North American SSB Sprints

Eligibility: Any licensed radio amateur may enter.




Object: For North American stations to contact as many licensed radio amateurs as possible. For non-North American stations to contact as many North American stations as possible.



Entry Classification: High power, low power (100W) and QRP (5W). Single operator only. Use of spotting information obtained directly or indirectly from any source other than the station operator, such as from other stations or automated tools, is prohibited.



Contest Periods:



September/October 2012 Contests:





CW: 0000Z - 0400Z September 9, 2012 (first Sunday following first Monday in September)

SSB: 0000Z - 0400Z September 16, 2012 (second Sunday following first Monday in September)

RTTY: 0000Z - 0400Z October 14, 2012 (Sunday of second full weekend in October)





February/March 2013 Contests:





CW: 0000Z - 0400Z February 3, 2013 (Sunday of first full weekend in February)

SSB: 0000Z - 0400Z March 17, 2013 (Sunday of third full weekend in March)

RTTY: 0000Z - 0400Z March 10, 2013 (Sunday of second full weekend in March)





These are entirely separate four-hour Sprints.





Mode: CW only in CW Sprints, SSB only in SSB Sprints, RTTY only in RTTY Sprints.



Bands: 80, 40 and 20 meters only. Suggested frequencies are around 3540, 7040 and 14040 kHz on CW; 3850, 7225 and 14275 kHz on Phone; and 3580, 7080 and 14080 kHz on RTTY. You may work the same station once per band.





Exchange: To have a valid exchange, you must send all of the following information: the other station's call, your call, your serial number, your name and your location (state, province or country). You may send this information in any order. For example:



N6TR DE K7GM 154 RICK NC K

K7GM NR 122 TREE OR DE N6TR K

Valid Contact: A valid contact consists of a complete, correctly copied and logged two-way exchange between a North American station and another station. Proper logging requires including the time of each contact. Serial numbers must begin with serial number one and be sequential thereafter.



North American Station: Defined by the rules of the CQ WW DX Contests. Note that KH6 is not in North America.



Scoring: Multiply total valid contacts by the sum of U.S. states, Canadian Provinces and other North American Countries to get final score (do not count USA and Canada as countries). District of Columbia counts as Maryland. KH6 is not counted as a State and is not a North American country (but counts for QSO credit). The eight Canadian multipliers are Maritime (VE1, VE9, VO1, VO2 and VY2), VE2 through VE7, and Yukon-NWT (VYØ, VY1 and VE8). Non-North American countries do not count as multipliers, but do count for QSO credit for North American stations.



Special QSY Rule: If any station solicits a call (by sending CQ, QRZ?, "going up 5 kHz," or any other means of soliciting a response, including completion of a QSO where the frequency was inherited), they are permitted to work only one station in response to that solicitation. They must thereafter move at least 1 kHz before calling another station, or at least 5 kHz before soliciting other calls. Once a station is required to QSY, that station is not allowed to make another QSO on the vacated frequency until or unless at least one subsequent QSO is made on a new frequency.



Additional Rules: Simultaneous transmission on more than one frequency is prohibited. All contacts must be sent and received using means requiring real-time human intervention, detection and initiation. Each operator must use only one call sign during the contest.

Log formatting: All logs must be submitted electronically (web upload, e-mail, CD, 3.5-inch floppy, etc.). The file format for electronic logs for NCJ-sponsored contests is Cabrillo (Version 2.x or 3.x). Entrants who do not use computer logging are encouraged to use the manual log entry web-to-Cabrillo on-line forms available at the links given below to enter the QSO info from their paper logs.



Log Submission: Entries must be received no later than 7 days after the Sprint. Methods of log submission in order of preference are as follows:



Upload Cabrillo-formatted log via web form (preferable):

All modes: Upload Logs



E-mail log (ASCII text file):

CW: cwsprint@ncjweb.com

SSB: ssbsprint@ncjweb.com

RTTY: rttysprint@ncjweb.com



Mail CD or 3.5-inch floppy disk, containing ASCII log file, to the appropriate address listed below.



Manually convert paper log to Cabrillo log using one of the following tools:

CW: CW Web-to-Cabrillo Form

SSB: SSB Web-to-Cabrillo Form

RTTY: RTTY Web-to-Cabrillo Form



Mail original paper log to the appropriate address listed below. Send CW logs to: Boring Amateur Radio Club

15125 Bartell Road

Boring, OR 97009

USA

E-mail: cwsprintmgr@ncjweb.com



Send SSB logs to: Chris Tate, N6WM

12450 Del Valle Rd

Livermore, CA 94550

USA

E-mail: ssbsprintmgr@ncjweb.com



Send RTTY logs to: Ed Muns, WØYK

P.O. Box 1877

Los Gatos, CA 95031-1877

USA

E-mail: rttysprintmgr@ncjweb.com





Team Competition: Team competition is limited to a maximum of 10 operators as a single entry unit. Groups having more than ten team members may submit more than one team entry. To qualify as a team entry, the team registration form on the NCJ web site must be completed before the contest starts. Use one of the following links:

CW Team Registration: http://www.ncjweb.com/cwsprintteamreg.php

SSB Team Registration: http://www.ncjweb.com/ssbsprintteamreg.php

RTTY Team Registration: http://www.ncjweb.com/rttysprintteamreg.php



Penalties and Disqualification: Contacts with incorrect received information will be removed. Contacts not found in the other station's log will be removed with a one QSO penalty. Entries with score reductions in excess of 5 percent may be disqualified. Any entry may also be disqualified for illegibility, illegal or unethical operation.

http://www.ncjweb.com/sprintrules.php?page=1