K5ZD Announcements

CQWW Supports New Cabrillo CERTIFICATE tag

One of the most expensive aspects of operating a contest the size of CQ WW is producing and mailing paper certificates. Participants earn more than 2400 certificates on each CW and SSB. The cost to produce and mail the large size CQ WW certificates is significant. We know that some people enjoy receiving paper certificates and we remain committed to producing them.  However, the CQ WW DX Contest provides electronic certificates in pdf format for everyone that submits an entry; a faster and less costly way to deliver certificates to participants.

The World Wide Radio Operator Foundation (WWROF) recently took over the stewardship and administration of the Cabrillo log submission format. At the request of CQWW (and other contests), they have approved a new header tag that will allow participants to opt out of mailed paper certificates. This gives participants a way to tell us if they prefer going with electronic certificates.

CERTIFICATE: YES | NO
Indicate whether or not you wish to receive, if eligible, a paper certificate sent via postal mail. YES is the default.

If you do not want to receive a paper certificate, simply add this line to the header of your Cabrillo file:

CERTIFICATE: NO

If you want to receive a certificate, do not add the line or use CERTIFICATE: YES. We ask logging software authors to support the new tag with their next release.

If your software does not yet support the CERTIFICATE tag, you can easily add it using a text editor before submitting your log.

Complete information about the Cabrillo tags supported by the CQ WW DX Contest can be found at http://www.cqww.com/cabrillo.htm. Information about the Cabrillo standard is available from the WWROF web site at http://wwrof.org/cabrillo/

K5ZD Commentary

CQ WW 2013 Operating Stats

Mark ZL3AB posted the following to the cq-contest mailing list.

I was wondering what the average operating time in the CQ WW 2013 CW and SSB contests were for single operators. But although the operating hours were listed in the results database you could not sort on it.

Therefore I dropped the Single 2013 Operator All Band and Single Op All Band Assisted HP/LP/QRP results into a spreadsheet to figure it out. I left out the single band entrants as I felt it would distort the figures since many would have to stop when the propagation did.

Average hours

        Single Op   Single Op(A)  Overall
CW       17.4        18.1          17.8
SSB      14.7        13.8          14.2

Also 73% of operators operated for less than 24 hours in the CW contest with 79% doing so in the SSB contest. I did a break down on 6 hourly intervals:

CW 2013
Hours     SO     SO(A)     Overall
42-48    2.8%    3.2%       3.0%
36-41.9  4.0%    6.3%       5.0%
30-35.9  6.1%    8.2%       7.0%
24-29.9  11.5%   12.3%      11.8%
18-23.9  17.7%   16.8%      17.3%
12-17.9  20.2%   19.9%      20.1%
6-11.9   23.4%   20.0%      21.9%
0-5.9    14.3%   13.2%      13.8%

SSB 2013
Hours     SO     SO(A)     Overall
42-48    1.6%    2.0%       1.7%
36-41.9  2.4%    4.6%       3.2%
30-35.9  4.9%    6.8%       5.5%
24-29.9  9.3%    10.6%      9.8%
18-23.9  15.2%   15.0%      15.1%
12-17.9  19.7%   19.7%      19.7%
6-11.9   25.7%   23.4%      24.9%
0-5.9    21.2%   18.0%      20.0%

Interestingly there seemed to be no material difference in time operated in each category between single ops and single ops assisted in both contests.

 

Thanks Mark!

K5ZD Announcements, Rules

Final Rules Released for CQ WW 2014

The rules that will be used for CQ WW DX Contest 2014 have been released for publication. View the 2014 rules in English at http://cqww.com/rules.htm

There are only a few changes in the rules for this year.  Highlights of the changes include:

  • Addition of a low power class for the MULTI-ONE category. This will make it easier for small DXpeditions to compete without the need to carry amplifiers.
  • Minor changes to the club competition rules to change “DXpeditions” to “expeditions”.  This allows a club member to travel to other stations in the same country to count for the club score. This formalizes a practice that has been allowed for multi-operator entries for some time.
  • Specifies Web upload as the preferred method to submit logs. The web upload method has proven to be extremely reliable and it allows errors to the flagged immediately instead of waiting for the robot email response.
  • Added ‘not identifying in a timely manner’ to the list of unsportsmanlike conduct. It is strongly recommended that stations identify at least once per minute.

The rule changes were in response to requests that had been made over the past year. There were many other requests or suggestions that were not approved by the CQWW Contest Committee.

Translation of the rules into other languages should be completed before the contest in October.

Any questions or feedback about the rules should be sent by email  at: https://cqww.com/contact.

K5ZD Announcements

Preview of 2014 CQ WW Rule Changes

The CQ WW Contest Committee is pleased to provide a preview of the rules for the 2014 CQ WW DX Contest SSB/CW. This is a public review period to invite any comments before the final rules are announced on July 3, 2014.

Proposed changes:

  • Addition of new low power category for Multi-One
  • Minor clarifications to club rules to better explain the DX Club distance and also to not require expeditions to be to other DX countries
  • Web upload is now the preferred method for log submission. Email is still supported.
  • Added timely identification to the unsportsmanlike section

Click here to download the draft rules in Adobe pdf format:  cqww_rules_2014_draft_v3 (209Kb)

Please send any feedback  at: https://cqww.com/contact before July 1, 2014.  Thanks to everyone for their participation and support of the CQ WW DX Contest!