North American Sprint Contest ----------------------------- 1.ELIGIBILITY: Any licensed radio amateur may enter. 2.OBJECT: To work as many North American stations (and/or other stations if you are in North America) as possible during the contest. 3.ENTRY CLASSIFICATION: Single operator only. Use of helpers or spotting nets is not permitted. 4.CONTEST PERIODS. 0000 through 0359 UTC. Sprint dates are as follows: February 2000: SSB 0000 - 0400Z Feb 6 (Saturday night, February 5 local) February 2000: CW 0000 - 0400Z Feb 13 (Saturday night, February 12 local) September 2000: CW 0000 - 0400Z Sept 4 (Saturday night, September 3 local) September 2000: SSB 0000 - 0400Z Sept 11 (Saturday night, September 10 local) These are entirely separate four-hour Sprints. An entrant may submit scores for one or more Sprints, but he may not combine his scores. Note that the CW Sprint is first in September and second in February. 5.MODE: CW only in CW Sprints, Phone only in Phone Sprints. 6.BANDS: 80, 40, and 20 meters only. Suggested frequencies are around 3540, 7040, and 14040 on CW; and 3850, 7225, and 14275 on Phone. You may work the same station once per band. 7.EXCHANGE: To have a valid exchange, you must send all of the following information: the other station's call, your call, your serial serial number, your name, and your location (state, province or country). For example: N6TR DE K7GM 154 RICK NC K K7GM NR 122 TREE OR DE N6TR K 8.VALID CONTACT: A valid contact consists of a complete, correctly copied and logged two-way exchange between a North American station and another station. Proper logging requires including the time of each contact. Serial numbers must begin with serial number one (1) and must be sequential thereafter. Regardless of the number of licensed callsigns issued to a given operator, one and only one callsign shall be utilized during the contest by that operator. 9.NORTH AMERICAN STATION: Defined by the rules of the CQ WW DX Contests. 10.SCORING: Multiply total valid contacts by the sum of US States, Canadian provinces and other North American countries to get final score (do not count USA and Canada as countries). KH6 is not counted as a state and is not a North American country (but counts for QSO credir). The eight Canadian multipliers are Maritime (VE1, VO1, and VO2), VE2 through VE7, and Yukon-NWT (VY1 and VE8). Non-North American countries do not count as multipliers, but do count for QSO credit for North American stations. 11.SPECIAL QSY RULE: If any station solicits a call (by sending CQ, QRZ?, "going up 5 kHz," QRZ, or any other means of soliciting a response), he is permitted to work only one station in response to that solicitation. He must thereafter move at least 1 kHz before he works any other station,or at least 5 kHz before he again solicits other calls. Once a station is required to QSY, that station is not allowed to make another QSO on the vacated frequency until or unless at least one subsequent QSO is made on a new frequency at least 1 kHz or 5 kHz (as appropriate) from the vacated frequency. 12.ADDITIONAL RULES: Simultaneous transmission on more than one frequency is prohibited. All contacts must be sent and received using means requiring real-time human intervention, detection, and initiation. 13.REPORTING. CW Sprint entries must be sent to Mark Obermann, AG9A, 6713 Forestview Lane, Niles, IL 60714. Phone Sprint entries must be sent to Rick Niswander, P.O. Box 2701, Greenville, NC 27836. Entries must be received no later than 30 days after the Sprint to be eligible for trophies and awards. An entry consists of (1) a summary sheet showing the number of valid contacts by band, total contacts, total multiplier, total score, name, callsign and address of the operator, station callsign and station location, whether low power (150 watts or less) was used, and name used; (2) a complete, legible log of all contacts (including dupes marked as such) with indication by numbered sequence of each multiplier claimed. Logs, summary sheets, and check sheets may be home-made or patterned after those published periodically in the NCJ or available from the contest coordinators listed above. You are encouraged to send your log in computer readable form, either by diskette or by e-mail. If your log is submitted by diskette, the output from any of the popular logging programs is appropriate. Electronic summary sheets are required in case of electronic submission. If you are submitting your log by e-mail, send your logs to: CW Sprint Logs: cwsprint@contesting.com Phone Sprint Logs: niswanderf@mail.ecu.edu 14.TEAM COMPETITION: Team competition is limited to a maximum of 10 operators as a single entry unit. Groups having more than ten team members may submit more than one team entry. PRE-CONTEST REQUIREMENT: To qualify as a team entry, the name, callsign of each operator, and callsign of the station operated (if the operator is a guest at a station other than his own; e.g., W6AQ operated by WA6OTU), must be registered with AG9A for the CW Sprints or with K7GM for the Phone Sprints. The team registration information must be in written, telegraphic, spoken, or electronic form, and must be received before the start of the Sprint. Submission by e-mail to the appropriate address listed above is a valid means of submission as is a telephone call. There are neither distance limitations nor meeting requirements for a team entry. The only requirement is pre-registration of the team. 15.PENALTIES AND DISQUALIFICATION: For each unmarked duplicate QSO, you lose that contact plus an additional three contacts. For each QSO for which you are not in the other station's log, you lose that QSO plus an additional one contact. For each QSO for which the log data is incorrectly copied in any respect, you lose that contact. Entries with score reductions in excess of 5% may be disqualified. Any entry also may be disqualified for illegibility, illegal or non-ethical operation. Such disqualification is at the discretion of the NCJ Contest Review Committee. 16.AWARDS: A trophy or plaque will be awarded to the highest scoring entrant. Certificates of merit will be awarded to the highest scoring entrant from each USA or Canadian call district and other country, to each of the ten highest scoring entrants, to each member of the winning team, and to the highest scoring entrant on each team.