Amateur Radio contesting

When I tell friends that I enjoy amateur
radio contesting, their reaction is usually a quizzical stare.
"What's that?"  It is hard to explain in the span of a cocktail
conversation, so here is the answer:

Amateur radio is licensed use of radio communication for
personal satisfaction and public service. It has its own unique form
of competition.  Radio contesting, or "radiosport"
as it is known by some, offers an opportunity to demonstrate skills in station building,
operating tactics, physical endurance and strategy. Although strongly contested
by thousands of enthusiasts and casual participants, typical prizes are just
plaques, certificates, published score listings and the occasional bottle of
wine.  We do it more for personal satisfaction, the excitement of the
chase and the admiration of our peers than for any more tangible reward.

In a radio contest, a sponsoring organization designates a time period
ranging from a few hours to a full weekend during which amateurs in various
geographic areas will attempt to contact each other.  Each contact is
worth one or more points which are multiplied by the number of different places
contacted.  The highest scores in each of several entry categories win.

Each contest defines these "multiplier" places differently.
For example, in the ARRL Sweepstakes a place is one of 80 "sections"
of the US and Canada, each
section being all or part of a state, province or territory.  In
most worldwide contests, each country is considered a unique
multiplier.  There are fascinating strategies for deciding when to seek
new multipliers and when to make more contacts as quickly as possible.

Each contact is very brief, with the communicating stations exchanging only
a few prescribed tidbits of information.  Some contests allow multiple
contacts between the same pair of stations, provided each contact is on a
different frequency "band."  This makes sense because the
different bands often have dramatically different signal propagation characteristics.
(Consider, for example, the familiar AM and FM
broadcast bands in commercial radio. The FM band is purely local but at night
you can hear signals on the AM band from a thousand miles away.)  It is
not uncommon for a contestant to make several thousand contacts in the course
of a weekend contest.  There is nothing like the thrill of having station
after station respond to your calls, pushing your "rate" up to
several hundred contacts per hour.  Nothing, that
is, except the equal thrill of hearing a rare multiplier come back to you
through a "pileup" of a hundred or more stations.

The sponsor also defines different categories of competition.  The sine
qua non is Single Operator, All Band, often separated into High Power and Low
Power divisions, and these categories usually attract the largest numbers of
entrants. Some operate from their own home stations while others operate as
guests at other stations.  However, there are usually other categories
including various multi-operator team arrangements in which two or more
amateurs share operating responsibilities.  In the larger contests (those
with the most participants) there also may be Single-Band categories.
Some contest rules stipulate voice contacts only while others are for Morse
code or various digital communication modes.  Some involve multiple modes
at the same time.  All competitors contact each other during the contest
period, regardless of their categories, but the results segregate efforts in
different categories and award prizes accordingly.  It is somewhat like
age, gender and distance categories in citizen races.

Most worldwide contest communication is in English. However, the
required vocabulary is very small, under 100 words, so most amateurs in the
world are quite capable of competing without a significant language barrier.
This is even more the case when using Morse code.

Skill in radiosport comprises several
factors.  Most notable is operating ability - knowing where to tune the
radio, when to solicit callers, when to seek out others who are soliciting
calls.  This requires a knowledge of radio propagation, "good
ears" for separating multiple conflicting signals that are often weak or
compromised by atmospheric noise and fading, experience with the dynamics of
each contest and excellent hand-eye-ear coordination to move quickly around the
frequency spectrum, record contacts in a log, send Morse code or type or speak
clearly and rapidly and so on.  Some contests last as long as 48 hours and
become endurance sports.  The skills are demanding and hard to maintain
over such a long period with little or no rest.  The most serious
contesters, like athletes, train diligently between events.  Although
physical strength is not a factor, most of the other attributes of athletics
come very strongly into play.

As in car, boat or airplane racing, skills are not the only factors
determining a winning effort.  Equipment and location are also  very important.  In a radio contest, it is
common for several competitors to call the same station at once.  Although
timing is important in determining who gets through first, the most important
thing is to have the loudest signal.  This requires a good radio, the
maximum power allowed under the rules and, above all else, effective antennas.
Different types of antennas work best in specific locations and some locations,
say at the bottom of a deep canyon, are just hopeless for radio work.  A
winning station is well equipped, well maintained and endowed with a variety of
good antennas in a location that helps them to work well.

Modern contest stations include extensive computer automation. Computers
maintain the "log" of contacts which is submitted at the end to the
sponsoring organization for adjudication. That includes checking accuracy and
eliminating contacts recorded in error. Computers also check call signs to help
prevent duplicates during the contest, help to control the radios, send contest
exchanges without the need for speaking or manual sending and interface with
world-wide "spotting" networks that report the frequencies currently
in use by various participants. Modern contesting has been described as
"the ultimate, highly-distributed, multi-player computer game."
Recent experiments will soon make it possible to follow participants' scores in
real-time during a contest, potentially turning radio contesting into a
spectator sport, albeit of interest mainly to hams.

Most participants in contests, like citizen racers, have no expectation
of winning.  They operate from modest stations in unexceptional locations
for only a fraction of the contest period.  Yet the thousands of them who
get on the air for only a few hours of fun and practice make the
sport exciting for the hundreds who operate around the clock seeking a personal
best or a victory in their categories and locations.

Finally, I need to confess the deep, dark, secret shame of radio contesting
as a "sport."  There is no "level playing
field."  Because of the physics of radio signal propagation and the
demographics of the world, competitors in some locations can have a huge
advantage over those elsewhere.  A degree of
skill and effort that makes 1000 contacts from California
might well result in 4000 contacts from an identically equipped station on a Caribbean island.  Simple rule changes can not
"fix" this.  For this reason, most contest sponsors recognize
winners in different geographic areas such as the entire world, each continent,
each country, state or artificial section or zone.  This helps competitors
to compare their results with peers who are on a roughly equal geographic
footing, without denying that someone indeed "won the world."
It is far from perfect but it helps a lot.  It keeps the competition
interesting and the inequities have not discouraged thousands of amateurs from
participating enthusiastically.  In fact, some enjoy traveling to exotic
locations which offer an advantage as much as others enjoy building capable
stations and antennas at home.  A "contest expedition" is the
highlight of many contesters' year.  See the sidebar for some of my own
international radiosport adventures.

In an attempt to level the playing field and answer the urgent question
"Who is the best contester?" several groups have sponsored World Radiosport Team Championships, a contest within a
contest.  Each time, about 50 designated two-person teams gather in one
city to operate from very similar stations in the 24 hour worldwide IARU Radiosport contest.  Stations are assigned to teams by
lot and all have the same types of antennas and comparable locations.
This  evens things out substantially and there
have been some notable repeat winners and high place scorers, confirming what
we all knew - that contesting is a game of skill and stamina and that some
competitors stand head and shoulders above the rest.  See the sidebar.

Contesting is not for everyone and some hams eschew it as raucous and
annoying.  But to those who pursue it, contesting is the biggest challenge
there is in amateur radio.  And those who do it well tend also to succeed
in other areas of their hobby and in life itself.  If you are a
non-contester ham, give it a try.  If you are not a ham, consider becoming
one in order to pursue the excitement and challenge of radiosport.

by Rick Tavan N6XI