December 2003 North American Meteor Scatter Contest

1. PURPOSE: to promote activity using meteor scatter propagation on the amateur VHF/UHF
bands using both scheduled and random techniques.

2. CONTEST PERIOD: Dates were chosen to make good use of the annual Geminids meteor
shower. The contest starts on Friday, December 12, at 0000 UTC and ends on Monday,
December 15 at 0700 UTC (Thursday evening through late Sunday evening, North American time.)
The first 30 minutes of each even-numbered UTC hour (00, 02, 04, …) are designated as “Random
Windows” in which non-scheduled QSOs are strongly encouraged (see section 4, below).

3. ENTRY CATEGORIES: Low Power or High Power, Single Band or Multiband: four categories
in all. Low power means less than 200 Watts output was used at all times.

4. VALID QSO TYPES: Any transmission mode (for example, FSK441, JT6M, CW, HSCW, SSB)
is permitted. The propagation mode for all QSOs must be meteor scatter. Contest QSOs cannot be
claimed within your own grid square or any of the immediately adjacent grid squares, including those that
touch yours diagonally at a corner.

Each QSO will be considered as being either “scheduled” or “random.” Random QSOs must not be
pre-arranged and must originate during the random windows. A random QSO is started during a
random window by calling CQ, answering a CQ, “tailending,” or moving a station to another band.
If a random QSO is followed immediately by a QSY to another band, a successful QSO on that band
also counts as random even if it begins after the random period has ended.

A given station may be worked for contest credit on each band in both scheduled and random modes.

5. EXCHANGE: Valid QSOs require the exchange of full callsigns, four-digit grid squares, and final
rogers. Any communication by non-meteor-scatter means during a contact invalidates the contact.

6. OPERATING PROCEDURES: Stations may use the internet, email, or other non-meteor-scatter
communication to make schedules or solicit contacts except for random QSOs initiated during the random
windows. During those intervals it is suggested that participants call CQ or answer CQs in a region +/- 10kHz
centered on the standard calling frequencies of 50.260, 144.140, and 222.140.

It is intended that random QSOs initiated during the random windows should be truly random. Real-time
self spotting or other indications that you will be calling CQ or listening on a particular frequency, etc., are
not in this spirit and are therefore forbidden during the random windows. After each random window has
expired, however, participants may post their results on Ping Jockey Central, www.pingjockey.net/cgi-bin/pingtalk.

7. SCORING: Scheduled QSOs count 1 point on 50 and 144 MHz, 3 points on 222 MHz, and 10 points
on 432 MHz. Grid multipliers are counted separately on each band. Random QSOs yield the same number of
QSO points as scheduled QSOs, but each random QSO also counts as a multiplier. Your final score is the
sum of all QSO points, multiplied by the total of unique 4-digit grid locators worked per band plus the number
of random QSOs.

Standard Rover rules apply for rover stations: rovers also get credit for each band-grid from which they
make a QSO.

8. REPORTING: Log information must contain the following data: date and time of QSO, callsign of station
worked, random or scheduled QSO, band, grid square, QSO points, and unique grids by band. For example,
the log of K0ABC might look like the following:

Date .....UTC......... Call .........R/S Band ....Grid ....Pts ....Grids
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dec 14 ....0103 ....W1ABC....S .... 144 ....FN42 .....1.... 144-1
Dec 14.... 0204 ....W1ABC.... R.... 144.... FN42 .....1
Dec 15.... 1225.... N4XYZ.... R.......50.... EM83..... 1.... ..50-1
Dec 15.... 1240.... N4XYZ ....R ....144.... EM83.... .1.... 144-2
Dec 15.... 1352 ....N4XYZ.... S ....222.... EM83.... .3 ....222-1
Dec 16.... 0203 ....W9JKL.... S ....144.... EN62 ......1.... 144-3
-----------------------------------------------------------------


The total score of K0ABC would be computed on his summary sheet as follows:

Band Scheduled Random QSOPoints Grids
------------------------------------------
50........ 0 ............1 ...............1 ...........1
144 ......2 ............2............... 4 ...........3
222 ......1 ............0 ...............3 ...........1
------------------------------------------
Totals ..3.............3 ................8 ....... ...5

Score: (8 QSO points) x (5 grids + 3 randoms) = 64


The following information should be contained on the summary sheet accompanying the log: Callsign used, Grid Locator, Power Category, Single or Multi-Band, Name, Address, and Email Address (if available).

Logs must be postmarked or email dated no later than January 12,2004. Email logs should be sent to [email protected]; paper logs should be sent to:

Louis R. Tipton
778CR123
Edna, Texas 77957

Please send in your score! It's very easy to do, and we want to have a good record of the level of activity in the event.

9. RESULTS will be posted on a pre-announced web site.

-- 73 from Joe/K1JT, Tip/WA5UFH, and John/N6ENU, for the WSJTGROUP, sponsors of this event.