[nrv-hams] /IARU suffix in a 20M contest this AM

[Kay Craigie]

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) is composed of the world's
national amateur radio societies, such as ARRL in the USA. IARU is the
organization that lobbies for amateur radio spectrum privileges and
otherwise speaks on behalf of amateur radio at the international level.
Learn more about it at www.iaru.org.

IARU sponsors the annual 24-hour IARU HF World Championship contest every
July. It's unique among major DX contests because it runs on both voice and
CW on the same weekend. Everybody can work everybody (which is not true in
most other DX contests), so you don't get barked at for calling other USA
stations.

The IARU contest exchange (the info that has to be sent and logged
accurately for the QSO to count) is a signal report and (for most operators)
your International Telecommunications Union (ITU) zone. For the people on
this mailing list, our ITU zone is 8.

IARU officials, who are all volunteers, send a signal report and the
abbreviation for their position in the organization. National amateur radio
societies' headquarters stations send a signal report and the abbreviation
for their society's name. The IARU secretariat's callsign (NU1AW) sends a
signal report and "IARU." This year, W1AW was operated by a group in
California, so they were signing W1AW/6 and their exchange was 59 or 599
ARRL. The secretariat operation was by a group in 5-land, so it was NU1AW/5
and their exchange was 59 or 599 IARU. As just a regular person operator, my
exchange would be 59 or 599 8.

When you call CQ in a contest, you often include something in the CQ that
lets people know you are in a contest and not looking for a casual
conversation. If I were calling CQ in this contest on CW, I might send
something like CQ IARU CQ IARU DE N3KN N3KN. On voice I might say "CQ
contest CQ contest CQ IARU contest this is N3KN N3KN contest."

A great web site for finding information about what contests are going on,
including the expected exchange and rules about who can work whom, is at
www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/.

Contesting is not done on the 12, 17, and 30 meter bands, or on the 60 meter
channels, so if contesting isn't your cup of tea, one of those bands may be
the place to go when a big contest is on the air.

73 - Kay N3KN