The Orca Challenge Rules and Info

A competition to promote contest activity within the Orca DX and Contest Club.

The Orca Challenge runs parallel to the PNW Club Challenge (PNW Cup) each year.

The calendar will consist of the 11 contests of the PNW Club Challenge, plus the RAC Winter and RAC Canada Day contests, and the BC QSO Party.

Club members are invited to participate using the honour system. Follow the contest rules, keep score, and enjoy the camaraderie of sharing your achievements after the contest. The Orca Challenge is a participation exercise -- it's much more about having fun than winning it all.

Scoring

Orca member stations earn one Orca Challenge token for each contest on our calendar (see below), just by submitting an official log to the contest organizers and posting their score on 3830ContestScores.com before the log entry deadline.

After each contest, the three highest-scoring Orca member stations will receive an additional Orca Challenge token.

The three stations with the most tokens at the end of the year will be recognized with a prize.

In the unlikely but possible event that two or more top-scoring stations are tied after a contest, each tied station will share the available Orca Challenge tokens.

Example: Two stations tied for third place VE7VVV gets one token, VE7XXX gets one token, KN7DD and VA7GGG each get half a token.

About Categories (there are none)

A member may participate in any eligible contest, in any class or category (low or high power, full- or part-time, assisted or unassisted). For Orca Challenge purposes, scores will be considered together without differentiation by category or class. This encourages stations to maximize their capabilities and operating time to generate the highest score they can, within the rules.

A busy full-time low-power station with a tri-bander might end up with a higher score than a part-time high-power station with a dipole, or vice versa, even in non-PNW Cup contests where two modes can be operated.

The Calendar

CQWW DX RTTY (September) CQWW DX SSB (October) CQWW DX CW (November) International FT Challenge (December) RAC Winter (December) ARRL RTTY ROUNDUP (January) BC QSO Party (February) CQ WPX RTTY (February) ARRL DX CW (February) ARRL DX SSB (March) CQ WPX SSB (March) CQ WPX CW (May) RAC Canada Day (July 1) IARU HF World Championship (July)

Multi-Operator Scores

Multi-operator stations are the training ground for tomorrow's contest champions. If you operate at a multi-operator station, you will receive an Orca Challenge token for participating in a contest, and will receive a share of the multi-op score for the Orca Challenge (potentially being on the leader board for extra tokens), as follows:

Total multi-op score / number of Orca operators = each member's score

This is consistent with the PNW Club Challenge rules.

The Prize

Following the end of the season (IARU contest in July), the three members with the most Orca Challenge tokens for the year will have their Orca DXCC club membership dues waived for the following membership year.

Plus, all the bragging rights you can stand.

AND a DX(ish) Award

For DXers, one additional annual dues waiver will be awarded to the station with the highest multiplier total across all the eligible contests.

Depending on the contest, multipliers might include provinces, states, DXCC entities, CQ or ITU zones, grid squares, unique prefixes, or electoral areas.

This award recognizes things other than pure speed and high rate. It encourages digging for DX, hopping the bands, and working more than one mode (where allowed) to boost multiplier totals.

Note: A club member may only receive one waiver prize per year.

Communications

The Orca club website (orcadxcc.org) will serve as the primary source of news about the Orca Challenge. Updates will also be provided several times a year in the Orca Report.

After the log entry deadline for each contest on the calendar, a list of leaders in scores, contest tokens and multiplier totals will be posted.

The Orca Challenge is coordinated by Bud VA7ST (Orca's PNW Club Challenge coordinator) and Rebecca VA7BEC (BC QSO Party coordinator and Orca secretary).

How to Ensure Your Scores Are Counted

To enable timely Orca score counting, be sure to post your score to 3830ContestScores.com.

https://www.3830scores.com/index.php

Only scores reported to 3830 prior to contest log entry deadlines will be counted toward the Orca Challenge or the PNW Club Challenge.

It is important to indicate your club affiliation on the 3830 score form. Choose "Orca DX and Contest Club."