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General Rules for All 1999 ARRL Contests

1999 Contest Calendar · HF Rules · VHF Rules

The Rules for ARRL Contests have been reorganized. On this and following pages you'll find general rules that apply to all ARRL contests, rules for contests on bands below 30 MHz, and on bands above 50 MHz. The reorganization makes the rules consistent between contests. This results in some changes. You'll want to read this carefully, and you'll want to bookmark this page of ARRLWeb for future reference.
With the general rules you'll find specific rules for Straight Key Night, January VHF Sweepstakes, RTTY Roundup, and the International DX Contest.
Rules for all 1999 ARRL contests are available on the ARRL Web site. -- Bill Kennamer, K5FUV, Membership Services Manager

1. Precedence of Rules:

Rules for individual contests or events (including Field Day) take precedence over all General Rules.
General Rules for HF and VHF contests take precedence over General Rules for all contests.

2. Conditions of Entry: Entrants agree to be bound by:

The provisions, and intent, of ARRL contest rules.
The regulations of their licensing authority.
The decisions of the ARRL Awards Committee.

3. General Rules:

All operators must observe the limitations of their operator licenses and station licenses at all times.
Call signs and exchange information must be sent, received, acknowledged, and logged correctly by each station for a complete QSO.
One operator may not use more than one call sign from any given location during the contest period.
The same station may be worked only once per band for contest credit.
A transmitter used to contact one or more stations may not be subsequently be used under any other call during the contest period, except for family stations where more than one call has been issued, and then only if the second call sign is used by a different operator. (The intent of this rule is to accommodate family members who must share a rig, and to prohibit manufactured or artificial contacts.)
All transmitters and receivers must be located within a 500-meter-diameter circle, excluding antennas.
1. This prohibits the use of remote receiving installations.
2. Exceptions:
  1. Stations remotely controlled by radio link may use necessary equipment at the control point. This does not include using the control point as another receiving location.
  2. Multi Operator and Single Operator Assisted stations may use spotting nets.
Cross-band contacts are not permitted.
Contacts made through repeaters, digipeaters, and gateways are not permitted.
1. This applies to all forms of active relays or repeaters.
2. Satellite contacts, where allowed, are not subject to this rule.
The use of non-Amateur Radio means of communication (for example, Internet or telephone) to solicit a contact (or contacts) during the contest period is not permitted.
Entrants who qualify for unsponsored plaques may purchase them from the ARRL Contest Branch.

4. ARRL Standard File Format: For Electronic Submission of Contest Entries.

All files must be in standard ASCII text format.
The log data file name shall consist of the call sign and the extension ".LOG" for example, K5ZD.LOG
The summary sheet file name shall consist of the call sign and the extension ".SUM" for example, K5ZD.SUM
Electronic entries should be sent via Internet to the appropriate e-mail address. The subject line must contain your callsign, contest, mode and class. For example, W1AW SS CW SO B. Do not send any other contest-related mail to this address -- only logs. All files must be sent as attachments.
1. They may be sent by mail to: ARRL Contest Branch, 225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111.
  1. Use an MS-DOS formatted disk, 3.5-inch (720-KB or 1.44-MB).
  2. Diskette labels should clearly indicate the call sign used, contest name, entry class, and date of the contest, as above.
  3. Include one entry only on each diskette.
  4. All diskettes become the property of the ARRL and are not returnable.
2. They may be sent by Anonymous FTP to ftp.arrl.org/logs/
  1. If you use an FTP client, FTP to ftp.arrl.org and change directory to /logs, with the command cd /logs.
The log file must consist of one line of data per QSO (no more than 80 characters wide), without headers, footers, page breaks or other non-ASCII characters.
All QSO data must appear in each line, aligned by columns, and must include:
1. band: wavelength for HF and frequency for VHF.
2. mode: designator such as CW, PH, etc.
3. date: in MM/DD/YY or DD/MM/YY format.
4. time: 4-digit UTC without colons.
5. call sign of station worked.
6. complete exchange sent.
7. complete exchange received.
8. indication of multipliers: for example an asterisk (*), section/prefix/zone, etc. for the first time the multiplier is contacted.
9. points claimed: ALL unclaimed QSOs must be "0" points.
Multi Operator, Two Transmitter category logs must indicate which transmitter made each QSO.
In contests that require rest periods, the "times on" and "times off" must be in a separate column.
A summary sheet is required with all logs, either an official ARRL summary sheet or a close facsimile with a signed contest participation disclaimer. The disclaimer is a statement of acceptance of the conditions of entry.
1. Electronic entries should include a summary file instead of a paper summary sheet. (The signature is not necessary on an electronic summary sheet (see Rule 2).
2. All summary sheets must include all pertinent information from, or requested on, the official summary sheet for the particular contest.

5. Paper logs:

Entrants must use ARRL contest forms, or reasonable facsimiles.
Contest forms are available:
1. For download at: http://www.arrl.org/contests/
2. By e-mail to info@arrl.org, include the following in the message body (the subject line is ignored):
  help index quit
Paper entries with more than 500 QSOs total must include cross-check sheets (dupe sheets).

