WRTC 2006 Rules

WRTC 2006 Contest Rules

1. Contest Period

The WRTC 2006 will be run within the IARU 2006 HF Championship.
Start: Saturday 08-July-2006 1200 UTC (0900 Local time)
End: Sunday 09-July-2006 1200 UTC

WRTC 2006 Operating Time: The contest will last 24 hours.
Each station can operate the full 24 hours, with no breaks.

2. Frequencies/Bands

Only the 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz bands will be used during the contest. For CW, it is highly recommended and for SSB you must operate within the following ranges:

3. Modes

Both CW and SSB modes.

4. Language

Only English language and common international abbreviations can be used, when operating either SSB or CW.

5. Contest Exchange

WRTC stations send signal report plus ITU zone. (Southern Brazil is ITU Zone 15). A complete exchange must be logged for each valid QSO.

6. Valid QSOs

The same station can be worked once on CW and once on SSB on each band. Cross-band or cross-mode QSOs are not allowed.

7. Requesting QSOs and Disqualification

Requesting QSOs, e.g. setting schedules, in any way, before the contest period is strictly forbidden. The Team contest stations must be QRT for the last 10 minutes prior to the contest start. This means that no operator may be on the air from the contest site during this 10-minute period, under any callsign whatsoever. The radios need not to be switched off, but the volume must be turned fully down, and no monitoring is allowed. Note, the 10 min. rule refers to Team contest stations only and not to the MN MS stations.

The operators are not allowed either to identify themselves, or the teams they belong to.

Use of non-amateur radio media (e.g. telephone, Internet, smoke signal or drums) for the purpose of identification or requesting a contact (or contacts) before or during the contest period is strictly forbidden.

Use of packet cluster or any other spotting network is not allowed. For the MN MS stations the use of Cluster is permitted, but self spotting is clearly not allowed.

The WRTC Contest is the Ham Radio Olympic Games and to maintain the spirits and rulings that this name carries, the Judging Committee will disqualify a team that violates the rules of the contest; shows unsportsmanlike conduct; takes credit for excessive unverifiable QSOs or unverifiable multipliers.

In line with this philosophy the WRTC 2006 Honorary board, together with previous WRTC events organizers and some international contest organizers are elaborating a WRTC CODE OF ETHICS containing the basic ethic principles and rules for the WRTC competition. Some of those principles and rules should be applied already in WRTC 2006. We intend to announce this document in due time before the WRTC 2006.

8. Logging

Computer logging is required.

Each WRTC 2006 team must submit their Cabrillo file to their Referee within fifteen (15) minutes after the contest has ended (see further paragraph 18).

We highly recommend all competitors to use Writelog. The WRTC 2006 committee has decided to use the standard IARU contest scoring and multipliers, therefore no special version of the logging programs will be required or provided. Other Logging software, capable to handle the IARU contest can also be used. In all cases, the competitors must satisfy themselves with its IARU contest and Cabrillo capabilities, the Committee does not assume any responsibility on the conversion into Cabrillo.

The 10-minute band and mode rules do not apply in the WRTC contest, but it applies to the MN MS stations.

The use of the ‘Super Check Partial’ tool is not allowed. If the logging software incorporates this kind of feature, it must be disabled. Use of any callsign database during the contest period is not allowed as well.

On the other hand, the computer may display a ‘Check Partial’ list based solely upon the callsigns already worked during the contest.

9. Callsign Allocation

ANATEL, the Brazilian Entity responsible for the telecommunications in the country, will provide a special callsign for each team. The callsign assigned to the competitors will be the special prefix plus one single letter. i.e. PT5A, ZW5B.The process to assign the stations will be a lottery Friday prior the contest. The calls will be given to the teams, at the station before the contest.

10. QSO Points

Each correct two-way CW or SSB QSO with stations located:
– In ITU Zone 15 counts 1 point.
– Outside ITU Zone 15 and within South America counts 3 points.
– Other continents count 5 points.

11. Multipliers

The total number of ITU Zones plus IARU member society HQ stations on each band will count as multiplier, once per band regardless of the mode. IARU officials represent a maximum of four multipliers per band (AC, R1, R2 and R3).

IARU member society HQ stations and officials do not count for zone multipliers.

12. Penalty

A one-QSO penalty will be assessed for a miscopied callsign.

13. Score

The final score will be the total number of multipliers multiplied by the sum of QSO points.

14. Winners

The WRTC 2006 winner will be the team with the highest score.

The WRTC 2006 SSB Winner will be the team with the highest SSB score.

The WRTC 2006 CW Winner will be the team with the highest CW score.

The WRTC 2006 Young Team Winner will be the team with the highest score.

