GARES Winter 2010 Challenge: Rules
This is a club-sponsored opportunity for you to do a bit of HF operating and to share your experiences with others. Although we will “keep score” to give the activity a bit of purpose it is not meant to be excessively competitive. It is more important that as many people as possible join in and add to the fun.
WHEN: 1st December 2010 to 30th May 2011, both dates inclusive. (Note 1)
WHERE: On any or all of the nine HF bands, 160 metres to 10 metres inclusive.
The experimental frequencies in the 5MHz region are not included.
POWER AND MODES: Restricted only by the terms of your amateur radio licence.
AERIALS: No restriction - use the best available to you.
SCORING: Each DX country (entity) may be worked once on each of the nine bands irrespective of the mode/power/aerial in use. Thus each country is worth a maximum of nine points for scoring purposes. Contacts must be made by you, using your own callsign, from your main station address. (Notes 2, 3 and 4).
REPORTING: Please report progress to G3XMM. The success of this activity depends on regularly updated information from those taking part. (Note 5)
Note 1: This period includes the spring equinox, a time usually favourable for working DX.
Note 2: Accurate exchange of callsigns and signal reports should be considered the minimum requirement for claiming a valid contact.
Note 3: Contacts should be made directly on a one-to-one basis without direct assistance from others. This precludes the relaying or repeating of real-time contact information by repeaters, internet links, other amateur stations or any other mode of indirect transmission. It also casts doubt on the validity of contacts made when operating as a member of a net. The use of DX spotting sites such as, for example, DX Summit is acceptable however.
Note 4: A DX countries list will be posted on the club notice board and there are several websites containing up-to-date lists. If in doubt regarding a particular prefix, please seek advice.
Note 5: Essential information is your updated number of countries on each of the bands you use. Detailed lists of countries are not required - we hope that you will be self-monitoring and claim only for countries that you know to be valid. Additional optional information such as rigs, aerials and choice DX would be interesting to others and will be included together with scores in a regularly updated table on the club notice board. The success of this activity will depend on people being prepared to let other club members know what they are doing.