Thursday, April 19, 2012

CQMM DX Contest





CQ MANCHESTER MINEIRA DX CONTEST – Rules 2012

The CQ Manchester Mineira DX Contest (CQMM DX Contest) is a continuation of the popular and successful Manchester Mineira All America CW Contest, being organized and established by the Group CWJF since 1993. The competition was initially limited to Brazil (1993-1996), later expanded to South America (1997-2006) and finally extended to the Americas (2007-2010).
From 2011, it becomes an international competition held among all continents.
The Liga de Amadores Brasileiros de Rádio Emissão (LABRE) supports the contest in accordance with the joint efforts of Brazilian ham radio, clubs and groups.
1 – OBJECTIVE:
a) Promote unity and integration of all hams in the world;
b) Promote conditions for obtaining 2 CWJF Awards and other awards that exist in Brazil;
c) Promote the art of the CW among the amateurs, clubs and groups that practice this mode in the world.
The city of Juiz de Fora is so-called "Manchester Mineira" (The Manchester of the State of Minas Gerais) for being one of the most industrialized cities in Latin America.
2 – DATE AND PERIOD OF CONTEST:
2.1) It is held annually on 3rd full weekend of April. (April, 21-22 ‘2012)
2.2) Start: 1200 UTC, Saturday; End: 2359 UTC, Sunday.
3 – MODE & BANDS:
3.1) Mode: Only CW (A1A);
3.2) Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters.
4 – CATEGORIES:
All categories below compete separately by continent: SA, NA, EU, AF, AS and OC.
4.1) SOAB – Single Op, All Band (HP, LP, QRP):
General settings:
- Only the participant will perform all functions relating to transmitting, and listening e logging of contacts throughout the contest period. You may not use outside help to achieve any QSO.
- The participant may change bands without restrictions. Only one signal can be transmitted at any time on any band.
- The transmitters and receivers must be located within a circle of 500 meters radius.
- All antennas used must be physically connected by wires to the transmitters and receivers used by the participant.
Division by Power Output:
- SOAB HP – Single Operator, All Band, High Power: the total power output shall not exceed 1,500 watts or limited to the maximum power output allowed by your license and/or the country in which you are operating from.
- SOAB LP – Single Operator, All Band, Low Power: the total power output shall not exceed 100 watts.
4.2) SOSB – Single Op, Single Band:
General settings:
- Only the participant will perform all functions relating to broadcasting, and listening to records of contacts throughout the contest period. You may not use outside help to achieve any QSO.
- The participant of the Single Band category can operate on all five bands, but it is mandatory to define in the log which band you are competing.
- QSOs made in more than one band should be included in the log, necessarily, to facilitate the process of cross checking, but the final score is only referring to the QSOs of the band chosen and reported in the submitted log. Other contacts will be considered check-log.
- The participant may change bands without restrictions. Only one signal can be transmitted at any time.
- The transmitters and receivers must be located within a circle of 500 meters radius.
- All antennas used by the operator must be physically connected by wires to the transmitters and receivers used by the participant.
The Single Band category will not have division by power output. The total power output shall not exceed 1,500 watts or limited to the maximum power output allowed by your license and/or the country in which you are operating from.
4.3) M/S – Mult Operator, Single Transmitter, All Band:
General settings:
- There is no limit on the number of operators. The station doesn’t need to be a Club or an Association, just to have more than one operator during the contest period.
- The main station can transmit at any time to CQ or respond to others CQs.
- The second station, called a "hunter" should seek new multipliers in a different band from the main station. Therefore, the signals in two different bands are allowed only if the hunter station is working a new multiplier.
- The “hunter” station cannot call CQ.
- The transmitters and receivers must be located within a circle of 500 meters radius.
- All antennas used must be physically connected by wires to the transmitters and receivers used by the participant.
- The Mult operator category will not have division by power output. The total power output per transmitter must not exceed 1,500 watts or limited to the maximum power output allowed by the license and/or by the country in which you are operating from.
4.4) SOAB QRP – Single Op, All Band:
- Same general settings listed under item 4.1;
- The total power output shall not exceed 5 watts.