The WRTC 2006 M/S Winner will be the Multi National (MN MS) team with the highest score

As WRTC is a mixed mode contest, it is required that; to qualify as a winner in SSB or CW a minimum of 35% of the total number of QSOs must be made on the other mode.

15. New Special Category – MN MS

A new special category is created, inviting foreigners and Brazilians to form Multi National Multi Single (MN MS) teams to operate from selected (10 to 15) Contest Stations placed in Southern Brazil.

The MN MS stations will be equipped with rigs, linear amplifiers and antennas of the owner’s station plus equipment brought by the participants. Since the MN MS stations are not equal (location and equipment), the WRTC 2006 Committee will make a lottery for assignment of the foreign operators to the stations. The lottery will be made and the assignments will be published no later than 3 months before the WRTC contest. The station can be upgraded with equipment and peripheral devices brought by the foreign operators, we highly encourage such upgrades. We emphasize the objective to really have an integration of different nationalities and a spread of contest experience at each station to facilitate international understanding and share experience.

The teams should have no more than five (5) operators composed of at least one foreign operator and at least two Brazilians operators. This means that a team will have no less than three and no more than five operators.

The rules for this category are the IARU contest rules and not the ones for WRTC, so there are no limitations on antennas and the maximum legal power is permitted. The logs must be sent as Cabrillo files to the WRTC Committee within 2 hours after the contest to logs@wrtc2006.com and according to the IARU contest rules to IARUHF@iaru.org.

16. New Category – Special Sponsored Teams

Through generous financial support and important cooperation, the WRTC 2006 Committee has been able to invite two special teams; the YL Team and the Special Young Team.

To promote the desire to enlarge the participation of Ham Ladies in international contest activity, as suggested by the sponsor 4L5A, we opened a slot for a Young Lady (YL) Team.

The Special Young, team (sponsored by the YASME Foundation) is to further promote the younger generation’s contesting involvement, this in addition to the already established three Bi-National Young Teams.

17. Requirements, Judging and Referees

All decisions of the WRTC 2006 Judging Committee are final.

The WRTC competition is a very peculiar contest, and the present and previous organizers have tried to elaborate the rules to accommodate a 48 hours result announcement with the traditional long-term announcement procedures.

All the log checking systems developed till now, requires the majority of the logs to be inserted in a data base for further checking. In the WRTC competition the available logs are very limited, and we must mitigate the chances to have unfair results. For this particular reason we intend to improve the system by providing:

• A special “Log Checking Committee” will use all existing resources and already existing software for an accurate checking process.

• Requirements for each team to provide recording (digital or analogue) of all operation time (up to 24 hours), excluding MN MS teams.

• Referees with high level of Contests experience (CW and PHONE) and committed to act during all the 24 hours. MN MS teams have no Referees.

• Several promotions to motivate the world contest community to send logs by e-mail immediately after the contest to logs@wrtc2006.com. The WRTC 2006 Committee also have an agreement with ARRL to receive logs arriving the first day after the contest.
• Full transparence of the competitor logs open to the contest community through Internet.
• The use of last technology generation SW for log checking procedures.
• Establishment of a high experience “Judging Committee” ,acting together with the”Log Checking Committee”

The Judging Committee will have the following responsibilities:

• To train and instruct the Referees.
• To clear up any Referee’s doubts.
• To collect all files from the foreign contesters and to insert those logs into the database.
• To collect all the Cabrillo files from the competitors (delivered by the Referees).
• To collect the recordings of the contest (delivered by the Referees) and ensure that play-back of the recordings can be done after the contest.
• To collect, on hourly, basis the scores from the competitors and to feed the Scoreboard. (claimed scores).
• To announce the final results

The Log Checking Committee will have the following responsibilities:

• To insert all Cabrillo files received from competitors into a database.
• To process the UBN for each one of the logs
• To calculate final scores for each Team and feed the result charts.
• To release to WRTC 2006 Steering Committee all the results, logs, and UBN to be published on the WRTC 2006 page

To elaborate these rules, The WRTC 2006 Committee is getting total support from the previous WRTCs committees and also from participants from previous competitions. With this support we shall introduce new rules for this and future WRTC events to make contesting more fair to everyone. The Committee has always been open to adjust and improve the rules if so required and is to benefit of the contest.

18. WRTC 2006 Station Setup

The WRTC 2006 organizers provide:

— A tri-band beam for 10/15/20m with a PL259 male connector + a 2 element 40m beam with a PL259 connector;

— Tower: 15 meters plus a 3 meter steel pipe for the two beams;

— A rotator and its control for the tri-band plus the 40 meter band beams;

— A wire antenna for 80M with a PL259 male connector;

— Special dedicated antenna switch.

