ZRS MARATHON - OPEN ACTIVITY

RULES FOR VHF/UHF CONTEST

1. ORGANIZER is Zveza Radioamaterjev Slovenije (ZRS) and VHF manager.

2. PARTICIPATION - All licensed radio amateur stations in Region 1 can participate in the contest.

3. CONTEST DATES - Contest is divided into 10 activity periods starting with March and ending in December. Contest takes part during Sunday of the third weekend of the month.

4. DURATION OF CONTEST - Contest times are 09.00 to 14.00 Local Time (08-13 UTC during winter periods and 07-12 UTC during summer periods). UTC is to be logged in the contest log.

5. CATEGORIES

S5 stations:

A. 50 MHz, single operator, modes: CW (50,080-50,100),

CW/SSB (50,130-50.500) and

FM (F41-F59, except F51)

B. 144 MHz, single operator, modes: CW (144,035-144,150),

CW/SSB (144,150-144,399) and

FM (V16-V47, except V40)

C. 144 MHz, single operator, modes: FM (V16-V47, except V40)

D. 432 MHz, single operator, modes: CW (432,000-432,100),

CW/SSB (432,100-432,399) and

FM (U272-U287, except U280)

E. novice

F. 50MHz/144MHz/432MHz, multi operators, modes as for categories A, B and D

Non-S5 stations:

G. 50 MHz, single operator, modes as in category A

H. 144 MHz, single operator, modes as in category B

I. 144 MHz, single operator, modes as in category C

J. 432 MHz, single operator, modes as in category D

The band plan frequency segment allocations are to be respected by the contesters. Use of FM simplex channelisation of 10kHz on 50MHz and 12,5kHz on 144/432MHz is recommended. In the case of intolerable interferences channel separation of 20kHz on 50MHz and 25kHz on 144/432MHz can be used. Maximum transmitter output power should be in accordance with the participating station license.
Only one signal is allowed on each band at any one time.
Contesters can choose different locations for each contest activity period. Participating station must operate from the same location during the contest period.
Each station can participate in more than one category during the contest, i.e. in categories A, B or C and D (S5 stations) and G, H or I and J (non-S5 stations).
Categories can be freely changed from one activity period to another.
Club stations can participate in category F only (multi operators, all modes, all frequencies). Stations in F category must have all equipments for all three bands inside circle with 500m diameter.
In category E (novice) those entrants can be classified (on their own request) that are classified in any other category (B and C categories are excluding each other), and the operator owns his license for less than 3 years at the time of the first contest activity period.

Contacts made via satellites, moon (EME), meteor showers (MS), active repeaters, retranslators and crossband repeaters, do not count for points.

6. RULES REGARDING CONTEST CONTACTS - Exchanges during each contact shall consist of call sign, receiving report (RS(T)), serial number (starting from 001 on each band) and UL (universal locator). For contacts made in FM mode simplex channel number shall also be logged.
Making contacts in FM mode on simplex channels should follow the principle of the channel hand over (relay race), i.e. no more than two consecutive contacts can be done on the same simplex channel. The third contact on the same channel is allowed after the lapse of 10 minutes, unless the contact was made during this time on some other simplex channel.
After the changing the mode of operation between FM and SSB/CW the minimum time to be spent in the new mode is 10 minutes.

7. SCORING - Only one contact with the same station is allowed on the same band during the contest. All the duplicate contacts should be logged and clearly marked as duplicates.
All complete contacts will be scored according to the following principle:

- FM contacts counts 1 point per 1 km,
- SSB contacts counts 2 points per 1 km,
- CW contacts counts 3 points per 1 km,

Multipliers are different small S5 UL fields.

Final scoring for the particular contest period and category is done by multiplying the contact points by the sum of multipliers.

After the reception of the contest logs the contest committee will validate the multipliers of those S5 stations (their small UL fields) that appears in received logs of not less than five different stations.

Category F scoring (multi ops, all frequencies) is calculated in the following way: the 144MHz score is multiplied by 1, the 50MHz score is multiplied by the ratio of the best 144MHz score (in category B, C or F) and the best 50MHz score in category A, the 432MHz score is multiplied by the ratio of the best 432MHz score in category D to the best 144MHz score (in category B, C or F); obtained products are to be summed together.

Category E scoring (novice) is calculated in the similar way: the 144MHz score is multiplied by 1, the 50MHz score is multiplied by the ratio of the best 144MHz novice score and the best 50MHz novice score, the 432MHz score is multiplied by the ratio of the best 432MHz novice score to the best 144MHz novice score.

Final (yearly) results for each category will be done by summing 7 best contest periods in calendar year. For contesters that participated all 10 contest activity periods, the final scoring will be done by summing 8 best contest periods. Only those stations that sent logs for at least 3 contest periods in particular category will be placed in the final results in that category.

8. CONTEST LOGS - Contest logs are to be filled in standard form and for each band separately.

9. JUDGING OF ENTRIES - Disqualification of contacts will be done on the basis of incorrect contest exchange, time error of more than 5 minutes, violation of 10 minute mode change rule and violation of "relay race" rule. Participating station that roughly violate those contest rules can be disqualified.

10. LOG SUBMITTION - All logs are to be submitted within 7 days after the contest. Only the logs in EDI electronic format will be accepted. In case that the logging program does not support the entering of additional data into the log (simplex channel number) a separate file with QSO number/channel number pairs are to be sent (.TXT or .DOC or .XLS file). All the logs that will not be in an EDI format will be marked as such on the list of received logs. Those entrants can make necessary corrections within 5 days after the publishing of the list of received logs.

Contest log file name should indicate: call sign, contest period, category and file format.

Example: s59dtb4b.edi (s59dtb4b.txt for text file with FM simplex numbers)

Contest logs are to be sent to the address via web only:

http://slovhf.net/vhfmanager/

Reception of the logs will be confirmed by the contest committee.

11. RESULTS - The list of received logs will be published not later that 3 days after the log submission date. Preliminary results will be published not later that 12 days after the log submission date. Official web page of the contest is www.hamradio.si/zrsm. Any complaint should be sent within 5 days after the publication of the preliminary results on the web page. In case of no complaints those results become official results.
Complaints are to be sent to the address

ZVEZA RADIOAMATERJEV SLOVENIJE
Bezjakova 151
2341 Limbuš
Slovenia

or via e-mail to the address ZRSmaraton@hamradio.si.

12. AWARDS - plaque and certificate for the 1st to 3rd place, certificate for the 4th to 6th place. In case of not more than 10 entrants classified in particular category only plaque to the winner will be awarded. Contesters that will send logs for all 10 contest periods will be awarded special certificate.

Time and place for the awarding ceremony will be published on the official contest web pages.

13. FINAL CONCLUSIONS - The contest committee has the right for the final interpretation of those rules. All decisions of the contest committee are final.

Any further information or clarification you can get over E-mail address ZRSmaraton@hamradio.si or on ZRS WEB portal www.hamradio.si .