Organizers

Contest Periods

Competitions are held every month (12 rounds) on the following dates:

Note!
General Annual Classification is based on 9 best scores during the rounds in the year.

Participation
a) Each participant is required to be familiar with the contest rules and to follow all its provisions. Participation in the PGA-TEST constitutes acceptance of these Rules.
b) The PGA-TEST is open to individual licensed radio operators and clubs located in Polish territory and stations abroad of Poland.
c) Each participant is required to timely submit his log for score calculations. Please note that all QSOs are subject to verification. Failing to submit the log causes loss of points to others.
d) When using a special call sign, the score may be credited to the primary call sign. For example, if the station SP4KDX operated as 3Z0PGA - all earned points can be added to the primary call sign SP4KDX. Point aggregation is done upon a request, after each monthly round.
e) Results achieved by each participant are presented in a detailed reports that may include additional information i.e. on possible reasons for each voided QSO.

Band and modes
80m band, CW and SSB - but only segments of the bandwidth allocated for a given mode. QSOs in mixed mode (cross-mode) do not count.

Call signs
a) Use of call sign suffixes like "/p", "/m" or the district number i.e. “/9” in PGA-TEST 2020 is acceptable and optional.
b) Use of "/QRP" following the QRP station call sign is not permitted.

QSOs
a) Any PGA-TEST participant may transmit a single signal at any given time, in CW or SSB.
b) Each station can be worked once per mode to yield points.
c) Duplicate contacts are not counted, but should be shown in the log.

Note:
- SSB operators are recommended to use ITU spelling standard.
- Time of contacts must be logged in UTC.
- Use of telephones, radios, internet etc., during the Contest i.e. for the purpose to arrange contacts is not allowed.

Categories(CATEGORY:)
Foreign Entrants

Note

- in each category using the RBN (Reverse Beacon Network) is allowed.

- Only one category may be entered.
- Use (foreign Entrants) the category naming convention as specified in the rules only: OPEN-MIX or OPEN-CW or OPEN-SSB.
- PGA-TEST is supported by N1MM logger  http://n1mm.hamdocs.com/tiki-index.php and special PGATEST-DX.udc file from
https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/mmfiles/pgatest-dx-udc/#

Dupes
- Dupes are contacts made with the same station in the same mode.
- MIXED category entrants can work the same station twice: in CW and SSB. Follow the band plan. CW contacts made in the SSB portion of the band, or SSB contacts made in the CW portion of the band are prohibited. Violation of this rule leads to a disqualification.
- All stations are strongly advised to leave DUPES in the log file. Dupe contacts are not penalized; one does not have to mark them in the electronic log submission.
If the first contact between stations is valid, dupes have 0 points value. If the first contact is not valid, the second (dupe) contact is accepted.
Do not delete dupes!

Exchange
a) Polish participants will send a control group consisting of the report RS (T) number of QSO and a their administrative code (“gmina”), for example: CW - 599 001EL09, or 59 001EL09 on SSB.
b) Foreign stations give RS (T) + sequential QSO number, for example: the CW - 599 001, SSB - 59 001. Stations OPEN-MIX applies continuous numbering for CW and SSB QSOs.

QSO Points
Each error-free QSO with a Polish station yields 1 point. Contacts with stations outside of Poland yield no points.

Note
For a QSO to be considered error-free and valid, both correspondent logs need to show correct call signs, reports, control groups, and the QSO time difference cannot exceed 3 minutes.

Multipliers
There are no multipliers in this contest.

Final Score
The participant final score is the sum of points awarded for his error-free QSOs in the given round.

Analysis
The results are calculated electronically.

eLog
a) Logs for the PGA-TEST are accepted within 48 hours after the end of the contest via upload to the ROBOT PGA ZAWODY:


Prior registration is required. It needs to be done only once and then the participant can upload his logs for all PGA-TEST rounds and other contests organized by the PGA Team.

Note
If a participant uses a special call sign (occasional), additional registration is needed to upload the log.

Upload instructions:
- Open the page https://pga-zawody.pzk.pl  
- Log in
- Click on the "Upload log" ("Wrzuc log")
- Point to the log stored on your computer (click on the "Przegladaj")
- Click "Upload" (“Zaladuj”)

Comments:
- Use the standard Cabrillo log format. Before loading, close attention should be paid to the generated header and all the records of individual contacts. It is recommended to read the instructions that are available by pressing "Help" ("Pomoc"), before loading a log.
- Successful log upload is immediately acknowledged as a message displayed on the screen.
- If you receive errors, the log can be corrected an uploaded again. The robot uses only the last uploaded log for score calculation.
- In case ROBOT PGA ZAWODY is experiencing technical problems, logs can be sent to: https://pga-zawody.pzk.pl

 Please follow the instructions:
- The topic of the email should contain your callsign ONLY.
- Log should be attached to the email as an unzipped file.
-The attached file name should be the participant’s call sign ONLY with extension .cbr or LOG. (Eg log SP4KDX station - sp4kdx.cbr, SP8AB station - sp8ab.cbr etc.).

