Intent
The intent of this contest is for participants to complete contacts with as many stations as possible using meteor scatter propagation via MSK144 and/or FSK441.
Operators are expected to use their good judgement to log completed contacts that have been made by legitimate meteor scatter propagation only.
Eligibility
Any Amateur Radio licensee in North America as defined by the ARRL DXCC List.
Contest period
August 12, 2022, 15:00 UTC – August 14, 2022, 14:59 UTC (end time last completed QSO).
48 hours. Stations may operate 36 of the 48 hours – off times must be a minimum of 60 minutes during which no QSO is logged.
Categories
Only three single op categories. Stations can participate in one category only.
Category 1 – Low Power (100 watts or less used on all contest bands)
Category 2 – High Power (Greater than 100 watts used on one or more contest band)
Category 3 – Rover
Bands and Modes
50 MHz, 144 MHz, and 222 MHz .
Contacts may be made with MSK144 and/or FSK441.
Exchange
Callsign and 4-character Maidenhead grid-square locator. (Signal reports are optional)
Scoring
All logs will be scored by the contest manager using 6-character grid locators (sub-square) supplied from your station information in your log even though the contest exchange is the 4-character grid square.
The 6-character grid locator (sub-square) for stations that do not submit a log and/or stations that fail to provide the sub-square information within the log submission will be derived from the station address or user supplied data from the QRZ.com database. In cases where this information cannot be found, the center of the 4-character grid with sub-square “mm” will be used for calculations.
All stations may be worked once per band per 4-character grid location.
High Power and Low Power stations my not change locations during the contest.
Rovers may only operate from one location within any 4-character gridsquare that they activate.
Each contact counts for QSO points of distance multiplied by a Band Factor as follows:
Distance
The distance is calculated in km (rounded up) between the center of the sub-square locator from the applying station to the center of the derived sub-square of logged stations
Contacts made with stations outside theoretical limits of less than 500 km and greater than 2400 km will scored with a distance of 1 km.
Band Factor
| Band | Band Factor |
| 50 MHz | 1 |
| 144 MHz | 2 |
| 222 MHz | 3 |
Final scoring
The total score is the sum of all points you received for all completed QSOs.
Example- KV5W in EM22vh log scoring:
| Band | Call | Grid | Derived Subsquare | km | Band Factor | Points Awarded | Notes |
| 50 | AA4ZZ | EM96 | EM96DF | 1228 | 1 | 1228 | |
| 50 | AA5AM | EM13 | EM13SG | 236 | 1 | 1 | < 500 km (1km x band factor) |
| 50 | W0ZQ | EN34 | EN34IT | 1393 | 1 | 1393 | |
| 50 | W8RU | EN82 | EN82FN | 1476 | 1 | 1476 | |
| 50 | WQ0P | EM19 | EM19XF | 787 | 1 | 787 | |
| 50 | AG6EE | CN91 | CN91LM | 2576 | 1 | 1 | >2400 km (1km x band factor) |
| 144 | AA5AM | EM13 | EM13SG | 236 | 2 | 2 | < 500 km (1km x band factor) |
| 144 | K9MU | EN44 | EN44HT | 1412 | 2 | 2824 | |
| 144 | N4IS | EL96 | EL96UB | 1518 | 2 | 3036 | |
| 144 | W5EME | EM32 | EM32AI | 24 | 2 | 2 | < 500 km (1km x band factor) |
| 222 | AA5AM | EM13 | EM13SG | 236 | 3 | 3 | < 500 km (1km x band factor) |
| 222 | K2DRH | EN41 | EN41VR | 1106 | 3 | 3318 | |
| 222 | KC0P/R | EN33 | EN33MM | 1252 | 3 | 3756 | No log -center of grid used |
| 222 | KW4BY | EL96 | EL96VW | 1478 | 3 | 4434 | |
| 222 | NV4B/R | EM54 | EM54VS | 620 | 3 | 1860 | |
| 222 | W5EME | EM32 | EM32AI | 24 | 3 | 3 | < 500 km (1km x band factor) |
Score = 24124
Logs
Logs must be Cabrillo file format and submitted via e-mail.
Your log must be received before August 21, 2022, 23:59 UTC.
Logs received after the deadline will be considered as checklogs.
Submit logs to: contest@kv5w.com ; Subject: NAMSS “Your Call”
Assure your log submission contains at least the following:
- Your call, name, address, 6-character maidenhead sub-square locator and category you participated in.
- Logged QSOs must contain at least: date, time (UTC), calls, and contest exchanges. Logged QSOs are not required to contain 6-character sub-squares for each contact.
No need for distance calculation as all distances will be calculated when processing your log.
Reception of a log will be confirmed via email.
Stories and pictures are welcome for the soapbox.
Assistance conditions to be observed
All entrants are permitted to use spotting assistance or nets including but not limited to DX-alerting nets, internet chat rooms, APRS and other packet, reverse beacon networks and repeaters to identify stations available for contacts and to announce their availability for contacts.
Announcements shall be limited to call sign, location, band or frequency, mode and if applicable — transmitting sequence and listening direction.
These methods of spotting assistance may also be used to coordinate antenna peaking prior to initiation of the contact and to explain contest rules, such as the exchange required, for those who need clarification.
Such assistance may not be used to facilitate the completion of any contact once the contact has commenced. This means such assistance may not be used to convey receipt or non-receipt of any required element of a contact or to request a repeat of any required element of a contact.
Acceptable examples:
- “Shall we make a sked on 144.170?”
- “I have QRM, let’s move to 50.255 MHz and start again from the beginning”
- “Nothing received, please try again” and the QSO starts again from the beginning
- “Thank you for the QSO” – Note: Only after the QSO has completed via RF
Unsportsmanlike conduct can be ground for disqualification. Also, you agree to have the log open to the public which might result in publishing your log.
Winner of the contest
The winner of the contest is the station with the most points. There will be a winner in all three categories. If two stations in a category have the same amount of points, the position will be shared.
Certificate
All stations will receive a digital certificate showing the Category and ranking achieved. The certificate will be sent via email.
Results
The results of the North American Meteor Scatter Sprint will be published online (TBD)
Additional Operating and Entry Restrictions (adapted and modified from the ARRL VHF contest rules)
- Call signs and exchange information must be sent, received, acknowledged, and logged correctly for a complete contact.
- An operator may not use more than one call sign from any given location during the contest period.
- Alternating CQs on two or more frequencies within same band is prohibited.
- Transmitting on more than one band simultaneously is prohibited
- Alternating transmissions on different bands is acceptable and SO2R or SO3R operation is encouraged
- Each contact must include contemporaneous direct initiation by both operators making a contact.
- Initiation of a contact may be by either local or remote control.
- Only one transmitted signal (or data stream) per band is permitted at any time.
- Your submission of a log entry affirms that: (1) you have abided by all the rules of the contest as well as those of your country’s licensing authority and license privileges; (2) you accept any decisions made regarding your entry by the contest’s adjudication process which are official and final.