80m Phone Saturday 10th May 80m CW Saturday 24th May 160m Phone Saturday 5th July 160m CW Saturday19th July Phone: 08:00 UTC -1400 UTC CW: 09:00 UTC -13:00 UTC
Each evening is a separate contest. Each hour is scored separately. The best 5 hours count towards the final score for phone (best 3 hours for CW).
For the full rules refer to the contest web site: http://home.iprimus.com.au/vktasman/
The VK/trans-Tasman contest is a unique and enjoyable series of short contests over the winter months. Originally inspired by our own Memorial Contest, the VK/trans-Tasman contest goes beyond local contests to focus on more challenging trans-Tasman low band activity. The 160m contests are probably the biggest nights of the year for 160m activity with many good stations active on both sides of the pond.
The unusual scoring system adds a unique and interesting flavour to the contest. It is intended to create a level playing field by compensating for factors such as distance, local operating times, and the number of stations active in each country, while providing incentives to make trans-Tasman contacts.
Scoring is based on points for each contact, plus bonus points for groups of contacts within the same zone. There are no multipliers. The four zones are ZL, VK east, VK central, and VK west, with VK central made up of VK5, VK8, and VK4 north of the tropic of Capricorn.
Contact points For: Points ZL: 3 points VK east: 10 points* VK central: 12 points* VK west: 15 points*
* VK contact points are adjusted after the contest by multiplying by the “participation factor” (number of ZL stations / number of VK stations) - typically 0.5 to 0.2. This is intended to account for the greater number of VK stations compared to ZL stations. The more ZL stations, the higher our scores! VK stations only get 2 points for VK contacts, for the same reason, while they also have fewer opportunities to work high value ZL stations.
Group points
Bonus points are scored for groups of contacts, with each station in a group having a different prefix/call area. For example, a group can be made from a ZL1, ZL2 and a ZL3 contact. All contacts in a group must be from the same zone and the same hour.
Group points for ZL stations: 3 contacts, each with different ZL prefixes: 18 points 3 contacts, each with different VK east prefixes: 30 points 2 contacts, each with different VK central or VK west prefixes: 30 points
Finding the best groupings for the maximum number of groups is not always straight forward. For example:
Prefix ZL1 ZL2 ZL3 ZL4 Contacts 2 2 4 3
Making 2 groups, each with a ZL1, ZL2, and a ZL3 contact, leaves only ZL3 and ZL4 contacts remaining, so no more groups can be made. However if contacts are grouped differently, more groups are possible.
Make only one group at a time from contacts with prefixes that you have worked most often. Sort the prefixes after each group has been made to determine the remaining most worked prefixes and try again. In the example above, 2 groups can be made from contacts with ZL1, ZL3 and ZL4, leaving contacts with enough prefixes to make another group from ZL2, ZL3 and ZL4 contacts.
A group calculator spreadsheet is included with the ZL3AKM log sheets on the contest web site.
QRP
Contacts with QRP stations (5 Watts) are worth an extra 2 points each, while QRP stations score another 2 points for every contact they make.
Top scoring
With typical participation factors, ZL and VK contacts are worth roughly the same per contact, however VK groups are worth the same as 10 ZL contacts! With fewer ZL stations, there are fewer ZL groups to be had, but it is well worth trying to get the maximum number of ZL groups each hour by working as many 'rare' ZL prefix stations as possible.
Logs
ASCII or Excel electronic formats are generally fine. Paper logs are also welcome. The VK4SN logger (excel spreadsheet) has been especially designed for this contest and is available from the contest web site.
It helps to have summaries for each hour including the number of contacts made in each call area (prefix), and the number of QRP stations contacted. Manual log sheets and the ZL3AKM summary table are available from the contest web site.
When working out your own score, please keep VK contact points separate from other points, ideally breaking the score down into ZL contact points, VK contact points, Group points, and QRP points. The participation factor is then applied to the VK contact points only.
E-mail ZL logs to: vktasman@robglassey.com (ASCII or Excel formats) Post paper logs to: Rob Glassey, ZL3AKM P O Box 21-363 Christchurch 8143
The first 3 ZL placegetters in each category will be published in Break In.