[CQ-Contest] What Is a Contact?

[Larry N7DF]

I read the World Above 50 MHz column by W3EP in September QST with great interest.

The practice of so many stations of not sending their call with each contact has been a sore point with me for some time.

One thing he missed in his write-up is that sending your call with each contact is actually an FCC requirement.

  §97.119 Station identification. 
  (a) Each amateur station, except a space station or telecommand station, must transmit its assigned call sign on its transmitting channel at the end of each communication, and at least every ten minutes during a communication, for the purpose of clearly making the source of the transmissions from the station known to those receiving the transmissions. No station may transmit unidentified communications or signals, or transmit as the station call sign, any call sign not authorized to the station. 

If the contest sponsors were to do their job correctly, they would include this requirement in the contest rules and disqualify any station that violated it.  Likewise, DXpeditions should be disqualified from accreditation for violation of the requirement.

What I would like to see is a special group of Official Observers (or their equivalent) who would monitor contest operations and DXpeditions for violation of this FCC regulation.  If several such observers simultaneously reported repeated violations then the station should be disqualified.



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