Example of log in Cabrillo format

START-OF-LOG:
CREATED BY: WinTest
CONTEST: PGA-TEST
CALLSIGN: LY2MM
CATEGORY: OPEN-MIX
QSO: 3500 CW 2024-01-11 0701 RX3XX 599 001 SP4KDX 599 001EL09
QSO: 3500 PH 2024-01-11 0723 RX3XX 59 002 SP2LNW 59 003RU02
END-OF-LOG:

Attention
In CATEGORY line use ONLY the names of categories specified in Rules:
OPEN-MIX or OPEN-CW or OPEN-SSB – foreign stations; SO-MIX or SO-CW or SO-SSB or MO-MIX or SO-CW or MO-SSB or SO-QRP-MIX or SO-QRP-CW or SO-QRP-SSB – SP stations.

Scoring
a) Score calculation for for each round starts after all logs were received, that is after 48 hours from the end of the contest. After that time, ROBOT PGA ZAWODY no longer accepts any more logs.
b) The committee cannot make any corrections to QSOs submitted. All logs are final.
c) Amendments in the log can be made only by the concerned participant during the upload window.
d) The score is calculated by a special computer program that analyses all QSOs in all received logs.
e) The score is based on the error-free QSOs, time stamped in UTC (GMT) + / - 3 minutes. This means that the two corresponding stations are equally responsible for properly logging their contacts, reports, control groups etc. since the QSO must have error-free status in both logs.
f) If a QSO that cannot be verified i.e. due to log not sent, it receives a 0 (zero) points.

Results
a) Contest results, including detailed summary for each participant, will be published on the PGA ZAWODY https://pga-zawody.pzk.pl site and Amateur Radio QTC magazine.
b) Discrepancies in score calculations, if any, are accepted by email only:
[email protected] or [email protected] within 24 hour period from the time of "Preliminary Results" posting on the PGA-ZAWODY site. After this period expires, published results shall be considered final and non-actionable.

Warning! Logs cannot be corrected after the results are published

General Classification
a) Points earned in consecutive monthly rounds are aggregated and posted as monthly General Classification.
b) The Annual General Classification is based on the 9 best monthly results achieved by the participant.
c) In the case of special (other than the primary) call sign use during the PGA-TEST, the score may be transferred to the primary callsign if it already exists in General Classification, provided that the points were earned in the same category. If, for example, in January the station SP4KDX worked under callsign 3Z02PGA, the points earned under that call sign can be credited to SP4KDX, etc. Aggregation is always done upon request sent to:[email protected] after the publication of official results for that round.

Awards and trophies
a) For participation of each monthly round, all participants will be awarded Electronic Certificates of Participation.
b) Winners will be shown in groups in the General Annual Classification, and awarded trophies and titles.
c) A groups must contain at least 10 participants in order for the winners to be awarded special championship titles and trophies.
d) Places 1-3 in each group's General Annual Classification will be awarded diplomas, for others - Electronic Certificates of Participation in PGA-TEST-2024.

Disqualification
Participants shall be disqualified for the following reasons:
not observing the PGA-TEST Rules
unethical conduct, reported by contest monitoring stations (operators authorized to monitor the Contest)
Disqualified participant will have any prizes awarded in all events organized by a team of PGA withdrawn for two years. If participant is disqualified again, he will not be eligible for any prizes awarded in the event organized by the PGA team for five years.

Final Remarks
a) Comments on the contest of the event, photographs, etc. QSL cards should be sent to: [email protected]
b) The contest organizers are not responsible for any damages taking place during the contest, or as a result of participation in the contest.
c) The contest organizer decisions are final and not subject to an appeal.
d) All PGA-TEST error-free QSOs are eligible for PGA and MK QTC awards and the submission requires no QSL cards.

PGA Awards credits
All worked PGA districts (“gmina”), confirmed by the contest logs, will be credited to an applicant without the need to present the QSL-cards.

Help
Each operator, participant of PGA-TEST may receive a comprehensive support from the contest organizers. If you have questions or concerns regarding interpretation of the regulations, write to:[email protected].

PGA-TEST Sponsors invite all the radio amateurs from foreign countries and Poland to take part in PGA-TEST-2024.
 

PGA-ZAWODY Team