Starts Saturday, November 21st 21:00 UTC (1:00 PM PST) through Monday, November 23rd 02:59 UTC (6:59 PM PST Sunday night)

Contest Objective: November Sweepstakes is designed to support amateur self-training in radiocommunications, including improving amateur operating skills, conducting technical investigations, and intercommunicating with other amateurs. Stations in the United States and Canada (including territories and possessions) exchange information with as many other US and Canadian stations as possible on the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands.

There are 85 Section Multipliers in this event. Canadian stations located in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut should continue to send TER (Territories) as their section.

Contest Exchange: Sweepstakes has the longest contest exchange of any contest. It requires a great deal of “listening skill” to get it right the first time. The exchange resembles thje preamble of a Radiogram or ARES message. This makes for great skill building for EMCOMM and other Emergency or Public Service Communications. The required exchange consists of:

Serial Number:  A consecutive contact number starting with 1.

Precedence:

  • “Q” for Single Operator, QRP (5 watts or less)
  • “A” for Single Operator, Low Power (more than 5 watts, but no greater than 100 watts)
  • “B” for Single Operator, High Power (more than 100 watts, but no greater than legal limit)
  • “U” for Any Single Operator Unlimited Power Category (High, Low, or QRP)
  • “M” for Multioperator, High Power or Multioperator, Low Power
  • “S” for School Club

Your Call Sign: The call sign must be included as part of the exchange.

Check: The last two digits of the year the operator or the station was first licensed. The same Check must be sent throughout the contest.

ARRL/RAC Section: Send and log the 85 abbreviations in the ARRL Contest Multipliers List

The following is a typical Sweepstakes contact:

    CQing Station: CQ Sweepstakes from W9JJ
    Answering Station: W1AW
    CQer: W1AW 123 A W9JJ 79 CT
    Answer: 43 M W1AW 31 CT
    CQer: Thanks, CQ Sweepstakes from W9JJ

As the answering station, it is not necessary to send the CQing station’s call before the exchange unless you think there might be some confusion about what station you are responding to.

Operating Time

All stations may operate no more than 24 of the 30 hours.  Scores will be calculated from contacts logged during the first 24 hours of operation.

This rule limits operating time (listening or transmitting) to 24 hours. Contacts logged after 24 hours of operation will not be counted toward the final score, but there is no penalty for including those contacts in a submitted log, and the station contacted is eligible to receive credit for the contact.

Off-times must consist of a minimum of 30 consecutive minutes without operating. Listening time counts as operating time.

Get in on the fun of November Sweepstakes. Annie N6ACL will be operating from our home station. She has won the Pacific Division Low Power Award multiple times. Contact her if you’d like to come join us. You can get on the air at home with just 100 watts and a wire too.