L’ A.R.I. (Associazione Radioamatori Italiani) is proud to invite all I.A.R.U. Region 1 Societies to take part to:48^th Marconi Memorial Contest VHF - IARU Region 1

November 7^th – 8^th 2020 (14 :00 - 14 :00 UTC)

The Contest is organised by A.R.I. to commemorate, as a Man and as a Scientist, GUGLIELMO MARCONI.

1) PARTICIPANTS: All radio amateurs with regular permit to transmit. Participants have to operate in compliance with the rules and the spirit of the contest using an output power not greater than that permitted by their country license.

2) DEFINITIONS:

• Station: set of antennas, transmitters and receivers used during the contest on each frequency band (i.e. multiband setups are composed of multiple stations).
• Location: geographical area with diameter of no more than 500 meters where the station resides during the contest.
• Call Sign: identification of the station during the contest. Added prefix and/or suffix do not generate different call sign (i.e. S50AAA/p or DL/S50AAA are the same call sign as S50AAA).
• Operator: an individual that operates the station during the contest using the station’s call sign. Operator may reside inside (local operator) or outside (remote operator) the location. During the contest an operator may operate only stations that form one entry.

Entries:

• MULTI operator: stations from the same location, operated by more than one operator and using one callsign on all bands.
• SINGLE operator: stations from the same location, operated by the same operator and using one callsign on all bands, with no operational assistance of another person during the contest.
• 6 HOURS: stations from the same location, operated by any number of operators and operating according to the 6 hours’ time rule. The 6 hour time segment can be divided into maximum two periods. The time of the first QSO sets the start time of the first period. When operating in two periods, the pause between the periods must be longer than 2 hours. The first time difference of 2 hours or more between two consecutive QSOs marks the pause segment. Only the QSOs that fall into the combined 6 hour time segment will be counted for points. Participants are welcome to operate longer than 6 hours and in such case they shall send their complete log (the contest robot will automatically extract the 6 hours part from the log, while the rest of the log entries will be used for cross-checking purposes).
• LOW POWER: multi or single operator entries, transmitting with total of up to 100 W PEP from the transmitter and using only one directional or omnidirectional antenna system. The same antenna must be used for transmit and receive. Directional antenna system is a single directional antenna or a group (array) of single directional antennas, grouped together to achieve maximum obtainable gain in a given direction (that is, all the antennas in the group shall be pointed in the same direction). Omnidirectional antenna is an antenna with a radiation pattern that has approximately the same gain in all azimuth directions. 

3) SECTIONS:

• SINGLE (SO): single operator entries.
• MULTI (MO): multi operator entries.
• SINGLE LOW POWER (SO-LP): single operator low power entries.
• MULTI LOW POWER (MO-LP): multi operator low power entries.
• 6 HOURS (6H): 6 hours entries.

Only one signal on the band is allowed at any time. Station must operate from the same location throughout the contest time.

4) CONTACTS: Each station can be worked only once. The double qso must be marked and identified on the log and the score awarded will be zero. Contacts made via repeaters or EME will not be considered as valid. All times must be logged in UTC.

Competitors are obliged to follow the common definition for a valid QSO (as defined in the VHF Managers Handbook ).

The contest exchange (call, report, QSO number and locator) shall be sent and confirmed on the band where the contact started and only during the contact.

No attempt should be made during the QSO to obtain any part of the required exchange information via other communication methods such as the Internet chat channel, DX Cluster, talk-back on another amateur band, telephone etc.. Such a secondary method invalidates the contest QSO.

Self-spotting is permitted on all media except the DX Cluster (sending lots of self-spots to chat rooms is not recommended and is discouraged). 

Acceptable examples when using a secondary method:

• “Shall we make a sked on 144.388?"
• "I have QRM, let's move to 144.218 kHz and start again"
• "Nothing received, please try again" and the QSO starts again
• "Thank you for a nice QSO" - Note: Only after the QSO has completed on the radio!

