Category Archives: Rules

SAC 2024 – YOU ARE INVITED!

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The contest committee is pleased to invite you to the 65:th Scandinavian Activity contest. It all started in 1959 during the famous solar cycle 19.

The rules are unchanged from 2023, but don’t forget to read them! Several participants miss the frequency limits, so please check them.

Don’t forget to announce your own activity. Doing so will inspire others to join and make their own challenges. Those who have already signed up can be seen at Announced operations CW and SSB. If you need to change your entry, just email us at support@sactest.net.

Thanks to the generous contributions of many individuals, there are several Sponsored Plaques available for both Scandinavian and non-Scandinavian operators to pursue. Please take a look at the last years sponsored plaque program and pick your target.

Make your own VOACAP predictions for SAC 2024! Jari OH6BG have prepared the predictions for you. Just enter you QTH and give it a try!

We are happy to announce that the contest committee now have two new members Timo OH1NOA and Frode LA6VQ. Welcome!

73 & CU!
SAC Contest Committee

SM5AJV Ingo, Team leader
LA6VQ Frode
OH1NOA Timo

Rules for SAC 2023

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The SAC Rules for 2023 has now been updated.

Based on the unanimous decision by the Nordic Radio Amateur Union (NRAU) it is decided that the stations from Russia and Belarus are not eligible for participation in the 2023 Scandinavian Activity Contest (SAC).  

We are introducing a new way of participating in the Explorer category where you are allowed to experiment with new ideas and technology that is not covered by the regular rules. We hope this will inspire innovations not seen before.

The OVERLAYS are now for all participants, regardless ​of whether you are in Scandinavia or not. We have also added CLASSIC as an overlay for those who want to participate without using assistance (Skimmer, DXCluster etc).

Read about the details on the Rules page!

Henning OZ2I has decided to leave the SAC CC and the current committee consists of two members OH2BH and SM5AJV. We are hoping that new representatives from OZ and LA will join us soon.

SAC Contest Committee
OH2BH, SM5AJV

Scandinavian Activity Contests 2022 CANCELLED

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The SAC Contest Committee has unanimously decided to cancel this year’s two sections of the Contest.
Our decision has been made due to the ongoing war in the region and in consideration of the IARU declaration about friendship between people. 
We hope that the situation will change for the better, so that we can once again compete against each other as the SAC rules dictate.

From the IARU web page (https://www.iaru.org/2022/statement-from-iaru/)
“IARU is an apolitical organization focused on promoting and defending amateur radio and the amateur radio services. The amateur radio service is about self-instruction in communications and friendship between people.”

Decided on July 15, 2022 by:

LB8DC Morten Kvernmoen
OH2BH Martti Laine
SM5AJV Ingemar Fogelberg
OZ2I Henning Andresen

SAC Rules

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On April 16  2021 SAC-CC announced:
As a result of the technical developments as well as the more and more advanced operator skills, SAC CC wants to introduce innovations in the rules. There is also a reason for changes due to the many contests that are taking place and to retain a reasonably number of participants in SAC.

We then invited all participants to take part in a survey that could give us some hints in wich direction you wanted us to go. We got response from more than 250 participants and after review of all input we now we have four main points.

  1. Mixed Mode contest with SSB and CW in the same single weekend.
    SO categories SSB/CW/Mixed. MO categories Mixed.
  2. All stations may contact All stations
  3. Adding 160 meter band
  4. Defining more Overlays
Here are the four questions and how the participants voted

The question about OVERLAY was answered with many different suggestions and since it is technically a question of the way we present the results, we have postponed it until we have found out the categories and which bands we should use.

The next phase will begin after the SAC-CC members meeting later this year.
Keep an eye on this website for upcoming information.

SAC Survey May 2021

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NOTE: Deadline for responses is May 15, 2021

As a result of the technical developments as well as the more and more advanced operator skills, SAC CC wants to introduce innovations in the rules. There is also a reason for changes due to the many contests that are taking place and to retain a reasonably number of participants in SAC.

