Top 10 DX of the Year Contest

Contest rules

The date of the contest:
from 1 December, 00:00 UTC to 31 December, 24:00 UTC (Each year)

- The contest is open for all shortwave listeners. It is not obligatory to be a club member.

- The contest is free of charge and all costs are covered by TOP DX RADIOCLUB.

- The task of the contest:
Reception of 10 BROADCAST stations from 10 optional, DIFFERENT countries during the contest (according to the official DXCC list**).

- The aim of the contest:
Award of the best DX'er who really succeeded in receiving the year's TOP 10 DX: it means that it received the lowest power station possible from the longest distance possible.

- The rules of the contest:
Reception of 10 BROADCAST stations from 10 DIFFERENT countries. Excluding: unlicensed, meteorological, DRM or other digital, military, spy, pirate, time etalon, amateur contacts and other technical receptions. It is strictly prohibited to use WEB SDR, internet radio and other remote controlled equipment. The receiver antenna has to be attached to the radio physically and directly. One country can appear in the log only once. (Country=where the transmitter can be found)
The enabled frequency range: from 2300 kHz to 30000 kHz. The contest referees and organizers cannot take part in the contest.

- The obligatory content of the log:
Date (day, month, year),
Time (UTC),
Frequency (in kHz),
The ID name of the station,
Country (where the transmitter can be found),
The language of the broadcast,
SINPO,
The geographical location (CITY) of the transmitter site,
The details of the broadcast (general description without specific -i.e. CLEARLY IDENTIFIABLE- details are NOT acceptable!)
Reports It is recommended to time-stamp the quotes, details, and music tracks. It is not necessary to speak the language of the broadcast, because in every program you can find elements that can be identified regardless of language.
- If necessary, the contest judges MAY ask for video recording of the reception.
The frequency and, shortly the tuning must also be visible on the recording.

Example***:


- The obligatory content of the log's annex:
The name of the contestant,
Address (where the trophy can be posted -only to the winner of the contest)
Geographical location where he/she has participated from (according to the 6-character Maidenhead QTH locator)*
The type of the receiver(s),
The type of the antenna(s).

Example:
Name: Jean Sample
Address: France, Paris, Rue Parrot 2.
QTH locator: JN18EU
RX: Yaesu FRG-7000, Perseus SDR
Antenna: 80m Long Wire, Wellbrook ALA-1530

- The format of the log:
The logs have to be sent electronically to topdx.radioclub(at)gmail(dot)com in Excel (xls, xlsx) format. You can download the log sample *** HERE. Please use this and do not change the structure of the table, just fill in the cells! Do not rearrange the columns or enter other data (eg. transmit power, distance, etc.).
If you are not able to submit a Excel format log, please contact the Contest Manager for assistance with submitting another format.
We accept logs in English language. All contestants get an email of confirmation after receiving the log in 48 hours.

- The deadline of receiving the logs:
5 January. 24:00 UTC (Each year)

All contestants declare by sending the logs that all data in the log are true and correct, all of the receiving were done by himself/herself within the given time range from the provided place according to the QTH locator and the adherence of the rules.

- Announcement of results: Before 31 January. (Each year)

- Scoring:
The distance between the contestant's QTH locator and the transmitting tower's QTH locator divided ( / ) by the power of the transmitter, and multiplied or deducted ( x ). In arithmetic formula: (QTH's distance / Transmitter power) x Multiplier.

- MULTIPLIERS: Explanation: This is the most important change. You can get triple points if you receive signals from different continent. Continents: Africa (Af), Antarctica (An), Asia (As), Europe (Eu) North-America (Na), Oceania (Oc), South-America (Sa). See below the downloadable DXCC table for more details.
- Reception from same continent multiplied by 1
- Reception from different continent multiplied by 3

- DEDUCTION: Explanation: The deduction always applies only to that one reception what containing the incorrect data, NOT to the whole log. If there are two -50% deduction in one reception, then that is 0 point.
- Missing or incorrect SINPO: -50% (Multiplier = 0,5) Explanation: "Missing" means the data cell of SINPO is empty or there are less than 5 digits. "Incorrect" means, the numbers are not from 1 to 5. For example incorrect SINPO is "343" or "45895".
- Missing or incorrect country: -50% (Multiplier = 0,5) Explanation: "Missing" means the data cell of Country is empty. Again: Country (where the transmitter can be found)
- Missing or incorrect language: -50% (Multiplier = 0,5)
- Missing or incorrect date: 0 points (Multiplier = 0)
- Missing or incorrect time: 0 points (Multiplier = 0)
- Missing or incorrect frequency: 0 points (Multiplier = 0)
- Missing or incorrect TX site: 0 points (Multiplier = 0) Again: TX site is the CITY where the transmitter is geographically located.
- Missing or incorrect Station ID: 0 points (Multiplier = 0) Explanation: Again: This is the NAME of the station. For example "BBC" or "DW", etc.

- In the case of a repeated country, the lower score reception will be canceled

The distance between QTH is dimensioned in kilometers and measured in short path. The transmitter power is dimensioned in kilowatts. Only official data are considered given by WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook - www.wrth.com or www.wrth.org). If more powers belong to a certain transmitter the higher power is considered. In case the owner of the station announces different power than WRTH, then we counting with the official (real) transmitter power.

For example:
The geographical location of the contestant: France, Paris, Rue Parrot 2. in this case the QTH locator is JN18EU*
The received station: Voice of America, from the city of Iranawila CLN. The QTH locator of the transmitter: MJ97VM In this case the distance between the two QTH locators: 8462,27 km. For the calculation the following program is used: KK6MK's DistBear Tool ****
The power of the transmitter: 250 kW
Score: 8462,27 / 250 = 33,85 points, multiplied by 3 (different continent) = 101,55 ( 102 rounded to 2 decimals)
According to the information above it can be clearly seen that more points are given if the station is far from the contestant AND the transmitter power is low.

The final points are made up by the sum of the 10 receiving.
The contestant with the highest points wins the contest.

- Awarding:
The contest has no monetary prize. The winner gets an elegantly designed, unique trophy addressed to his/her name. All contestants can download free the certificate according to result in the ranking. Printed certificate is available for fee only.

In case of any questions about the rules, or anyting else in connection with the contest, send us an e-mail and we try to respond asap. This opportunity is open before and during the contest.

The organizers wish good luck and outstanding DXs to all contestants.

*: The QTH locator can be easily found here: LINK
** The list of DXCC can be found here (ARRL DXCC LIST): LINK
***: Sample log can be downloaded from here (Excel): LINK
****: The KK6MK DistBear Tool can be find here: LINK