Hľadáte contest, ktorý nezaberie celý víkend, odohráva sa na jedinom pásme a pritom vás každý mesiac donúti sadnúť k rádiu? Potom je OM Activity Contest presne pre vás. Je to krátke ranné stretnutie slovenských a českých staníc na 80 m a zároveň pravidelný tréning prevádzky.
Let's see how the contest works, what to watch out for when writing connections and how to help yourself with the diary in N1MM+.
You will read in the article
Who, when and where
The Contest is organized by the Slovak Association of Radio Amateurs (SZR). It is intended exclusively for individuals. The club station can be operated by only one operator, who will enter his brand in the diary. Only OM and OK stations can participate, which broadcast from Slovakia or the Czech Republic and establish connections only between themselves.
12 rounds are held annually, always on the second Saturday of the month:
- CW from 06:00 to 06:59 local time in the segment 3520-3560 kHz,
- SSB from 07:00 to 07:59 local time in the band 3700-3775 kHz.
It all takes place only on the 80 m band. So you have finished the contest before breakfast.
Categories
It competes in two performance classes. QRO is up to 100 W and QRP up to 5 W. Each of them has three variants: CW+SSB, only CW or only SSB. There are six categories in total, so even those who do not use telegraphy will find their own.
Competition code, points and multipliers
RS or RST and the sequence number of the connection from 001 are exchanged.
Each valid connection is worth 1 point. If you connect to the station in both CW and SSB, the second QSO will give you 1 more bonus point. The station with which you have a connection in both modes will therefore give a total of 3 points.
The multipliers are original: each different last letter of the opponent's mark is counted, once per round. You also add the last letter of your own brand to them, if you have not already received it from another station. The maximum you can have is 26 multipliers. The result is the product of points and multipliers.
How it looks live
You can see what one round looks like from the operator's point of view in the live broadcast of station OM8KT from the round on February 10, 2024. The video starts at the 12th minute and 58th second.
Diary and evaluation
You can send the diary in Cabrillo format via the web interface at kv.szr.sk. You enter the brand, bike, email, category and testimonial. You will confirm the connections loaded from the log before sending. The deadline is 7 days after the end of the round, i.e. by 08:00 local time on the following Saturday. After that, the system will automatically block the receipt of logs.
Several rules apply to the evaluation:
- only a connection confirmed in the logs of both stations with a correctly received code is valid,
- connections with a station are counted only if its brand appears in at least five dailies,
- the best 9 rounds are included in the year-long ranking,
- the competition year lasts from November to October round.
What the new conditions brought
From July 1, 2024, the amended conditions, which were approved by the SZR Presidium on June 8, 2024 at the proposal of the KV commission, are in effect. The SSB section has been expanded from 3770 to 3775 kHz. A provision was also added that the evaluator will not recognize connections where it is proven that they did not take place or were manipulated in the diary.
The conditions also define exactly when a station will not be evaluated in a round: if it violates the terms of the contest or permits, if its errors harm others in more than 30% of its connections, or if it reports unestablished or manipulated connections. Anyone who is not evaluated for violating the rules repeatedly may be disqualified from the annual evaluation. The KV commission votes on this and it can be appealed to the SZR Presidium, whose decision is final.
Call History in N1MM+: fewer log errors
In a one-hour race, each connection is decisive. And a typo in the mark can mean a lost point and a problem for the opposing station. This is where the Call History Lookup function in N1MM Logger+ will help. After entering the tag, the station name will be displayed in the Entry window. According to the article on CQ.sk, it can significantly reduce the error rate of the log in contests with a simple repeated code.
Setup is easy:
- in the Config menu of the Entry window, turn on Enable Call History Lookup,
- load the file via File → Import → Import Call History,
- if you want to assign a file to a specific contest, add it to the Associated Files tab in the contest settings.
You can download the finished database of OM and OK stations as ZIP file. You can find all the details about the file format and the order of the fields in the article Call History in N1MM+ for OK and OM stations. In the discussion below, Vlado OM3BY also draws attention to the Call History and UDC files for OK/OM contests on the radioklub.sk website.
Summary
OM Activity Contest je ideálny spôsob, ako si raz mesačne zacvičiť prevádzku bez veľkých nárokov na čas aj techniku. Stačí 80 m antenna, sobotné ráno a chuť urobiť pár spojení. Aktuálne contest conditions you can find on the OMAC page and an overview of the changes from 2024 in the article Nové podmienky OM Activity Contest-u. So, see you on the second Saturday at eighty?