Therefore, we want to involve as many of our participants as possible in the process of drawing up new rules. We start by asking you about the overall lines to hear what the mood is around these changes. We look forward to receiving a lot of responses and also comments with your proposals.

When filling in the form, please take an individual position on each question. In that way we get the best overview of your wishes. Please use the note field if you have some ideas for improvement of SAC.

Attention: You may send your opinion more times but only the last input from you will be used.

Later, there may be further questions and proposals about new rules that work towards the wishes that are submitted here.

Survey #1 is closed for now.

Now we will analyze all the answers from you and come up with new proposal.
We will let you know!

73 SAC Contest Committee
LB8DC SM5AJV OZ2I

SAC SSB 10-11 October

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It’s time to grab your microphones and enter round two of the Polar Battle
10-11 October 12-12 UTC.

Please read the rules carefully! We want to remind you of the frequencies to be used: 3600-3650, 3700-3800, 7060-7100, 7130-7200, 14125-14300, 21151-21450, 28320-29000 kHz.
The log submission deadline is on Friday 16 October 2359UTC.

SAC 2020 CW preliminary results

We are proud to present the SAC CW preliminary results only two weeks after deadline. We have received over 1400 logs, a new record! Thanks to all participants!
Please check your Category, Score and UBN and tell us if anything looks wrong or if you have questions. Send an email to: support@sactest.net.

Click on your call in the listings, to see the UBN result.

  • Scandinavia: CW
  • Africa: CW
  • Asia: CW
  • Europe: CW
  • North America: CW
  • South America: CW
  • Oceania: CW

SAC Booklet 2020

Please contribute to the popular SAC Booklet with stories, anecdotes and photos. Take a look at former years booklets to get some inspiration. Email your contributions to the booklet editor Henning OZ2I at ha@oz2i.dk

73
SAC Contest Committee
SM5AJV, OH6EI, LB8DC, and OZ2I

SAC CW is this weekend

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The Scandinavian Activity Contest on CW is this weekend 19-20 September 12-12 UTC.

Each part of this “Polar Battle” gathers 1000+ contesters from all around the world. As the Nordic hams enter their radio huts en masse, SAC offers non-Scandinavians a unique opportunity to work the propagationally challenged Arctic nations and practice your skills.

Things to check out

Don’t forget to read the rules https://www.sactest.net/blog/rules/. Changes compared to 2019 are marked in red.

We have a tradition of making Results booklets from each SAC. Go to
https://www.sactest.net/blog/sac-booklets/ and read what happened the last years with lot of nice stories and pictures.

Please take a look on our Sponsored plaques program (geographical, special skills, etc.) https://www.sactest.net/blog/rules/sac-sponsored-plaque-program/ Maybe you will earn one this year!

Ham radio and contesting is very much about propagation. Learn about propagation to Scandinavia: https://www.sactest.net/blog/propagation/

Announce your activity and challenge your friends at https://www.sactest.net/blog/announce_form/

73 & CU!
SM5AJV, OH6EI, OZ2I, LB8DC
SAC Contest Committee

Rules for SAC 2020

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We have updated the SAC rules for 2020. Biggest news is that we now allow for assistance in all operator categories. We have also clarified the rules about plaques and awards. See the rules for details!

We are still having a pandemic and we urge every participant to pay extra care and follow advice and restrictions regarding Covid-19. Extra care must be taken for participants in the Multi Operator categories and we encourage the use of remote operation. For Scandinavian Multi-Multi operations we allow for “scattered stations”, similar to the HQ-station concept in the IARU HF Championship. If you decide to participate with “scattered stations”, please inform us via email to support@sactest.net.

UPDATE 2020-09-16

Discussions around rule change have continued. After some consideration and by receiving an excellent suggestion, we have decided to flip assisted / non-assisted column around: Instead of marking non-ass. “N” (novice, like someone joked;-), we will mark assisteds A. For this in results will be separate column, and data for this comes from log submission robot. Participant will be asked whether one used cluster etc. or not.

