[CQ-Contest] When does the sprint end?

[Tree]

On Sun, Feb 13, 2005 at 02:18:46PM -0600, Scott Neader KA9FOX wrote:

> Hi again.  I have a question regarding something that happened to me last 
> night.  If you start the QSO during the 03:59z minute, one person sends the
> exchange during the 03:59z minute, and the other guy starts sending his
> part of the exchange during the 03:59z minute, but doesn't unkey until
> after the second hand swings past 04:00z... is this still considered a 
> valid QSO?
> 
> The second after any contest ends, you hear lots of guys finishing up their 
> QSO in progress.  Are these all illegal QSOs?  My guess is technically yes, 
> but not really against the spirit of the contest nor unethical, and so they 
> are likely OK.
> 
> Or maybe there is some unwritten rule that says you can finish the QSO you 
> started, if the QSO started before the end of the contest?
> 
> Guess I've wondered this for a long time, but have never taken the time to 
> ask someone in the know.

Well - there isn't a published answer to your specific question - but it
has been discussed in the hallways on Dayton by some of the sprint 
champions.

The consensus is that if you follow these guidelines, you should be 
okay:

1. It isn't a good idea to call CQ so close to the end of the contest
that you can't resonably expect to finish the QSO before the clock
ticks over at 0400:00:00.  The contest does not end at 0400:59.

2. If you are in the middle of a QSO - and it takes a little while to
finish it - that is okay.

3. If you do finish a QSO after 0400:00:00, it is okay to log it as
0359 in your log (the time the QSO started taking place).  If you 
leave it as 0400 - it will still count, but the robot will likely 
complaing about this QSO.

4. If you have two QSOs that appear in your log with 0400 as the 
time, the second one will likely be removed from your log as we 
don't understand how that can happen without the second QSO starting
after 0400:00:00.  Note that SO2R guys could technically be starting
a QSO before 0400:00:00 - before their 2nd to last QSO was finished,
but we think this violates guideling #1 above.

5. From time to time - there is some monitoring done on 80 meters
that starts after 0400:00 - and anyone found CQing will likely get
a note from the sprint log checkers.  If a QSO actually takes place
as a result of the CQing - it will be removed from both logs.

This is a good enough of a question to have the answer posted to
the cq-contest reflector - and so it shall.

73 Tree N6TR
tree at kkn.net