Thank you for your interest in serving as a special-event station! It's great fun. And more imporant, without operators like you taking part, the event couldn't happen! What follows are the procedures special-event stations should follow. These come out of the club's experience with these events to date. The K3Y coordinating committee welcomes your feedback on how well these worked for you. That information will help inform any refinements that might need to be made for 2013's event.

You can download a PDF of this operator's guide here to use as a reference at your operating desk.  

SCHEDULING

The "K3Y" special-event call sign has been issued for use during the annual SKCC Anniversary Celebration. SKCC Members in the US who wish to operate as special event stations should contact their Regional Coordinators in order to schedule an operating time slot. The terms of usage for the special call sign require that no more than one operator in each US call-sign area be allowed to use the special-event call sign at any given time.

A Regional Coordinator, and in some cases back-ups, have been assigned to each US call-sign district. You'll find their email links in the column at left. To set up an operating time, please contact the Coordinator for the call-sign region from which you will be operating. The Coordinator is responsible for scheduling your operating times and processing your log files.

The operators schedule is maintained on the SKCC Event Calendar at:

www.skccgroup.com/cgi-bin/calendar.pl?year=2012&month=1

All times and dates are in UTC/GMT. (For example, Friday 01:00 would be Thursday evening local time in the US.)

Please check the Event Calendar for unassigned time slots in your call area. Then notify your area Coordinator of any you would like to fill. The earlier you request a time slot the better your chances of getting it. If you find you cannot make a previously scheduled operating slot, please notify your Coordinator as soon as possible so he or she can free it for others to use.

You may also be able to make "immediate" scheduling requests by contacting Ron AC2C or Randy KB4QQJ. Their email addresses are listed on the K3Y page. You may also often find them or your area Coordinator on the K3UK Sked page at:

www.obriensweb.com/sked/index.php?page=skcc

Once you have scheduled an operating time, you should receive a confirmation from your Coordinator. In any case, you must be listed on the SKCC Event Calendar in order to operate at any particular time; if you are not on the Calendar you are not permitted to operate with the special-event call sign!

As a courtesy to the volunteer Coordinators, please include the following info in your scheduling requests so they will not have to look it up: Call sign, Name, State and SKCC Nr.

ON THE AIR

As a special-event operator you will use the call sign assigned to your particular area: K3Y/0, K3Y/1, etc. plus K3Y/KH6, K3Y/KL7, K3Y/KP4. All contacts must be made using a straight key, bug, or side-swiper.

Here are some recommendations for on-air procedures:

You may use the page to let people know what frequency you are on.

LOGS

Special event operators must maintain a log of all their contacts. Logs should be in ADIF format and should contain at least the following fields: Date, Time, Call sign, Band, Mode, Name, RST Sent. (The ADIF tags for these fields are: QSO_DATE, TIME_ON, CALL, BAND, MODE, NAME, RST_SENT).

Some Coordinators will accept logs in other formats, but ADIF is preferred for ease of processing of the many thousands of contacts that will be made during the event. There are a number of free logging programs available that are suitable for this purpose. One such is the W5ZR Sprinter, available at:

www.skccgroup.com/files/index_files.php.

You should send your log file to your area Coordinator as soon as possible, preferably within a day or so of operating. This will get your contacts into the master log with minimum delay and will reduce the number of inquiries that must be handled by Coordinators from members who are anxious to confirm their "stats."

All dates and times must be logged in UTC or GMT.

Most area Coordinators will request that you submit a separate log file for each session/day that you operate. If you operate several different sessions in a given day you should include them all in a single day's log file. (Some Coordinators will request that you maintain a single log file for ALL of your operating sessions throughout the entire month, resubmitting it each time you have logged additional sessions. Please follow your Coordinator's preference in this matter.)

Please do not log any K3Y-to-K3Y contacts. You may of course log another K3Y operator's personal call sign if exchanged (and he yours).

If you find you have made a mistake or omission in any of your submitted log entries please contact your area Coordinator. He will assist you in correcting them and resubmitting the log file.

Please keep a back-up copy of your log file(s).

And please use the following format to name your ADIF log files if your logging program does not automatically do so: 2012-01-dd-K3Y-area-call.adi, where:

The ZRSprinter uses the above naming format.

QSLs & SKCC Awards

Official K3Y QSL cards will be distributed by the SKCC QSL bureau at:

www.skccgroup.com/qsl/qslburo.php

You can, of course, do your own QSLing as well. The contacts you make as a K3Y operator can be used for various SKCC awards, although these generally require that you have also exchanged your personal call sign during the contact.