UPDATE 2020-08-21
After publishing the rules for SAC 2020 we have got some reactions on allowing for assistance in all operator categories. The reason behind the change is that we want to reduce the number of operator categories and plaques. The reduction will also make the log handling and checking easier. 
In order to recognize operators that prefer not using any assistance we have decided that you are able to state if you operated without any assistance when submitting the log. Operators who participate  without assistance will be marked with (N) after the call in the ranking lists.

SAC Dates 2020

SAC is soon! Start planning for your best participation ever! Why not announce your activity on CW and SSB to inspire others. Use our Announcement Form!

CW: 19-20 September
SSB: 10-11 October

73
SAC Contest Committee

It’s soon time for SAC SSB

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There are only a few days left until it’s time to grab the microphone and turn on your radio for SAC SSB October 12-13.

The CW part was a great success with more than 1700 participants. Almost 1300 logs with a total of 300.000 log lines was uploaded to the SAC Log Robot! A new record! Thanks to all participants!

60 years and still going strong

Our beloved SAC is 60 years old, and for this anniversary we offer special diplomas:

  • Bronze – to those whose first SAC was 1980-1989
  • Silver – to those whose first SAC was 1970-1979
  • Gold – to those whose first SAC was 1960-1969
  • Platina –  to those who were in the first SAC 1959

To get this you only need to report your first SAC-year when uploading your log.

Rules

Please read the rules carefully https://www.sactest.net/blog/rules/ .

Frequency limits:
​SSB: 3600-3650, 3700-3800, 7060-7100, 7130-7200, 14125-14300, 21151-21450, 28320-29000 kHz.
Remember, QSO’s outside the frequency limits will be scored zero points.

The “zero rule”:
If the station worked does not send a serial number, log the contact with number 0. QSO’s with zero in the received serial number field will not give QSO points nor multiplier points.

Sponsored plaques

Thanks to a multitude of generous sponsors we have a large program with sponsored plaques. Go and take a look and start planning!

Learn about propagation to Scandinavia

Propagation to and from Scandinavia can sometimes be challenging. Do your own planning by visiting our propagation page!

Announce your activity!

Fill in the announcement form and your plans will be on the Announced Operations in SAC SSB page.

Please be kind to forward this info to mailing lists or other internet media of your contest club, national league or other contest-oriented group.

73 & CU!
SM5AJV, OH6EI, OZ1BII, LB8DC
SAC Contest Committee

Welcome to SAC CW 2019

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Please welcome to SAC CW 21-22 September! Each part of this “Polar Battle” gathers 1000+ contesters from all around the world. As the Nordic hams enter their radio huts en masse, SAC offers non-scandinavians a unique opportunity to work the propagationally challenged Arctic nations and practice your skills.

60 years and still going strong

Our beloved SAC is 60 years old, and for this anniversary we offer special diplomas:

  • Bronze – to those whose first SAC was 1980-1989
  • Silver – to those whose first SAC was 1970-1979
  • Gold – to those whose first SAC was 1960-1969
  • Platina –  to those who were in the first SAC 1959

To get this you only need to report your first SAC-year when uploading your log.

Rules

Please read the rules carefully https://www.sactest.net/blog/rules/ .

Frequency limits:
​CW : 3510-3560, 7000-7040, 14000-14060, 21000-21070, 28000-28070 kHz
QSO’s outside the frequency limits will be scored zero points.

The “zero rule”:
If the station worked does not send a serial number, log the contact with number 000. QSO’s with zero in the received serial number field will not give QSO points nor multiplier points.

Results booklet from SAC 2018

Get inspired of last years SAC by reading the 2018 booklet that contains all results, pictures and stories.

Sponsored plaques

Thanks to a multitude of generous sponsors we have a large program with sponsored plaques. Go and take a look and start planning!

Learn about propagation to Scandinavia:

Propagation to and from Scandinavia can sometimes be challenging. Do your own planning by visiting our propagation page!

Announce your activity and challenge your friends

Fill in the announcement form and your plans will be on the Announced Operations in SAC CW page.

Please be kind to forward this info to mailing lists or other internet media of your contest club, national league or other contest-oriented group.

73 & CU!
SM5AJV, OH6EI, OZ1BII, LB8DC
SAC Contest Committee