Trans Tasman CW & Digital Contest
CW and Digital competition
Contest Manager
Rob Glassey, ZL3AKM
This contest has been combined with the phone VK/trans-Tasman contests for 2012.
See the VK/trans-Tasman Contest page on the the WIA website for all details of the 2012 trans-Tasman CW and Digital contests.
Contest Introduction
2012 combined contest: (160m phone + 80m & 160m CW & Digital)
21 July 2012
Also note that the 80m phone contest is on:
12 May 2012
See the VK/trans-Tasman Contest page on the the WIA website for all details of the 2012 trans-Tasman CW and Digital contests.
2011 contests
This contest is based on the original VK/Trans-Tasman CW contests that were held separately as two of the four VK/trans-Tasman contests. In 2009 the CW contest was discontinued as part of the VK/TransTasman series, and this contest was introduced in their place. While there have been around 50 active stations the CW contests each year, the lack of submitted logs, and the structure of the scoring system made the past CW contests unviable. To address this, the Trans-Tasman CW & Digital contest aims to boost activity and contact rates by: introducing digital modes to the contest, and allowing stations to be contacted twice per hour (once on CW and once on digital). The use of CW software is actively encouraged to boost CW activity.
 80m CW & Digital Trans-Tasman contest : 14 May 2011
160m CW & Digital Trans-Tasman contest : 9 July 2011
0800 UTC-1300 UTC - 5 hours, in one hour blocks, with the best 4 hours counting towards the final score
The contest is open to all ZL and VK stations.
Categories are: Open (CW & digital), CW only, Digital only, and QRP (open).
Certificates are awarded for each category, as well as the top 3 places for ZL and VK regardless of category.
Points are awarded per contact depending on the QTH of each station. Unlike the original VK/Trans-Tasman Contest, there is no "participation factor" in these contests, instead the points tables have been adjusted accordingly.
Bonus points are awarded for groups of contacts with stations from different call areas, in the same manor as the VK/trans-Tasman contest. Groups are calculated by VKCL, and there is also a group calculator included in the Excel spreadsheets below. Contacts with stations in the less well represented call areas will often result in the ability to form an extra group and thereby gain bonus group points.
A "mode multiplier" was introduced from 2010, where the total score from the best four hours is multiplied by a factor based on the number of modes used in the contest. A minimum of 3 contacts must be made using the same mode for that mode count as a multiplier. [This has been reduced from 10 contacts] Any mode may be used however for the mode multiplier only CW, RTTY, and PSK are counted separately and all other modes are combined and treated as a single "other" mode. The mode multiplier is intended to firstly, encourage combined CW and Digital operation, and secondly, to make the digital aspect a little more interesting than a single mode PSK or RTTY contest, encouraging different modes to be used on both 80m and 160m. Although the lowest scoring hour does not count toward the best four hours total, these contacts do count toward the mode multiplier, allowing other modes to be tried without the penalty of reduced contact rates.
Aim Of The Contest
To revitalise the past VK/trans-Tasman CW contests, and to introduce a new and interesting trans-Tasman digital contest on both 80m and 160m. It is hoped that many digital ops will consider using CW as "another digital mode" for contesting, since many digital mode programs now support CW and actually work reasonably well. The rules have been devised to place emphasis on trying different modes for both 80m and 160m contesting.
This Years Winners
2010 results will be published soon!
Previous Years Winners
2009 Brief Results
Open
First Place - ZL1TM
Second Place - VK2CCC/Q
Third Place - VK2IM
CW
First Place - ZL1TM
Second Place - VK2CCC/Q
Third Place - VK2IM
Digital
First Place - VK1WJ
Second Place - ZL2T
Third Place - VK2KDP
QRP
First Place - VK2CCC/Q
Second Place - VK2IG/Q
Third Place - VK3TX/Q
VK
First Place - VK2CCC/Q
Second Place - VK2IM
Third Place - VK2IG/Q
ZL
First Place - ZL1TM
Second Place - ZL2AUB
Third Place - ZL2T
Best Final hour
First Place - ZL1TM
Note: All stations are eligible for the open category.
Contest History
The contest was first introduced in 2009 as an 80m only contest after the VK/trans-Tasman CW contests were cancelled.
Following feedback from the inaugural 2009 contest, the points table was modified to remove the participation factor, and extra incentives were added to promote the use of multiple digital modes as well as CW. The VKCL contest logger was updated to reflect these changes.
2010 also saw the reintroduction of the 160m contest, with extra points for long distance 160m contacts.
Upcoming Contest Date & Time
80m CW & Digital Trans-Tasman contest : 14 May 2011
160m CW & Digital Trans-Tasman contest : 9 July 2011
0800 UTC-1300 UTC - 5 hours, in one hour blocks, with the best 4 hours counting towards the final score
Contest Rules
Full rules can be downloaded below.
Note: Minimum number of contacts for a mode multiplier has been reduced to 3 contacts per mode. See full rules for more detail.
Contest Scoring
Full rules can be downloaded below.
Logsheets, a Summary sheet, and a group calculator spreadsheet are available for download below.
Submitting Your Log
Logs may be submitted by post, or by e-mail in Text (including VKCL output), or Excel XLS (no xlsx please), or as photos or scans of paper log sheets.
Log sheets and summary sheets are available for download below or from the contest web site in HTML and Excel XLS formats.
Log sheet column headings are specified in the rules below.
Please be sure to submit a summary sheet with the logs, showing the final score calculations, station call sign and all other information specified in the rules.
To assist with manual calculation of your score, the Excel spreadsheets below include score calculations, and a group calculator.
All logs are welcome, and the contest manager is able to assist with any queries regarding the scoring of the logs.
Postal address:
Trans-Tasman CW & Digital contest
PO Box 21-363
Christchurch 8143
New Zealand
E-mail Address: vktasman@robglassey.com
Contest Results
Results will be published here
Contest Award
Certificates are awarded for each category, as well as the top 3 places for ZL and VK regardless of category.
Logging Software
VKCL supports the 2011 CW & Digital Trans-Tasman contest. Be sure to download the latest version before the contest.
VKCL can be downloaded from: http://web.aanet.com.au/mnds/
Contest Sponsors
This contest is currently run independently by Rob Glassey, ZL3AKM
Files For Download
Page Last Updated: Monday 19 March 2012 at 9:40 hours
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