Russian DX Test Back For 2008; Submitted Logs To Be Open For All

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted March 10, 2008

After another strong year of growth in 2007 that brought about an eight percent jump in the number of logs submitted, the Russian DX Contest returns for 2008, ready to play a major role in the WRTC 2010 selection process.

"We can for sure say that in RDXC 2008 we may expect new skilled operators and big-gun stations from all over the world," said a statement from the three member Russian DX Contest Committee of RW1AC, UA2FZ and RA3AUU.

Among the changes announced for the 2008 contest, the Russian DX Committee says it will join CQWW DX in publishing the logs of contest entrants on the internet.

"Starting 1st July 2008, we plan to open access to RDXC participants logs at www.rdxc.org to bring you the possibility to anyalyze your friends and your rivals logs," said the RDXC Committee.

The idea of open logs, which has its strong supporters and detractors, got its first big boost from the CQWW Contest Committee's decision to post the logs from their contest.

There have been rumblings about the issue within the ARRL as well, as sources have indicated to radio-sport.net that "issues of importance" to the contest community are being discussed by the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee.

As for this year's running of the RDXC, with propagation in recent major contests making life much more difficult for operators all around the world, the 2008 Russian DX test may evolve into a competition that is more limited to Europe and Asia because of bad band conditions.

That was clear from the ARRL SSB contest, where Willy Umanets UA9BA trained his big antennas on the US and Canada, but could only come away with 19 contacts on 20 meters.

"I had never heard the bands in such poor shape for such lengthy period," said Umanets, who added that he did not hear one North American signal on 40 meters during the ARRL Phone test.

"This is a great contest, but at this point of the cycle, it's very difficult to work Russia on any band from W6," said Dan Craig N6MJ, who will operate from W6YI.

Despite some tough band conditions in recent years, the Russian DX test continues to grow at a healthy pace, with over 3,000 logs submitted in 2007. Log reviews show that over 9,000 stations made at least five QSO's.

The defending single operator champ from 2007 is Max Pustovit RV3BA, who operated EX9A in Krygyzstan to victory, getting 2,669 net QSO's for a total of 9.98 million points, over a million ahead of his nearest competitor.

Along with the public release of contest logs, the RDXC committee is also trying to tighten overall post-contest reviews, adding rules this year that require Multi-Two stations to submit Cabrillo files that "indicate which transmitter made each QSO."

The Committee also is asking participants to specify the frequencies on which QSO's were made for more careful refereeing.

One other rule change for 2008 is that RDXC is recommending that QRP stations sign "/QRP."