::.  RULES REF Contest The Reseau des Emetteurs Francais (REF) invites the radio amateurs worldwide to participate in the REF Contest, the Championnat de France. Object of this contest is to establish as many contacts as possible between radio amateurs around the world and French radio amateurs.

MORE INFO Text-only page REF UNION Web Site Original Rules in French REF Contest Cabrillo format

Date:

CW - Each year on the last full weekend of January. 2004: January 24 and 25 SSB - Each year on the last full weekend of February. 2004: February 28 and 29

Time:

From Saturday 0600 UTC to Sunday 1800 UTC Single operator is limited to 28 hours with a minimum of 8 hours rest (max 3 rest periods of minimum 1 hour).

Object:

Foreign stations work as many French stations as possible once per band. French stations are: Stations in France (mainland) or Corsika (F, TM, TK) Stations in the Overseas Territories (FG, FH, FJ, FK, FM, FO, FP, FR, FS, FT, FW, FY, TO)

Classes:

Single operator Multi operator, one TX SWL For the multi-operators, 15 minutes are necessary between 2 band changes.

Bands:

80, 40, 20, 15, 10 m (IARU contest subbands).

Exchanges:

Given by French stations: Mainland and Corsica: RS(T) + department number Overseas stations: RS(T) + own prefix F6REF, REF official headquarter station: RS(T) + 00 Given by foreign stations: RS(T) + serial number Foreign station are only allowed to contact french station.

Scores:

1 point for a contact with a station located in the same continent 3 points otherwise

Multipliers:

On each band, departments, 00, and overseas prefixes. French departments (96) [ Ø1 - 96 ] F6REF (1) [ ØØ ] Corsica (TK) departments (2) [ 2A, 2B ] Overseas prefixes (13) [ FG, FH, FJ, FK, FM, FO, FP, FR, FS, FT, FW, FY, TO ] Multipliers are counted per band. (A total of 112 multipliers/band).

Final score:

Sum of contact points by sum of multipliers.

Rank listing and awards:

By continent.

Logs:

Please apply log before February 24 (CW) or March 28 (SSB) to: Mailing address: F5LBL, Gerard Karpe Chemin des Roses Malerargues 30140 THOIRAS FRANCE or by E-mail to: CW: cdfcw@ref-union.org SSB: cdfssb@ref-union.org

INFORMATION via E-mail:

Info: concours@ref-union.org

Date of info: 19 October, 2000	Source: Luc Favre, F6HJO - REF-Union Contest Manager.
Date of info: 25 January, 2000	Added info about F5MZN software and SD.
Date of info: 26 January, 2000	Added info about multiplier abbreviations.
Date of info: 25 December, 2002	Deleted TP2CE as multiplier - Source: Vincent Lecler, F5OIH
Date of info: 20 January, 2004	Source: REF UNION Web Site

Olivier, F5MZN, writer of the contest log software EDITEST, has written a new FREEWARE Windows version of his software to manage the DX side of the French Championship. It has CT-like commands, Cabrillo and ADIF export, a huge database of french stations etc...
You can download it at: http://download.wintest.online.fr/wt-2.0_ref-dx-side.exe