5 – ALERT NETWORKS
The use of alert networks (for example DXCluster, Skimmer, etc) is allowed for all categories. Participants may receive information about callsign and frequency from Alert Networks during the competition, however it is strictly forbidden to solicit, by any means, that others announce yourself during the competition or make self-spotting on any Alert Network, for example DXCluster, Twitter, MSN, Skype, etc. Violation of this rule will result in penalties or even subject of disqualification.
6 – VALID CONTACTS:
- Are all QSO made between two participants of the contest and confirmed by cross-checking the received log.
- In the absence of the log of one part, shall be considered participating stations from competition those whose callsign appear in at least 5 logs received.
- Is valid only one contact per band with each station. All duplicate (DUPE) QSO on the same band worth zero point.
7 – CQ MESSAGE:
We suggest using the message "Test CQMM <your callsign>" for the contest, but is allowed the traditional format "CQ TEST <your callsign>.
8 – MESSAGE EXCHANGE:
Stations are not Members, QRP, YL and Group, must send only: RST + Continent (eg, 599 EU).
8.1) CWJF Members:
RST + Continent + M (eg, 599 SAM, 599 EUM);
8.2) QRP Stations:
RST + Continent + Q (eg, 599 EUQ, 599 NAQ – even if you are a member);
8.3) YL Stations:
RST + Continent + Y (eg, 599 OCY, 599 AFY – even if you are a member);
8.4) Mult Operator, Clubs or Groups:
RST + Continent + G (eg, 599 NAG, 599 SAG).
9 – QSO POINTS:
9.1) QSO with same DXCC worth 1 point on any band;
9.2) QSO with different DXCC, but same Continent worth 2 points on 10, 15 and 20 meters and points on 40 and 80 meters;
9.3) QSO with different Continent worth 3 points on 10, 15 and 20 meters and 6 points on 40 and 80 meters;
9.4) confirmed QSO with a CWJF Members, QRP stations and YL Operators worth 10 points at any band (regardless of country or continent);
9.5) Maritime Mobile Station (/MM) worth 3 points regardless band, country or continent the contact was made.
10 – MULTIPLIERS:
Will be used two types of multiplier for all Country and Continents:
10.1) All different worked South America PREFIXES once per band;
10.2) All worked DXCC once on any band (not per band).
Additional Information:
- Maritime mobile station (/MM), mobile station (/M), or additional letter indicating special operational condition (/A, /D), does not count as valid multiplier. For example: PY4KL/A
- The CWJF Group encourages the use of special prefix by ham radios from Brazil and other South American countries, mainly because they are valuable multipliers.
- Will be added a zero (Ø) after the second letter on those prefix without number, Example: ZP/PY4KL, the prefix will be considered as ZPØ only for log check propose. The participantshould not modify it on his log.
11 – FINAL SCORE:
For all stations (regardless of country or continent), the final score is the result of the sum of points obtained in each band, multiplied by sum of multipliers (SA prefix + DXCC countries):
Final Score = QSO points x (SA prefixes per band + DXCC any band)
Example: 400 QSO points x 50 mults (40 SA Prefixes + 10 DXCC) = 20,000 points as Final Score.
12 – PLAQUES, TROPHIES AND CERTIFICATES:
Plaques, trophies and certificates will be awarded to top 3 finishers in each category, separated by continents. These awards are sponsored by individual ham radio operators, Amateur Radio Clubs, Groups and Companies. If you want sponsor an award, please contact the CWJF Group. The World Champion winner in his category will not accumulate other awards by continent and country.
12.1) Plaques:
a) The station with the highest final score in each category will be considered World Champion and will receive a special plaque, regardless of the continent;
b) YL station with the highest final score will receive a special plaque, regardless her category (except for M/S) and Continent.
12.2) Certificates:
a) The three (3) stations with higher final score in each category (SOAB HP, SOAB LP, SOAB QRP, SOSB and M/S) in each continent, will receive a certificate indicating the score and classification, except the World Winners that will receive plaques;
b) YL station that obtains the highest final score on every continent, regardless of category (except for M/S), will receive a special certificate.