Each participating WRTC team must bring everything else needed for the station.

Each WRTC 2006 station will have two radios (A and B). The radios must be named as radio A and radio B before the contest begins. All QSOs must be made on radio A. The operation rules for radio A and B are detailed in item 18. Radio B can be changed to become radio A only in case of malfunction and as approved by the referee.

Due to the distance from the Ham population and the propagation situation, the WRTC 2006 will provide a Linear Amplifier for each station. ACOM International Inc. has supplied the amplifier ACOM 1010 with a specified power output of 700 W PEP or 500 W continuous carrier. The functionality of the amplifier will be verified before the contest and changed if necessary but can not be changed during the contest.

Band-pass filters are allowed for both radio A and radio B.

Two networked PC’s are allowed. (PC-A at Radio A, PC-B at Radio B). The PC’s must be named as PC-A and PC-B before the contest begins.

The teams must provide equipment and recording of the all the WRTC contest operation. Both received and transmitted audio of Radio A (any VFO used). During the whole contest operation, the Referee must be able to monitor this traffic through Radio A, in real time.

Other related equipment for automation is allowed. The final station design and auxiliary configuration shall be presented to the WRTC Technical Committee no later than 06-May-2006 for final review and acceptance.

Teams may reorient and adjust the wire antenna at any time, as long as the feed line is not extended.

The WRTC Committee will arrange permits for temporary import of radios, PC’s and auxiliary equipment.

Before the competition the Teams are allowed to use third party technical support to organize and install the station, as well to install and test software or other permitted devices and peripherals.

During the Contest the Referee is entitled to permit repair of equipment eventually damaged during the operation. This actuation must be done outside of the operation room and can be done by third party.

19. Operating

	The chart below defines the rules for RADIO, COMPUTER and OPERATOR A and B.
	OPERATIONAL RULES A B R A D I O Allowed to transmit Full Reception Allowed to use band-decoder Allowed to use audio and RF filters Can share audio with Radio B Must share audio with Referee, any VFO used Can be replaced by Radio B (In case of Radio A failure) Not allowed to transmit Full reception Allowed to use band-decoder Allowed to use audio and RF filters Can share audio with Radio ACan replace Radio A (In case of Radio A failure) C O M P U T E R Computer must have minimum spec. as required Fully interconnected with Computer B Key Radio A (CW and SSB) Can exchange messages with Computer B Must record whole contest on Computer A or B Voice and CW Keyers are allowed. Super Check Partial is not allowed Log must be converted to Cabrillo format after the contest Computer must have minimum spec. as required Fully interconnected with Computer A Allowed to key Radio A (CW and SSB) Can exchange messages with Computer A Must record whole contest on Computer A or B Voice and CW Keyer are allowed. Super Check Partial is not allowed O P E R A T O R The main operator of Radio A Operators can change position (chair) at any time Allowed to populate the band-map Can exchange messages with operator B Must share audio with the Referee throughout the contest.Can share audio at any time with Operator B Is not allowed to key Radio B Can operate any of the allowed devices Can control and operate Radio A. and log the QSO. Operators can change position (chair) at any time Allowed to populate the band-map Can exchange messages with Operator A Must share audio of Radio A with the Referee. Does not share audio of Radio B with the Referee Can help Operator A to copy callsigns Can share audio at any time with Operator A Is not allowed to key Radio B Can operate any of the allowed devices
	Note: The competitors can use other device than the computer A or B to make the recording of radio A audio in the contest (transmit and receive). The competitors must submit to the Referee at the end of the contest, the Cabrillo file with the log and the audio recording on a Disk and/or CD and/or USB Memory stick. The USB memory stick password (if used) must be disabled and the file names clearly indicated. Return of media shall be coordinated with the Referee. If other media shall be used, it must be described in the station configuration design (see paragraph 18).
	Station Connections
	All participants will be provided a detailed diagram for the setup, at least 4 months before the event.
	In case of malfunction, the faulty equipment can be replaced with spare equipment, except the Linear Amplifier. If such spare equipment deviates from equipment in the standard configuration to be presented to the WRTC 2006 Technical Committee (see paragraph 18), then the spare equipment and its configuration must also be specifically described.

20. Family Entertainment

The participants are encouraged to bring their family members, i.e. spouses and young children. Florianopolis is a very beautiful city with a fantastic nature with plenty of nice beaches and the WRTC 2006 organization committee, will provide special entertainment for them while you are contesting. For those who want to stay longer in the region we will be pleased to provide help and support for additional programs.

WRTC 2006 Contest Rules – Amendment No. 1

Audio Recording