6. Reporting:

Entries must be sent to ARRL within 30 days after each contest weekend. For paper entries, this is determined by the postmark.
Logs not sent by the contest deadline will be classified as checklogs; no extensions, no exceptions.
Entries received at ARRL more than 30 days after the contest deadline may not be included in QST listings.
All stations are requested to send their entries as early as possible and enclose each entry physically sent to ARRL (for example, CW and phone) in a separate envelope. Electronic files may all be attached to the same message.
To be complete, entries must consist of the log and summary sheet. (For electronic entries, you may ZIP the summary sheet file and the log file together using PKZIP.EXE or its equivalent, and upload your compressed file or upload the files separately.)
All operators of multi operator stations must be listed.
Entrants may submit contest entries as described in Rule 4.4
1. Entries sent by mail to: ARRL Contest Branch, 225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111, whether on diskette or paper, should include a paper summary sheet and signed disclaimer statement.

7. Disqualification and Penalties:

If the claimed score of a participant is reduced by 2% or more, the entry may be disqualified. Score reduction does not include correction of arithmetic errors.
Score reduction may be made for taking credit for unconfirmed QSOs or multipliers, duplicate contacts or other scoring discrepancies.
An entry with more than two-percent duplicate contacts left in the log or an entry in which more than 2% "rubber clocking" (altering the actual time to increase the operating time so that it is greater than the allowable limit) is detected will be automatically disqualified.
Participants that are disqualified will be barred from submitting an entry in the next annual running of that specific contest, for example, disqualification from the 1998 phone SS prohibits submission of an entry for the 1999 phone SS, but 1999 CW SS participation is allowable.
Call signs of all disqualified participants will be listed in the QST contest report.
Any participant on the borderline of disqualification, but not actually disqualified, may receive a warning letter.
For each duplicate contact that is claimed for credit and each miscopied call sign that is removed from the log by HQ, three additional contacts will be deleted as a penalty. The penalty will not be considered part of the 2% disqualification criteria.
In all cases of question, the decisions of the ARRL Awards Committee are final.

8. Club Competition:

Five ARRL-sponsored contests include an ARRL affiliated club competition:
1. January VHF Sweepstakes
2. (February and March) International DX Contest
3. November Sweepstakes
4. (December) 160-Meter Contest
5. (December) 10-Meter Contest
Only clubs actively affiliated with the ARRL may participate in the club competition. This means the club:
1. is affiliated with the ARRL.
2. has filed an annual report with the Field Services Department of ARRL HQ within the last two years.
For a club to be listed, the following conditions must be met:
1. At least three different entries from members of the club must be submitted.
2. All members wishing to be included in the club score must indicate the club name on their summary sheet.
3. The club secretary must send a list of all club members eligible to compete for the club (not a club roster) and which level (unlimited, medium, local) they wish to enter for each competition within 30 days after the contest.
4. A member's score must be shown in the contest results to be counted for a club. Only that score shown in the results (or in subsequent corrections) will count for the club competition.
There are three categories of club competition:
1. Unlimited
  1. Club submits 51 or more entries.
  2. One station can submit two entries -- one on CW and one on phone in the November Sweepstakes and the DX Contest.
  3. All stations and all operators must reside within 175 miles (282 km) of the club's center.
  4. All members must attend at least 2 club meetings per year to be eligible to submit an entry. (If, however, they have not been a member for a year's time, they must have attended a meeting as a member prior to the contest.)
  5. Those club members who are disabled in such a way that they are unable to travel are exempt from the two meetings per year rule but they must be regularly active in club affairs.
  6. To be considered bona fide, a member must be active in club affairs.
  7. Members living outside of 175 miles and members operating stations outside 175 miles may not compete in the club competition. (See rule 8.6.)
2. Medium
  1. Club submits 50 or fewer entries and does not qualify under the local club criteria.
  2. One station can submit two entries -- one on CW and one on phone in the November Sweepstakes and the DX Contest.
  3. The same mileage and attendance requirements apply as the unlimited class club.
  4. Members living outside of 175 miles and members operating stations outside 175 miles may not compete in the club competition. (See rule 8.6.)
3. Local
  1. Club submits 10 or fewer entries.
  2. One station can submit two entries -- one on CW and one on phone in the November Sweepstakes and the DX Contest.
  3. All members must reside and operate within 35 miles of the club's center.
  4. There is no attendance requirement.
  5. Members living outside of 35 miles and members operating stations outside 35 miles may not compete in the club competition. (See rule 8.6.)
Single Operator and Multi Operator station scores may be counted.
1. At a guest-operated single-operator station, both the guest operator and the station licensee must be members of the same club in order to count the score for that club.
2. At multi operator stations, at least 66% of the operators must be members of the same club for the score to count for that club.
3. A multi operator entry may (optional) utilize non-member operators licensed one year or less without including such operators in the above 66% calculation. (The intent here is to encourage clubs to recruit contesters from newer amateurs without adversely affecting the club aggregate score.)
For the ARRL International DX Contest, DXpeditions (operating outside the United States and Canada) scores may be counted for either single operator or multi operator stations even though the operation is outside the club's area.
1. For single guest operators at a DX station, only the operator must be a club member and meet all other criteria.
2. For multi operator stations, the score counts for only one club and at least 66% of the operators must be members of that club and meet all other criteria.
In conjunction with the two meetings per year rule, the club must hold at least four in-person meetings per year.
A club's entry classification may be changed if, in the opinion of the ARRL Awards Committee, the club has manipulated its number of entries to fall into a lower classification (for example, if a club with 100 members submits only the 10 highest scores, even if more than 10 of its members wish to compete.)
It is not within the intent of these rules that a club should vote out a member or that a member resign and then be voted back into the club later so the member-attendance rule can be met.
The highest scoring active affiliated club entry in each category (unlimited, medium, local) will be awarded a gavel.