The Sprint Survival Web Page

"The Sprint - the most fun you can have in 4 hours with your clothes on." - N6TR

This page was put together by some of the sprint veterans as an introduction to this very unique contest.  The information here will make it easy for you to enjoy your initial sprint experience at whatever operating level you are comfortable with.   We will also provide tips which will result in improving  your score over time.  

If you have ever heard a big gun like K1AR running Europeans during a DX contest - you have probably wished you had his frequency.  Imagine what would happen if you called John, and after the QSO, John would hand you the frequency.  In the Sprint, this can happen.  In fact, it happens thousands of  times in four hours.  Not only would John hand you the frequency (without you even asking), he will be glad you called him.  This unique feature helps put the operator back into the equation.  You can't win a sprint just by pressing the F1 key.

The Sprints are held in February and September. For exact dates and full rules - check out the NCJ web page by clicking on the NCJ logo at the top of this page or one of the specific links as shown.  The CW Sprint is typically on the second Saturday of February, and the Saturday after Labour Day in September.  The Phone Sprint is typically the first Saturday in February and the Saturday after the CW Sprint in September.  These dates are "local" time in North America.  

Sprint Rules - from the NCJ Web Site.

Official NCJ Contest Web Page - includes records and e-mail addresses of the editors.

The sprints are held on 20, 40 and 80 meters. The contest starts at 00Z and runs for 4 hours. Most stations start on 20, but in recent sprints, some of the mid-west and east coast stations spend the first fifteen or twenty minutes on 40 meters, and then QSY up to 20 meters. This is done to allow them to work each other before the skip gets too long later in the contest. The only risk to this is that their 20 meter QSO total might suffer. By 0130Z, most of the activity has moved to 40 meters, but you will still find some activity on 20 as late as 0230. It is sometimes a good strategy to QSY back to 20 for a few minutes around 0200 to pick up some potential multipliers. Most stations spend the last hour on 80 meters.

The frequencies typically used on CW are 14025-14060, 7025-7060 and 3525-3560. The top ten kHz is where the slower stations tend to hang out (above the fray). If you are not comfortable at the blazing speeds many of the sprint operatiors use on CW, your best bet is to go to the top ten kHz and call CQ at a comfortable speed. The good sprint operators will call you at your speed. On SSB, the typical frequencies are 14235-14300, 7190-7250 and 3800-3850.

The Exchange

The exchange is both calls (more about this later), a QSO number, your name and your QTH (state/province/DXCC country). If this was the end of the rules - we would have just another average contest.

The one rule that makes the sprint a whole new experience is the QSY rule. The QSY rule has two parts:

  1. If you are the initiating party of a QSO (i.e., you called CQ) - when you are done with the QSO, you must QSY at least five KHz before you can initiate another QSO.
  2. If you are the initiating party of a QSO, you must QSY at least 1 KHz before you can respond to someone else initiating a QSO.

Initiating a QSO can be done by any of the following means:

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Essentially, think of it this way - if you "own" the frequency, after making a QSO, the person you worked now owns the frequency and you have to go find a new one. You can either move 1 KHz and answer someone and then inherit their frequency - or move 5 KHz and call CQ yourself.  

This is obviously a lot different than just CQing away on one frequency. I like to think of it is as rewarding the act of searching and pouncing. If you find someone CQing and call them - you get rewarded by working them - and then having your own frequency for another QSO. Many times, people will call you before you even have a chance to CQ. Sprint champions have figured out that getting two QSOs per frequency is much better than one - and are eager to find stations they can call as they are finishing up a QSO.

To help illustrate how this all works, we have some WAV files that will step you through the process.

Some Sprint CW Practice- K5TR

We hope this introduction will make your sprint experience more enjoyable. If you have specific questions or ideas on how to improve this introduction, please send e-mail to tree@kkn.net and we will get right back to you.