SECOND BALKAN HF CONTEST
15 February 2015
Rules
1. Organiser: Radio Amateur Association of Greece (RAAG)
The other Balkan Amateur Radio societies are kindly requested to organise 2016 contest.
2. Participants: Only radio amateurs from Balkan countries, which national Amateur Radio societies have been members of IARU*, i.e. with callsigns, starting with (in alphabetical order): 4O, 5B, 9A, C4, E7, ER, H2, J4, LZ, P3, S5, SV, SW, SX, SY, SZ, TA, TB, TC, YM, YO, YP, YQ, YR, YT, YU, Z3, ZA, ZC4.
3. Objective: To contact as many as possible radio amateurs from Balkan countries* (including own country) with as many as possible prefixes (see bellow).
4. Date and Time: From 12:00 UTC to 18:00 UTC (total 6 hours) on Sunday on second weekend of February. For 2015 it is 15 February.
5. Bands: 3.5 MHz and 7 MHz. Change of the band requires at least 10 minutes activity on the new band.
6. Modes: CW, SSB, Mixed.
7. Categories: Category A – Power permitted to the amateur according his/her license, but not exceeding 1000 W INPUT and Category B – Power not exceeding 10 W INPUT (QRP). The participants in this category transmit /QRP after their callsign (e.g. LZ1US/QRP).
8. Exchange: CW – RST report plus the consequent number of the QSO (e.g. 589023), SSB – RS report plus the consequent number of the QSO (e.g. 57006). In case of changing the mode or band the sequence of numbers continues.
9. Multipliers: Separately for each band – the number of Balkan prefixes contacted on the relevant band. For the purposes of this contest a different prefix is each callsign that differs in its first three marks. Therefore LZ6, LZ7, SV3, SV4, Z31, Z32, TA1, TA2 etc. are different multipliers, but LZ07KM counts as LZ0, YO2014A counts as YO2, ER650MD counts as ER6, etc. Participation from area with prefix different from original counts as that prefix (e.g. SV0XCA/5 counts as SV5).
10. Allowed contacts: Only one (1) contact with any station is valid on each band, independently on the mode (e.g. if LZ6Y makes a contact with ZA1RE on 7 MHz / CW, another contact between them on the same band, regardless on CW, or on SSB, shall not be valid; one (1) contact between them on 3.5 MHz shall be valid).
11. QSO Points: Each contact with category A station is worth one (1) point while each contact with category B station is worth two (2) points. Repeated contacts with the same correspondent on the same band are worth zero (0) points for both (initial and repeated) contacts. Contacts logged with more than 5 minutes difference from the real time are also worth zero (0) points.
12. Final score: The final score for both categories is the sum of QSO points on 3.5 MHz band, multiplied by the multiplier on this band, plus QSO points on 7 MHz band, multiplied by the multiplier on this band (e.g. if Z32TY has contacted 20 stations on 3.5 MHz, 3 of them QRP, number of contacted prefixes 15 and 25 stations on 7 MHz, 5 of them QRP, number of contacted prefixes 18, his final score shall be (17+6)x15 + (20+10)x18 = 345+540 = 885 points).
13. Classification: Separately for Category A and Category B. No difference between CW only, SSB only or mixed.
14. Logs: All times must be in UTC (GMT). Logs must be checked for duplicate contacts, correct QSO points, and multipliers. Electronic logs in Cabrillo format sent by e-mail are compulsory. Write down Balkan Contest and your callsign in Subject line. Submit your logs to the addresses in the Appendix.
15. Deadline: All entries must be sent by e-mail not later than one week after the date of the contest (i.e. on Sunday on third weekend of February at latest, for 2015 it is 22 February).
16. Disqualification: Violations of amateur radio regulations, the rules of the contest, unsportsmanlike conduct, use of any non-amateur means of contacts (such as telephone, Internet etc.) will be deemed sufficient cause for disqualification. The decision of the organising society is official and final.
17. Awards: Plaques will be awarded for top performance to first ten (10) amateurs in category A and first three (3) in category B, as well as best participant from each country. Winners in each category are promulgated Balkan HF Champions.
Appendix: Balkan Amateur Radio societies are kindly requested to organise next contests. Each society, that have agreed to be organiser of the contest, is consequently responsible for collecting the logs, calculating and announcing the results and dispatching the awards within one month from the date of the contest according the following list:
2015 – Radio Amateur Association of Greece (RAAG)
E-mail address for logs or other info: raag-hq@raag.org and copy to: panayotdanev@yahoo.com
2016 – To be announced
* For that contest the amateurs from the following Balkan countries, with national Amateur Radio societies members of IARU, have been allowed to participate (in alphabetical order): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, FYRO Macedonia, Greece, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey.
