K5ZD Announcements

JH5GHM Joins CQ WW Committee

I am pleased to announce that Katsuhiro “Don” Kondou, JH5GHM, has agreed to join the CQ WW DX Contest Committee. We have been looking for a JA representative to replace Tack, JE1CKA, since he left the committee last Fall.  Don has been helpful with the CQ WPX Contest and I am sure he will add a valuable Japanese perspective to the Committee.

Don received his first operator license in 1978 and soon got a station license (JH5GHM) in early 1979.  He started DXing and contesting in 1979. Like many of us, his first contest was CQ WW SSB.  “During my campus life in Tokyo Institute of Technology I devoted myself to contests as JA1YAD.  After graduation, my radio life…was totally dormant from early 90’s until 2010.  In the early summer of 2010, my wife woke my radio life up and rebooted me.  Since then I’ve been catching up on lost 20 years and trying to be in any of the major contests.”

Welcome aboard Katsuhiro-san.

 

Randy Thompson, K5ZD
Director – CQ WW DX Contest

K5ZD Commentary

Thank the Plaque Sponsors

One of the goals for many top level operations in the CQ WW DX Contest is to win a plaque. It could be for the World, or their continent, or country. This is something that shows real achievement and success in the contest. It also looks great on the wall of the shack to help explain contesting to family and friends.

The CQ WW is very fortunate to have individuals and clubs that are willing to sponsor these plaques. You can see the complete list of available plaques at http://www.cqww.com/plaques.htm. It is an impressive list and we are very appreciative of their support!

The CQ WW plaque program is administered by John, K1AR. He collects the money, helps select the award winners when we do the results, and he manages the detailed job of getting all the plaques mailed and shipped. Plaques in the US are mailed direct. Plaques outside the US go via a freight forwarder arranged through CQ Magazine.

If you are ever fortunate enough to win a CQ WW plaque, please take a moment to send a thank you note to the sponsor. It lets them know you appreciate their support. This encourages them to continue their support for the next year.

If you have any questions about the shipping status of a plaques, please contact John, K1AR, at k1ar@cqww.com. If you win, send John a thank you note too.

 

K5ZD Announcements

CQ WW Participant Survey

The CQ WW Contest Committee is conducting a survey to gather input from participants about various aspects of the contest. The answers will help us make decisions about the rules and future direction of the contest.

Anyone who has an interest in the CQ WW DX Contest may take the survey. Go to http://cqww2013.questionpro.com

Please take the survey only one time. The survey should take less than 10 minutes.

The survey provider recommends that you use a current web browser such as

Microsoft Windows
Internet Explorer Version 7 and higher
Mozilla/Firefox Version 2 and higher
Google Chrome All Versions
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Apple
Safari Version 3 and higher
Unix/Linux
Firefox Version 2 and higher

Use the default browser settings and please have Cookies enabled.

 

The survey will close on or before March 29, 2013.  Results will be published here on the CQ WW blog.

 

K5ZD Log checking

The Special Case of UA9

The CQ WW DX Contest uses the “DXCC entity list, Worked All Europe (WAE) multiplier list and IG9/IH9” to define country multipliers.

In late 2011 the the following announcement was made on the ARRL DXCC Blog :

“***1 December, 2011 forward, any QSO (with any date) with stations using the following prefixes, count for European Russia:***

Any call  with the prefixes UA through UI, or the prefix U,  and the numbers 8, and 9, followed by a suffix beginning with the letters F, G, or X (Perm and Komi).

Any call with the prefixes  RA through RZ, or the prefix R, and the numbers 8, and 9, followed by a suffix beginning with the letters F, G, or X (Perm and Komi).”

Since the CQ WW follows the ARRL DXCC list, we also changed our log checking software to count these stations for European Russia.

Why did the ARRL change this?  It is a complex topic and we can’t say for sure. It is believed that the SRR requested the change in an attempt to more closely align with the Ural mountains as the dividing line between Europe and Asia. Of course, this would be easier for us if the Russian call areas also changed.  They did not.

That same attempt to define the line between Europe and Asia also caused a small kink in the original WAZ zone map. Did you know there are also UA9 stations in zone 16?

The CQ WW zones are defined by the “Worked All Zones written rules.” They are found at http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_awards/cq_waz_awards/cq_waz_list.html

“Zone 16. Eastern Zone of Europe: EW (Belarus), ER (Moldova), UA1, UA2(except for RA2 and UA2-UI2), UA3. UA4,  UA5,UA6, UA7,UA9,UA9 (S,T,W), and UR (Ukraine).”

So…

UA9F is zone 17 in Eu Russia

UA9G is zone 17 in Eu Russia

UA9X is zone 17 in Eu Russia

UA9S is zone 16 in Asiatic Russia

UA9T is zone 16 in Asiatic Russia

UA9W is zone 16 in Asiatic Russia

Got that?  See the map below for a better view.

 

Don’t worry if you can’t remember the details.  Most UA9 stations do count as Asia. The CQ WW log checking software automatically calculates the scores for all logs submitted. We will make sure your log is calculated correctly including these special cases.