Hi Folks-

Club competition gavels have been shipped out for the following events:

2006 10 Meter Contest

2007 RTTY Roundup

2007 January VHF Sweepstakes

2007 DX Contest

2007 June VHF QSO Party

2007 September VHF QSO Party

2007 November Sweepstakes

2007 160 Meter Contest

2007 10 Meter Contest

2008 RTTY Roundup

2008 January VHF Sweepstakes

This eliminates the gavel backlog I inherited and brings ARRL HQ up to date. I will strive to get gavels out to Presidents or Trustees of winning clubs in a more timely manner.

Hello, Fellow Contesters-

There has been a lot of discussion about the use of Skimmer in the upcoming IARU HF World Championship. The published rules for 2008 do not refer to "Skimmer," nor is there a Single Operator Assisted or Unlimited category in this event. For the 2008 event, any Single Operator station that uses Skimmer (and does not use spotting assistance) will be placed in the Single-Operator category.

The evaluation of the technology, as well as the integrity of the adjudication process, is of paramount importance to the Contest Branch. To make sure the results are generated properly, we require that all Single Operator stations using Skimmer make that statement in the Soapbox field in their Cabrillo header. For example, "Skimmer was used." is sufficient. Do not put such a statement in the subject or body of the email log submission - it will not be read. If the log checkers do not know that Skimmer was used, an incorrect conclusion as to entry class (e.g. Single Operator or Multi-Operator) may be reached, or a log could be subject to review by the ARRL Awards Committee, which could result in penalties up to and including disqualification.

This accommodation of Skimmer technology for the 2008 IARU HF Championship does not imply in any way the permanent acceptance of Skimmer's use in Single-Operator category operation in ARRL Contests. The technology will be evaluated and long-term rulings on how it may be used in this contest will be made in the 2009 rules or before.

Since there is no Single-Operator Assisted category, anyone using external assistance through packet or the internet should enter as a Multi-Operator entry, and, as in the past, the entry may be re-categorized or disqualified if assistance is not declared.

As with the 2007 IARU HF Championship, there will be continued emphasis on log adjudication in 2008. Stations claiming exceptional results should be prepared to have their log undergo thorough examination.

Hi folks-

Log-Checking Reports (LCR's) are now online for the 2007 IARU HF Championships. Go here to view your LCR.

If you are a non- W/VE station, send me an email and I will email your LCR to you.

LCR's have not been offered for the IARU HF Championships for several years. I hope to make them available regularly from now on. Thanks to Larry N6TW for making this possible.

Hello, Rovers!-

Since this weekend's June VHF QSO Party contest is the first with three Rover categories, I want to be sure you know how to electronically submit your Rover log in the right category. To do so requires that your log file contains the proper category description in the Cabrillo format.

Descriptions of the rover categories in ARRL VHF+ and UHF contests can be found in section 2.3 of the General Rules For All ARRL Contests Above 50 MHz, located at: http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/rules-vhf.html . The complete Cabrillo log file format specification is on-line at http://www.kkn.net/~trey/cabrillo .

Use the CATEGORY-OPERATOR tag to specify the number of operators in your Rover. The choices are SINGLE-OP, MULTI-OP or CHECKLOG. If you're roving by yourself, choose SINGLE-OP. If you have two operators in your rover operation, choose MULTI-OP. If you choose CHECKLOG, your log will be used in the contest adjudication process, but your score will not count.

Use the CATEGORY-STATION tag to specify your rover category. The choices are:

ROVER

ROVER-LIMITED

ROVER-UNLIMITED

There must be a hyphen between Rover and the words Limited and Unlimited.

Use the CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER tag to specify the number of transmitters that are simultaneously on the air. Your choices are ONE or UNLIMITED.

Use the CATEGORY-POWER tag to specify your power category. The choices for the Rover and Unlimited Rover categories are HIGH and LOW. Limited Rovers have the same power restrictions as Single-Operator Low-Power and must specify power as LOW. QRP is not a valid power selection for any Rover category. Remember that there will be no sub-division of the Rover and Unlimited Rover scores based on power.

Here is a sample Cabrillo 3.0 header for the June VHF QSO Party, using the bogus call "BØGUS/R" entering as an Unlimited Rover with two operators:

START-OF-LOG: 3.0

ARRL-SECTION: CT

CALLSIGN: BØGUS/R

CLAIMED-SCORE: 435

CLUB: None

CONTEST: ARRL-VHF-JUN

CATEGORY-OPERATOR: Multi-op

CATEGORY-STATION: Rover-Unlimited

CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: Unlimited

CATEGORY-POWER: High

NAME: Hawley Smoot

ADDRESS: 111 1st St.

ADDRESS: Bogus, CT 11111

ADDRESS:

OPERATORS: KX9X, NN1N

SOAPBOX: Gasoline sure is expensive!

SOAPBOX: Hilltops are good!

If your logging software creates a Cabrillo file version 2.5 or earlier, manually change the header to match the format in the example above. A Cabrillo file is just a text file; PC's that use Windows can edit text files in Notepad, found under Programs > Accessories.

As always, electronic log submissions in Cabrillo format for the June VHF QSO Party should be emailed to junevhf@arrl.org .

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at kx9x@arrl.org. Thanks for your support of the ARRL VHF contests, and be safe when roving this weekend.