12.3) Brazilian Champion Plaque
The Brazilian Champion Plaque will be given to Brazilian stations with highest final score on Single Operator All Band and Mult Operator categories, since they are no longer continental winners.
12.4) CWJF – MANCHESTER MINEIRA TROPHY:
This trophy will be handed to the Club or Group that achieved for 2 consecutive years or for 3 alternate years, the highest final score of the contest. Will qualify for the final Club or Group score, the sum of the five (5) highest scores, defined as follow:
a) The station with highest score in the M/S category; plus
b) The four (4) stations with highest scores among the other categories (except M/S), regardless the Country where the operation took place.
c) If the Club or Group does not have any M/S participation, then it will be regarded as valid the five (5) highest scores among the participants of the club or group, regardless of category.
d) The Club or Group can not be a national organization (eg, ARRL, DARC, LABRE).
Note: Club or Group to which the station belongs must be declared in the log. All plaques, certificates and trophies will be sent free of cost to the Club or Group winner.
13 – DISQUALIFICATION:
13.1) Violating the law of Amateur Radio Service in the country which you are operating from;
13.2) Violating any part of this rules;
13.3) Self-spotting or arrange contact by any way (telephone, telex, internet, Packet Radio, etc.) during the contest;
13.4) Claims points by including excessive of QSOs and multipliers missing or unconfirmed;
13.5) Do not practice and/or do not promote Fair Play during the competition;
All of the above are grounds for disqualification, because our goal is to maintain fair competition and prevent operations or procedures unsportsmanlike. Decisions taken by the contest committee are final.
14 – DUPLICATE CONTACTS:
14.1) Duplicates contact are those made with the same station in the same band more than once;
14.2) It is recommend that duplicate contacts are retained in the log. Do not delete the duplicate contacts from your log.
15 – GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION OF LOG:
The CQMM DX Contest committee appreciates receiving your log in electronic format.
a) Please e-mail your log in Cabrillo format, which is the standard for competition logs and it is available in all major logging programs;
b) Name of your log file shall be <callsign-used.log>, example, py4kl.log;
c) In the Cabrillo header, specify your category and full postal address. Those information are vital for archive final results and sending back plaques, certificates and trophies. A written declaration is not required;
d) A log without all the information required may be regarded as checklog;
e) The times must be in UTC;
f) It is not necessary to calculate your final score. This will be done by our software verification;
g) The electronic log should be sent by email to: cwjf@cqmmdx.com and before submitting your log, be sure to put in the SUBJECT field the callsign used in the contest. The server will check the information in your log and acknowledge receipt by email within 48 hours;
h) You can also use the Web Form to create your Cabrillo log in the correct format (Cabrillo):
i) Paper logs must be made in chronological order. Each QSO must contain the call, time, band and complete exchange (sent and received);
j) The papers logs must to be separated by band and sent to: CWJF GROUP, PO Box 410, 36001-970 Juiz de Fora – MG, Brazil.
More info about how to send your log, visit our website: http://www.cqmmdx.com
We recommend use software N1MMLogger, select module CQMMDX, which gives full support to CQMM DX Contest participation. Or SD by EI5DI, beside It gives full support to this contest, It is fast and simple. Please, refer to software page for more informations about how to use a log software on the CQMM DX Contest.
16 – DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF LOG:
a) All entries must be sent or posted until May 31;
b) Logs sent or posted after the deadline will be listed on results, but they are ineligible for any award;
17 – STATEMENT:
By submitting your log to the CQMM DX CONTEST, you agree that:
a) You red and complied with the contest rules and agree to follow them;
b) You participated in the contest in accordance with all rules and regulations pertaining to amateur radio in his country;
c) Your log can be opened to interested parties by the Contest Organizing Committee;
d) All actions and decisions of the Committee are official and final.
18 – DISCLOSURE OF RESULTS:
The Board of CWJF is committed to announcing the result of the CQMM DX Contest no later than October, six (6) months before the next contest.
The results will be published on the CWJF Group Website:
19 – THANKS:
Your participation is very important to us. We are open to your criticisms and suggestions. Thanks for your valuable support. We all hope to see you actively participating in our contest.

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