New Contest: GridLoc

[Robert Barron]

The first running of the HF Grid Location Contest will be
in April.  The rules were written in large part based on a
discussion about using grids that started here on the mail
reflector.  Here are the official rules.  Hope to see plenty
of activity on the bands.

------------------------------------------------------------

I. Announcing
    First annual GridLoc (Grid Location) contest.

II. Objective
    For Amateurs around the world to contact other 
Amateurs in as many Maidenhead grid squares as possible 
during the contest period.

III. Contest Period
    1200 UTC April 8 to 1200 UTC April 9, 1995 (Second 
full weekend of April).  All entrants may operate a total of 
18 of the contest's 24 hours.  Off periods must be no less 
than 30 minutes.

IV. Operator Classes
    There is only one power class (less than 150 watts).
    1. Single Operator, phone only, CW only and mixed 
mode.  One person performs all operating and logging 
functions.  Use of spotting nets, DX Alert Packet Systems, 
telephone, etc., is not permitted.
    2. Multi-Operator, Two Transmitter.  Mixed mode.  
Only 1 signal per band permitted.  Once a transmitter has 
made a contact on a given band it may not change to 
another band for at least 10 minutes.  All transmitters and 
receivers must be located within a 500 meter diameter 
circle or within the property limits of the station licensee's 
address, whichever is lesser.  The antennas must be 
physically connected by wires to the transmitter.
    3. Rover.  Mixed mode.  One or two operators of a single 
station moving between two or more grid squares during 
the contest, and making contest contacts, using the same 
equipment and antennas at each
site.  A rover station should sign "rover" after their callsign 
for voice and "/R" for CW.

V. Modes
    Contacts may be made using CW or SSB.

VI. Bands
    All HF bands (160-10 M) excluding the WARC bands 
(30, 18, 12 M).

VII. Valid Contacts
    A given station may be contacted only once per band 
from a given grid square.  Rover stations may be worked 
once per band in each grid square they visit.

VIII. Exchange
    All stations must transmit a proper Maidenhead grid 
square (ie. EM10) and an operator name.  If the 
maidenhead grid square is unknown stations may be 
counted for QSO credit only.

IX. QSO Points
    Count 1 QSO point for each valid contact made during 
the contest.

X. Multiplier Points
    Count 1 multiplier point for each Maidenhead grid 
square worked per band.  Stations not supplying valid 
Maidenhead grid squares do not count for multiplier credit.

XI. Final Score
    Total QSO points times the total multipliers equals the 
total claimed score for all entrants except rovers.  Rover 
stations must add the total number of QSO points from 
each grid,  add the total multipliers from each grid and 
multiply these to produce the final score.

XII. Score Submission
    Log submissions should be sent within 30 days of the 
end of the contest to:
Mail:   GridLoc             Internet:
    geoiii at bga.com
    P.O. Box 180703
    Austin, TX 78718-0703
GridLoc is an Open Log contest and all log submissions 
become the property of the GridLoc organizers.

XIII. Awards
    To be decided.

------------------------Q&A-------------------------------

Q.  Why use Grid Squares as multipliers?
A. More common than countries and zones,  Grid Squares 
provide a large number of multipliers which can be worked 
on each band.  This makes the flavor of this contest 
different from any other since WPX multipliers can not be 
worked on each band.

Q.  Why is the contest 24 hours long?
A.  To give everyone around the world equal opportunity to 
operate at peak propagation hours.

Q.  Why does it start at 1200UTC (7AM CST)?
A.  This start time gives everyone around the world ample 
time to get home from work on Friday and prepare for the 
contest the next day.  The contest ends before Monday all 
over the world.

Q.  Why limit stations to 150 watts of power?
A.  One hundred fifty watts is more than enough to work 
stations around the world.  Higher power would raise QRM 
levels on the bands and result in complicating the GridLoc 
rules with the additional categories.

Q.  Are there any DX awards for HF Grid contacts?
A.  Yes.  The Japanese Amateur Radio League offers the 
Worked All Grid award to Amateurs who work stations in 
100 or more Grids.  Endorsements are available for 
multiples of 100 additional grids.  For more information 
write to:
    The Japan Amateur Radio League, Inc.
    Award Desk
    14-2, Sugamo 1-Chome, Toshima-ku,
    Tokyo 170, Japan

Q.  Why are packet spotting systems not allowed?
A.  Packet is not allowed for single operators only.  If you 
wish to use packet spots from your home station your entry 
would be part of the multi-two category with "net" as the 
other operator.

