Contesting

Contesting (often known in Eastern Europe as Radiosport)is a competitive activity enjoyed by many amateur radio operators. In a contest, an amateur radio station, which may be operated by an individual or a team, seeks to contact as many stations as possible in a given period of time. Usually, some form of bonus or multiplier is awarded for making special contacts, for example in different countries or regions of the world, in different States of the USA or provinces of Europe and Asia countries. In contests in the VHF, UHF and microwave parts of the spectrum, scores are often calculated in a one point per kilometre basis, especially in Europe.

In some contests on the HF or Shortwave bands, stations are either restricted to or get significant bonus points for contacting stations in a given country or continent.

The scale of activity varies from contest to contest. In a specialised contest in the higher microwave bands, where only a handful of radio amateurs have the technical skills to home construct the necessary equipment, a few contacts just a few kilometres away may be enough to win. At the other end of the scale, in the CQ World Wide Contest, the world's largest High Frequency contest, leading multi-operator stations on voice and morse code can make up to 25,000 contacts in a 48 hour period, while even single operators with world-class stations in rare locations can exceed 10,000 contacts, an average of over three per minute, every minute. Even on VHF, a well equipped station in a densely populated region like Central Europe can make over 1,000 contacts on 2 metres in 24 hours.

In other contests, particularly those on the UHF and Microwave bands, those involving specialist techniques such as moonbounce, or even some HF contests such as the Commonwealth Contest, the emphasis is more on quality, making difficult contacts on marginal propagation paths, rather than quality.

In all contests it helps to be in a rare location close to major population centres, and in contests on the VHF and above having a high location with unobstructed paths in all directions is also a major advantage. In HF contests, this means that stations in the Carribean and the North Atlantic, close to Europe and Eastern North America with their high densities of active contest stations, are the most common winners. Aruba, the Canary Islands, theCape Verde Islands, Madeira coastal Morocco and Tobago have been the sites of some of contesting's most famous victories.

On VHF and above, with range limited to around 1,000 km in normal conditions, a location on high ground close to a major metropolitan area such as the Greater Tokyo, the Home Counties, Northeast Corridoor or Ruhr Area is an often unbeatable advantage.

Many amateurs are happy to contest from home, often with relatively low power and simple antennas, some compeititvely and others simply to give away some points to serious stations or chase some unusual contest operation. However, other amateurs spend significant sums of money and invest a lot of time building a potentially winning station, whether from home, a local mountain top or a distant country. Contesting is often combined with a DX-pedition.

Contesting Online CQ World Wide Contest CQ WPX Contest Radio Society of Great Britain VHF Contesting Committee RSGB Commonwealth Contest