and receivers must be located within a 500-meter diameter circle or within the property limits of the station licensee, whichever is greater. All antennas must be physically connected by wires to the transmitters and receivers used by the entrant. All high power categories must not exceed 1500 watts total output power on any band. Only the entrant’s callsign may be used to aid the entrant’s score. No self-spotting on any form of DX spotting nets is permitted for any category. Self-spotting includes, but is not limited to, generating packet spots for your contest callsign by (a) using your own callsign; (b) using another callsign; or (c) other stations as a result of prearranged solicitation by you.

V. Categories:

1. Single Operator (Single Band and All Band)

(a) Single Operator stations are those at which one person performs all of the operating, logging, and, for the Assisted category only, spotting functions. Only one transmitted signal is allowed at any time.

(b) Low Power: Same as V.1.(a) except that (i) output power is 150 watts or less and (ii) only All Band entrants may enter the Low Power category. Stations in this category compete only with other low power stations.

(c) Assisted (all band operation only): Same as V.1.a. except the passive use of DX spotting nets is allowed (see IV above). No power subcategories.

(d) Single Band: All contacts are made on one band, regardless of power level. However, entrants may make contacts on other bands for the benefit of other contestants if they submit logs in Cabrillo format and clearly mark in the log header which band is to be counted as the single-band entry (see Rule XII below). No power subcategories.

2. Multi-Operator (All band operation only)

(a) Single-Transmitter: Only one transmitted signal at any time. Limited to 6 band changes in any clock hour (0 through 59 minutes). For example, a change from 20 meters to 40 meters and then back to 20 meters constitutes two band changes. Violation of the 6-band change rule will result in reclassification to the Multi-Multi category. Two power categories: Low Power (150W or less) and High Power (greater than 150W). Exception: One and only one other band may be used during the same time period if and only if the station worked is a new multiplier. Violation of the 6 band-change rule by either transmitter will result in reclassification of the entry to the Multi-Multi category.

(b) Two-Transmitter: A maximum of two transmitted signals are allowed as long as each signal is transmitted on a different band. Entrants in this category are allowed a total of 6 band-changes per transmitter in any clock hour (0 through 59 minutes). For example, a change from 20 meters to 40 meters and then back to 20 meters constitutes two band changes. Violation of the 6 band-change rule may result in reclassification of the entry to the Multi-Multi category. No power subcategories.

(c) Multi-Transmitter: No limit to the number of transmitters, but only one signal and “running station” allowed per band. No power subcategories.

VI. Modes: Baudot only. No unattended operation or contacts through gateways or digipeaters permitted.

VII. Exchange: Stations operating within the 48 continental United States and the 14 Canadian areas transmit RS(T) report plus State or Area (Canada only) plus CQ Zone. All other stations transmit RS(T) and CQ Zone.

Valid Contacts: A given station may be contacted only once per band. Additional contacts are allowed with the same station on each of the other bands used in the contest.

VIII. Identification of Transmitters: Multi-Single and Multi-Two log entries must identify which transmitter made each QSO in the log (column 81 of Cabrillo QSO template for CQ contests). Multi-Multi entries which submit logs in other than Cabrillo format must provide a separate log for each transmitter.

IX. QSO Points: One QSO point for contacts within your own country. Two QSO points for contacts outside your own country but within your own continent. Three QSO points for contacts outside your own continent.

X. Multipliers: One multiplier point for each US state (48) and each Canadian area (14) on each band. Please use only official U.S. Postal Service abbreviations to identify states (e.g., Michigan = MI; Massachusetts = MA, Ohio = OH). One multiplier point for each DX country in the ARRL and/or WAE country lists on each band. Note: KL7 and KH6 are counted as country multipliers only and not as state multipliers. One multiplier point for each CQ Zone worked on each band. Maximum of 40 Zones per band.

Canadian areas (14 total) are as follows: NB (VE1, 9), NS (VE1), QC (VE2), ON (VE3), MB (VE4), SK (VE5), AB (VE6), BC (VE7), NWT (VE8), NF (VO1), LB (VO2), NU (VYØ), YT (VY1), PEI (VY2).

XI. Scoring:
Final score = total QSO points × the total multipliers (US states + VE areas + ARRL/WAE countries + CQ zones).

XII. Awards: First-place certificates will be awarded in each category listed under Section V in every participating country and in each call area of the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan. All scores will be published. To be eligible for an award a Single Operator station must operate at least 12 hours. Multi-operator stations must operate a minimum of 24 hours. A single-band log is eligible for a single-band award only. (Single-band entrants who also operate on other bands are encouraged to submit their logs to aid in the log-checking process.
Note: Logs containing more than one band will be judged as all-band entries unless they are submitted in Cabrillo format and the single-band entry is specified in the Cabrillo header.) All certificates and plaques will be issued to the licensee of the station used. To the extent sponsors or winners purchase plaques through the Contest Director, plaques will be awarded in the following geographical areas for each of the categories listed in Rule V: World, North America, USA, Canada, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

XIII. Club Competition: A plaque will be awarded each year to the club that has the highest aggregate scores from logs submitted by members. The club must be a local group and not a national organization. Participation is limited to members operating within a local geographical area defined as within a 275-km radius from center of club area (exception: DXpeditions specially organized for operation in the contest and manned by club members; club contributions of DXpedition scores are proportioned to the number of club members on the DXpedition). Indicate your club affiliation in the Cabrillo file. To be eligible for an award, a minimum of three logs must be received
from a club, and if requested by the Contest Director a club officer must verify a list of participating club members.

XIV. Instructions for Preparation of Logs:

All logs should be submitted in Cabrillo format via e-mail to <rtty@cqww.com>.

1. Logs must be submitted no later than October 26, 2007.

2. Electronic Submissions.

(a) In the “Subject:” line of your e-mail message please include your callsign and the category you entered—e.g., SOABL, M2, MS, etc. Logs should be sent as an email attachment, not in the text of the e-mail, and the filename for the log should be yourcall.log.

(b) Entries from Multi-Single, Multi-Two and Multi-Multi stations must be merged into a single chronological log that clearly indicates which transmitter made each QSO (column 81 of Cabrillo QSO template for CQ contests).

Other questions pertaining to the CQ WW RTTY Contest may be sent to the Contest Director, Glenn Vinson, W6OTC, 488 Locust Street – #401, San Francisco, CA 94118 USA; e-mail: <w6otc@garlic.com>.

XV. Disqualification: Violation of amateur radio regulations in the country of the contestant, or the rules of the contest, unsportsmanlike conduct, taking credit for excessive duplicate contacts, unverifiable QSOs or multipliers will be deemed sufficient cause for disqualification. An entrant whose log is deemed by the CQ WW RTTY Contest Committee to contain a large number of discrepancies may be disqualified as a participant operator or station for a period of one year. If within a five-year period the operator is disqualified a second time, he will be ineligible for any CQ contest awards for three years.

XVI. Deadline: All entries must be emailed NO LATER than October 26, 2008. Logs received after the deadline may be listed in the results but will be ineligible for any award.