Greetings to all TopBand Operators, The Boring Amateur Radio Club is happy to announce the 18th running of the Stew Perry TopBand Challenge. It will be held publicly starting 1500Z 28 December to 1500Z December 29, 2013. This contest will utilize 160M only and requires the contestants to use CW or Morse Code. You have a bit over a month to learn the code if you'd like to participate. No semaphore, no SSB, no RTTY, no drones. Just good old fashioned dits and dahs floating through the cold darkness. 25 WPM is about right. The exchange is simply your call and your operating position's grid square. Signal reports are optional. This contest utilizes your transmit power and distance based mnemonic to arrive at your score. It is the fairest scored contest in the galaxy as you get more points for working another station very far away as compared to working somebody close. The rules live at: http://www.kkn.net/stew/ Amazing rules such as receiving 2X points for working a low power station and 4X points for working a QRP station are found here. So it does pay to turn up the hearing aids and ask just one more time for that weak whisper of a call that you might have heard. It also helps to send in your log even if you think it really doesn't amount to much as it helps the overall scoring process. Another facet developed by The Boring Amateur Radio Club is that all plaques awarded are dreamed up and sponsored by the radio contestants. If you think a category is important to emphasize and it could be discussed at a church social, then for the paltry sum of $60 you could have your call listed below with these Stalwarts of Contesting.
KL7RA Top # of QSOs KL7RA Top Score,S/O, North America W2GD Team Top # NA+SA QSOs by EU Station TF4M Longest QSO- both ends get a plaque- TF4M Top Score 160M mobile (station has to be able to move) N0TT Top Score <21 years old with > 200 QSOs N5IA Most Grids worked N5IA Top Score Daylight only( use a second call) KH6LC VL/ZL Challenge- Top Score VK/ZL K5WA Top Score S/O, Low Power, Americas K5WA Top Score S/O, Low Power, Europe If I have omitted anyone, please email me directly and I'll rectify things. If you have a category that you would like to sponsor, then utilize the address at the bottom of this note. Start now to obtain the time off from your usual duties. This year the contest is cleverly timed and just might be the needed tonic to get you through the grueling times typically known as the "Happy Holidays". The plaques for last year's Stew Perry TopBand Challenge sponsored by The Boring Amateur Radio Club, have been finished by the little old plaquemaker and will be sent out this week to the winners. Further email epistles will be forthcoming as the list of plaque donors grows and the categories that can be created by the brilliant minds of 160M radio operators will be displayed. 73 and I remain, Lew Sayre W7EW The Boring Amateur Radio Club Plaque Monger w...@arrl.net _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband