Section 10.1: DX and Contest Contacts #

When a rare DX station comes on the air, dozens or even hundreds of operators may call it at once. Working that pileup takes the same routine as a contest contact: listen first, call when the station is listening, and send the exchange the rules require. The contact itself may last seconds, but it sits between two other jobs. Before calling, you need to find the activity. Afterward, the log goes to the contest sponsor, and the contact may still need confirming for an award.

Find the Activity #

Contests don’t run on every HF band. By long-standing agreement, they leave out the three WARC bands, named for the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference that allocated them. Keeping those bands contest-free gives everyone else somewhere to go on a busy contest weekend.

Tune the FM repeater segment during a VHF contest, and you might never know one was running. Band plans set aside a weak-signal segment on each band for SSB, CW, and contacts beyond local range. Each has a calling frequency, such as 144.200 MHz on 2 meters, where stations find each other.

Key Information:
Amateur radio contesting is generally excluded from 30 meters.
During a VHF/UHF contest, expect the highest level of SSB or CW activity in the weak-signal segment of the band, with most of the activity near the calling frequency.

Make the Call #

If every caller transmitted on the DX station’s own frequency, nobody could hear its replies. A DX operator who sends “up five” is working split: keep receiving on the station’s frequency, and transmit 5 kHz higher. If the DX station transmits outside your allowed range, you can still listen there and reply on an allowed frequency within its listening range. Check which VFO controls transmit before you call. Calling on the DX station’s own frequency by mistake is a reliable way to hear a chorus of “UP!” from other callers.

Key Information: DX stations often transmit and receive on different frequencies to separate the calling stations from the DX station, improve operating efficiency by reducing interference, and accommodate callers who cannot legally transmit on the DX station’s frequency.

When you call, the DX operator needs your whole call sign, and you get only a moment to send it. A suffix alone can force another request for the rest of your call, while sending your call over and over wastes that moment. If the station answers someone else, listen through that contact; calling over it only slows everyone down, you included. If it answers you, send the required exchange and correct any copying errors before moving on.

In digital contests, the software must send the contest exchange in place of its usual report, which for FT8 and FT4 is a signal-to-noise ratio in decibels. VHF contests usually count grid squares toward the score.

Key Information:
When attempting to contact a DX station in a contest or pileup, generally identify your station by sending your full call sign once or twice.
When using FT8 or FT4 in a VHF contest, a grid square replaces the signal-to-noise ratio.

Save, Submit, Confirm #

Logging software may offer several export formats, and the job decides which one. You might submit a Cabrillo file to the contest sponsor, then export ADIF (Amateur Data Interchange Format) to merge the same contacts into your main station log.

Key Information:
The Cabrillo format is a standard for submission of electronic contest logs.
ADIF is a file format used for exchanging amateur radio log data.

Submitting a contest log doesn’t confirm any contacts for awards. The two stations confirm a contact separately, traditionally by exchanging QSL cards. A popular DX station can receive more requests than its operators could ever answer, so many hand that job to someone else.

Logbook of The World (LoTW), run by the ARRL, confirms contacts electronically when the records uploaded by both stations match. Your upload alone confirms nothing; the other station has to upload, too.

Key Information:
A DX QSL manager handles the receiving and sending of confirmations for a DX station.
Logbook of The World, or LoTW, can confirm special event contacts between stations in the US, contacts between a US station and a non-US station, and contacts for Worked All States credit.