What Is The MRRC Challenge?
The MRRC Challenge is a year-long metric of contest participation within the club. Members receive points based on how they finish in certain major contests throughout the year, and at the end of the Challenge year, the club member with the most points is recognized. Think of it as “MRRC Contester Of The Year”.
The Challenge begins with CQWW SSB and ends with the September SSB Sprint of the following year. Since the Challenge is based on published results, the winner is generally not determined until the Dayton meeting of the following year. Eligibility is based on the roster of members in good standing through the Findlay meeting.
How Do I Participate?
Participating in the Challenge occurs automatically from the member’s point of view. Challenge Coordinator TBD, reviews the published contest results, notes MRRC scores, calculates members’ Challenge points and maintains their running total. Essentially, all you have to do is submit your log to the contest sponsor.
How Are Challenge Points Calculated?
For every contest in the challenge, there is a maximum number of points available. Every entrant’s score is “prorated” against the winning score in one of the following categories:
- Single-Op High Power
- Single-Op Low Power
- Single-Op QRP
- Single-Op Assisted
- Multi-Op Single Transmitter
- Multi-Op Multi-transmitter
It might be observed that many contests have more categories than this. For example in the CQ WPX contest, “single-op, single-band, assisted, QRP, tribander/simple wires” is a valid category. However, in order to keep the Challenge bookkeeping to a reasonable level of complexity, such a score would be prorated against the regular “single-op, all band, QRP” entry.
An entrant’s MRRC Challenge score for a particular contest is calculated like this:
(Entrant’s Published Score / Winning Category Score) x Maximum Challenge Points Value For That Contest
So for example, if the maximum Challenge Points value for the contest were 1000, and the entrant’s score was half of the winning category score, the entrant would receive 500 points towards the MRRC Challenge.
For single-op entries, obviously the operator receives all of the credited Challenge Points. This includes guest-operators at stations other than their own, unless the station owner indicates otherwise to the Challenge coordinator. For multi-op entries, the credited Challenge Points are divided evenly between the operators who are MRRC members, with an additional equal “share” or “portion” going to the station owner. So for example, if W8AV hosts a multi-op with two additional guest operators, the credited Challenge Points are divided into four (three ops plus one) shares. W8AV gets two shares (one for owner and another for operator) and the guest ops get one share apiece.
What Contests Count For The Challenge?
The following contests count for the Challenge. The maximum number of Challenge Points is also shown:
| CQWW (SSB/CW) | 2000 for each contest | |
| SS (SSB/CW) | 1000 for each contest | |
| ARRL 160 | 750 | |
| ARRL 10 | 750 | |
| CQ 160 (SSB/CW) | 750 for each contest | |
| NAQP (SSB/CW) | 200 for each contest | |
| Sprints (SSB/CW) | 200 for each contest | |
| ARRL DX (SSB/CW) | 2000 for each contest | |
| CQ WPX (SSB/CW) | 750 for each contest | |
| IARU HF | 750 | |
| MI QSO Party | 500 | |
| OH QSO Party | 500 |
The total possible points is 17,850.
How Are The Winners Of The Challenge Recognized?
MRRC maintains a “traveling” plaque which carries the name and year of the MRRC Challenge champion. During the current year, the champion gets to keep the plaque at their QTH, and the plaque is relinquished when the next champion is crowned. The champion also gets a small plaque signifying their accomplishment which is theirs to keep.
Also, at the end of the Challenge year, an overall listing of the club members who participated in the Challenge is published in the MRRC newsletter, and the top ten are acknowledged.