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General Challenge Rules The NAQCC started its monthly challenges in October 2004. Unless it has been copied by other clubs, this activity is unique in the ham radio community and we are proud of it. Each month we offer a challenging goal for members to try to accomplish. (In June there is an additional Field Day challenge.) Non-members are welcome to participate in these challenges as well but they are not eligible for any certificates or prizes. Besides providing a fun activity to participate in, it is our goal to use these challenges as a way to promote CW and QRP activity across the ham bands. General Rules: The following rules apply to our challenges: 1. All challenge QSOs must be CW (both stations) and YOU must be running at QRP power. The stations that you work can be using any power level. We will accept entries from non-members and/or QRO stations for listing in the results but thay will not be eligible for a participation point or certificate. 2. Any and all bands may be used for the challenge. 3. No contest or sprint QSOs may be used. This includes contests or sprints that you are "not participating in" but where the other person is participating. In other words, if either station is working the contest it's considered a contest QSO. - QSOs with special operating events or stations such as the ARRL International Grid Chase, the 13 Colonies event, a local club's Memorial Day event, etc., are not considered to be contests and may be used for challenge credit. - QSOs that are primarily designed to collect things like SOTA or IOTA locations, FIST or SKCC membership numbers, etc., if not part of an actual ongoing contest like SKCC's WES, are also allowed and may be used for challenge credit. 4. With the exception of our special Field Day challenge, our challenges are month-long events and QSOs from any time during the month (UTC) may be used for completing the challenge. 5. Probably our most popular challenges are Alphabet challenges where the goal is to spell out a specified list of words using the letters (and sometimes numbers) that are in the callsigns of the stations that you work. For these challenges the following rules apply: - Each letter in the callsign may be used twice but you may not work the same station a 2nd time in the month to "harvest" additional letters from the call. (Exceptions to this would be anything similar to the W1AW centennial event in 2014 when W1AW operated from several different call areas during a month. For example, W1AW/2 and W1AW/5. In this case the calls were considered to be two different stations and 8 "W"s and 4 "A"s were available for use. The same principle applies to any other station that operates from different call areas during a month.) - The letters and numbers in slash-extensions cannot be used unless they indicate a specific operating location. For example the extension letters cannot be used in K3WWP/M, K3WWP/QRP, K3WWP/P, and K3WWP/AE. But the extension letters can be used in K3WWP/VE3, VP5/K3WWP, and EA6/K3WWP. In something like EA3/K3WWP/M the EA3 can be used but the M cannot. - Sometimes challenge phrases are more than one word long. When this happens ignore the spaces between words. For example, if the challenge phrase is "INVERTED V ANTENNA" you need to submit calls to make "INVERTEDVANTENNA" as if it were a single word. - When you email your alphabet challenge submission be sure to send it as a simple text file with each challenge word on a seperate line and with the calls making that word typed horizontally in that same line. For example: WORD - K3WWP, N2OD, WA8REI, N2OD NEXT - NF8M, W8REI, N8XMS, K9EYT - Some computer tools are available to help your with your alphabet challenge work. See the Alphabet Challenge Tutorial page. 6. Special rules that apply to specific challenges will be included on the individual monthly challenge pages. 7. Challenge reports must be RECEIVED by the 10th of the month following the challenge. Logs: Send your results following the specific instructions on the challenge page to: Charlie Wilber N1AOK - E-mail: charlie.wilber AT gmail.com (You must type that address into your email program.) Subject must read: (your call) NAQCC (month) Challenge For example: K3WWP NAQCC February Challenge Awards: Certificates are issued to members who complete the challenge and submit their report by the deadline. |