Q.  What is an "Open Log Contest"?
A.  An Open Log Contest is a contest in which operating 
logs submitted for entry to the contest organizers are made 
available to the public.  It is the intention of the GridLoc 
organizers to make all of the submitted logs available 
electronically.  This allows everyone to study the 
techniques of the top scorers and to analyze logs using 
common software tools.

--------------------------------------------------------------

73,

Robert Barron, KA5WSS                 barron at rmc.liant.com
Liant Software Corporation            Hook 'Em Horns!

>From H. Ward Silver" <hwardsil at seattleu.edu  Fri Mar  3 17:23:11 1995
From: H. Ward Silver" <hwardsil at seattleu.edu (H. Ward Silver)
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 1995 09:23:11 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Clearing the Frequency
Message-ID: <Pine.3.07.9503030902.C22274-b100000 at bach.seattleu.edu>


> Properly done, injecting a tone into an SSB transmitter for CW produces
> spectrally the same thing as a keyed carrier, provided the carrier & unwanted
> sideband are far enough down.  
> ...if what comes out of the spiquet looks like
> CW, I'd call it CW - regardless how I made it.
>  

Yes, that's correct.  As K0KR pointed out to me, the Collins 32S-1 did
that exact thing.  If you read the rules, a keyed, single-frequency
sinusoid is considered CW and doesn't care if it's a single-frequency SSB
tone or keyed carrier.  However, putting out more than one tone is not OK,
such as multiple audio frequencies, noise sidebands, etc. etc.

> Oh yes, there's also no restrictions on which mode can be used where, too.

>From what I can hear over here on the West Coast, there doesn't seem to be
a whole lot of restrictions on whether you need a license to get on HF,
either ;-)

> a S5 or whatever right next to each other, they'll go for the VS6 everytime -
> all I need to do is keep calling CQ!

The great equalizer!

73, Ward N0AX



>From KAY, LEONARD" <LKAY at pria.com  Fri Mar  3 17:09:00 1995
From: KAY, LEONARD" <LKAY at pria.com (KAY, LEONARD)
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 95 09:09:00 PST
Subject: Numeric abbreviations
Message-ID: <2F578252 at pria.com>



>2-times-channel bandwidth be exceeded.  So it DOES work...all we have to
>do is come up with codes for all of the possible exchanges, say "dit" for
>      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>599, and we can compress the exchanges by a factor of 4 to 16.  Of course,
>   .....
>
>73, Ward N0AX

Hoa, wait a minute! This discussion is beginning to be reminiscent of
Magritte's famous painting, 'Ceci n'est pas un pipe'. Have we forgotten that
..... -. -. (or ..... ----. ----.) is *already* a code (just a very common
one) for '599', which is a set of three integers? Actually, '599' is a set
of three little patterns (another well accepted code) on your terminal 
screen
which represent the integers. :-)

The rules say to 'exchange a signal report and a three digit number
representing power'. They don't specify that Morse code must be used
(at least I don't think so, I don't have them in front of me), or that
any given language must be used on phone, for that matter. So the
discussion of the (in)correctness of cut numbers, ATT/5NN/KW/599/B , etc.
is irrelevant, because
.- - - / ..... -. -. / -.- .--
are just commonly accepted codes for the numbers 100, 599, and 1000,
respectively, no more or less 'correct' than
.---- ----- ----- / ..... ----. ----. / .---- ----- ----- -----
(Note that 1000,  a *four* digit number, is a well accepted code for '999')


Actually, while we're on the subject, why must the signal report be in RST
format? Why not 'E', 'K', and 'M' for '(E)xcellent', 'O(K)', and 'in the
(M)ud'? (well, maybe a more orthogonal set of letters from a coding
perspective, but we *are* trying to shorten exchanges here :-) )

A final note: I, personally, will *not* be trying to promote any new,
efficient contest exchange coding schemes this weekend. I'll be using
the dependable, well-established 'five-nine massachusetts', or,
occasionally, 'five-nine mike alpha' (is that legal?? :-) ) through the QRM,
at K1KP.

Go YCCC!

Len

 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 Leonard Kay, KB2R            | "But we are not dealing with the
 PRI Automation, Inc.         |  normal world. We are chasing DX."
 Billerica, MA 01821          |    -- W9KNI, 'The Complete DXer'
 Internet: lkay at pria.com      |
 PacketCluster: KB2R>K1EA     | #include <disclaimer.h>
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