Unacceptable examples when using a secondary method:

• "I need your serial number"
• "Please repeat all information"
• “Please confirm <report>, <serial number>, <locator> etc.”

Definition for a valid contest QSO:

A valid contact is one where both operators during the contact have:

• mutually identified each other
• received a contest exchange, and
• received a confirmation of the successful identification and the reception of the contest exchange.

5) BAND and MODE: QSO must be only 2-way on A1A (CW) mode on 144 MHz band only, respecting the IARU Reg. 1 Band Plan.

6) EXCHANGES: The stations have to send the RST and Serial Number starting with 001, followed by the full WWL locator (Example: 599023 JN54QL.)

7) SCORE: One point will be charged for each kilometer in the qrb of the qso. The final score obtained with the sum of each qso score should be indicated in your log entry.

8) LOG: Logs will be accepted only in electronic format. The logs must be submitted with all complete data summaries, by email, only in .EDI format, and the file must  be named with your callsign (eg. IZ4YDN.EDI).

9) ENTRIES: The entries must be set out in EDI digital/electronic form (refer to VHF Managers Handbook, Part 3 section 5).

EDI header shall as a minimum contain the following fields:

• Callsign and WWL used (PCall and PWWLo)
• Section and band (PSect and PBand)
• Operators callsigns (RCall for SO entries, RCall and Mope1, Mope2,… for MO entries)
• E-mail address (RHBBS)
• TX power in watts (SPowe)
• Antenna (SAnte); it shall be clearly identifiable how many antenna systems were in use

Logs shall be sent only to the National VHF Manager or National VHF Contest Manager no later than the second Monday following the contest weekend (November 16^th 2020).

Late entries will be accepted as check logs.

By submitting the contest or check log, an entrant agrees that he/she has:

• understood the contest rules and agrees to be bound by them,
• operated according to all the rules and regulations that pertain to his and/or station license,
• agreed the cross-checked log may be made open to the public, except for the personal data in PAdr1, PAdr2, RName, RAdr1, RAdr2, RPoCo, RCity, RCoun, RPhon and RHBBS lines of EDI file format,
• agrees the contest organizer can score, amend, publish, republish, print, and otherwise distribute (by any means including paper or electronic) the entry either in its original format, in any other suitable format with or without modifications or combined with the entries from other contestants for entry into the specific contest, other contests, or for other reasons including training, development and advancement of amateur radio,
• accepts all decisions of the contest organizer as final.

All National Managers have to upload all collected logs into IARU Reg.1 VHF Contest Robot  (https://iaru.oevsv.at/ ) not later than 7^th Monday after contest date (December 21^st 2020).

10) JUDGING OF ENTRIES : All logs are checked using custom software and human judgement. The claimed contact shall be disqualified for any error in the information logged by the entrant. When there is high evidence that the error is due to the wrongly logged information of the transmitting station (i.e. wrong date/time or call/UL) such a LOG shall not be used for adjudication purposes. The final judging of the entries shall be the responsibility of the contest organizer whose decision shall be final. Entrants deliberately contravening any of these rules, attempting fraud or flagrantly disregarding the IARU Region 1 band plans shall be disqualified. Each VHF Manager and/or national Contest Committee can propose to the contest organizer disqualification or penalization of an entrant.

11) FINAL CLASSIFICATIONS: The Committee will perform full computer cross checks on all the received logs and will publish the final results not later than the fourteenth Sunday after the contest (February 8^th 2021) into IARU Reg.1 VHF Contest Robot.

12) AWARDS: The 3 (three) top scores of each section will be prized with a “MARCONI PLATE”  sponsored by ARI Bologna.

13) PRIZING CERIMONY: The prizes will be given to the winners during HamRadio Messe in Friedrichshafen (D) 2021 at ARI Official Booth.

For download .PDF click HERE

On behalf of Marconi Contest Committee
Alex, IV3KKW