Immediately preceding the WAG contest the German Radio Amateur Club DARC again sponsors a training contest for those interested in improving their skills in contesting. The idea behind this contest is to lower the hurdles faced by beginners by communicating in appropriate speed. That’s why QSOs with beginners yield a distinctively better score than those with weather beaten old timers. This is a unique chance for beginners to get their feet wet and to find out whether contesting is something which is likely to augment their joy of being a ham radio operator.

The contest rules and the log format are based on the requirements for an entry in the WAG contest. The rules for the training contest can be found in English.

It is the intention of the sponsors to make contesting easier for the participants in the training contest. All hams in charge of introducing resp. training beginners in contesting are called upon to seriously consider an effort in participating in this training contest. All active contesters are expected to support beginners by participating in the contest at moderate speeds or even by inviting beginners to use their contest proven stations.

Since the “Jamboree on the Air” is concurrent with the training contest and the WAG contest, all participants are requested to strictly refrain from transmitting in those frequency segments which are reserved for “no contest traffic” communication.

Effective of May 2014 are the General Contest Rules of DARC Committee DX and HF Contesting (English translation yet to be published)

1. Contest period

October 19th 2019, 1200 UTC to 1430 UTC

2. Modes and bands

SSB, CW: 80m and 40m.

To reduce interference with the participants of JOTA contest operation is not allowed in the following sections:

• 80m: CW: 3560 - 3800 kHz, SSB: 3650 – 3700 kHz
• 40m: CW: 7040 kHz - 7200 kHz, SSB: 7080 – 7130 kHz (Hint: contest operation for DO-Stations is not allowed on 40m)

Each station may be worked once in CW and once in SSB on each band.

3. Categories 

• Newcomer: Stations using training callsign (prefix DN) or newcomer license (prefix DO)
• Advanced: All other German stations
• All Non-German stations 

In the final results list QRP- (up to 5 Watts) and Low Power-Stations (up to 100W) will be clearly identified.

In the log use the power like "High power", "Low power" or "QRP" as Category. The real category for the results list will be found out automatic.

4. Exchange

German stations: RS(T) + DOK (local area code).
Participants from Germany, who are not member of the DARC will send “NM” (non member).

Non-German Stations: RS(T) + serial number.

5. Multipliers

NEW: each German district (usually indicated by the first letter of the DOK) and each entity/country (current DXCC-entity-/WAE-country-list) counts as a multiplier on each mode and each band. The “NM” is not a valid multiplier.

6. Scoring

Each complete QSO counts 1 point. Each complete QSO with participant using training call (DN) or newcomer license (DO) counts 2 Points.

The final score is computed by multiplying the total number of QSO points by total number (the sum) of multipliers from all bands.

Participants do not need to calculate the claimed score by themselves.

7. Contest awards

A badge will be presented to those achieving an exceptional result. Each participant will be awarded with a certificate by means of a pdf-file for self printing.

8. Logs

If your preferred contest logging program does not support this contest you simply use the settings for the “Work all Germany” contest. Both contests use the same exchange format. Don't worry if in such a case the announcement of multipliers and points for the QSO will not be shown correctly every time. The correct final result will be calculated automatically by the contest software used by the DARC

Logs need to be uploaded in Cabrillo-Format here: http://www.darc.de/referate/dx/contest/ausbildungscontest/logupload/

Please send your log also in case you made only few QSOs.

The receipt of your log will be automatically confirmed by an email with a message of possible errors in the log. An UBN file lists entries of your log for which you do not get points and it provides in depth information and will be sent automatically after log evaluation to every participant. It is called UBN because it lists Unique callsigns, Bad entries and "Not in log" entries.

The logs will become part of the DCL (DARC Community Log). By submitting the log, the participant claims to fully accept the rules of the contest as well as of General Contest Rules of DARC Committee Contesting.

9. Deadline for log submission

Deadline for log submission is 8 days after the end of the contest (October 27th 2019, 23:59 UTC).