Results of radio amateurs activity in the RFF (Russian Flora and Fauna) award program for 2019 are summarised.

Comparing to results of previous year, the results of 2019 can be represented in one picture:

Results in general

214 logs from 26 individual activators, who activated 116 RFF-references and conducted a total of 20’387 QSO, were uploaded to WWFF Logsearch.

Also 4 teams conducted 3’494 QSOs while activating seven RFF references (8 logs):

• RZ9SFF from RFF-0398 — 236 QSO;
• RK9LWZ (and RP74P) from RFF-0137 — 2’243 QSO;
• R3ARS/4 from RFF-0037, 0067, 0140 and 0171 — 854 QSO;
• UB5O/M from RFF-0683 — 161 QSO.

Thus, 26 individual operators and 4 teams activated 119 RFF-references, and 23'881 QSOs with 6'452 correspondents were conducted in total.
It is impossible to say unequivocally, is 2019 better than 2018, or worse.
There are 2.7 times more activations, almost 2.5 times more references activated in 2019, what is undoubtedly much more than in 2018.
At the same time, the total number of activators, as well as the number of their QSOs, remained almost the same, and the number of hunters was only 60% compared to 2018.

A year ago, we suggested that QSOs with still 1–2...4 RFF references may probably be random, but already with 5 and more — most likely, demonstrate a certain interest of the operator to Flora & Fauna programs. What came out in 2019?

843 hunters vs. 537 in the previous year conducted
12’050 QSOs compared to 4’798 in the previous year.

On the background of an undeniably noticeably increased number of qualified activations, the specific “weight” of one qualified activation significantly decreased:

Probably, the explanation for such ambiguous results may be:

• on the one hand, the degradation of propagation in 2019 compared to 2018, which made more difficult QSO conducting, especially using low output power,
• and on the other hand, the implementation of the Rating, a side effect of which turned out boosting the quantity of activated references at the cost the minimum QSO number from one reference.

Perhaps the emergence of a new WWFF award for activators will slightly improve to the better the situation in 2020.

The Rating

The real competition, did not subside until the very last December days, launched between the activators for the first place. There Crimeans got themselves ahead by a considerable margin from the others. Both Valery R7KFF and Victor RA7K activated 41 references in 2019. But, since there “can be only one champion”, we had to consider additional parameters — for example, the total number of RFF QSOs conducted by each of them: R7KFF — 2800 and RA7K — 2511 QSO.

Thus, R7KFF takes I place and RA7K — II place.
III place is deservedly taken by our Rising Star — Ilya UB3APM (novice category callsign) until recently, then R2ATW (general category callsign), and now R5AF (highest, extra class). Ilya quickly mastered operating on the air in whole, and field operation, and, most surprisingly, he mastered CW in the shortest possible time, skilled to transmit by vertical and electronic keys, mastered mechanical semiautomatic key (the so-called vibroplex), and already confidently conducting QSO at a speed of 25, and even more WPM. Desire is Power!

A certaint first place among hunters in the World is taken by Vlado OM1AX, our constant chaser and assistant in almost all of our outings. Just a little behind him are Arthur SP8LEP (II) and Jukka OH3GZ (III).

There are no surprises among Russian hunters this year. As well as in the past 2018, I and II places are occupied by Valery UA4PKN and Alexander RW4PP with a minimum gap from each other. It should be noted the minimum gap from each other is not only in the Rating, but also on the air — the time between their answers on our CQs often not exceed 1–2 minutes. Crimeans here also remind of themselves — Alexander RA7KW took III place.

Valery R7KFF and Vlado OM1AX get honored prizes and all the winners of the RFF Rating get remembrance certificates. Prizes and certificates have already been produced and will be mailed to the nominees in the nearest future.

It was also decided to encourage the best hunters on continents with remembrance certificates:

• KD1CT, Robert L Emory with 15 RFF references in North America;
• ZL1TM, Andrei Chatalov with 8 RFF references in Oceania;
• 4Z4DX, Dov Gavish with 34 RFF references in Asia.

The best Russian RFF CW operators (maximum number of QSOs) — Valery R7KFF (2800 CW QSO) as activator and Alexander RW4PP (111 CW QSO) as hunter do not go unnoticed. “The Keys Connecting Continents” books will be mailed to them with an autograph of author — Valery Alekseevich Pakhomov UA3AO, an excellent CW operator and key collector.

Also, as soon as we catch Pavel RU5A, he will get from us...
…encouraging prize for the highest among all activators the average QSO number (161.5) per one reference. This will be a powerbank, which will not allow Pavel’s smartphone (or GPS-navigator) to discharge when Pavel, hopefully, will begin to go more far into the forest away from his car.

The RFF 2019 Rating charts are placed below at the bottom of the page.

UPD.04.III.2020

Prizes and remembrance certificates were mailed to all winners of the RFF Rating 2019 Top-10 activators and Top-44 hunters, thereby the line under the 2019 results is finally drawn.

Welcome to the year 2020. The new RFF 2020 Rating charts have already been published, anyone interested — stay tuned.

RFF Team

It were added 213 new references — RFF-0754...0966 (232 references, RFF-0522...0753, were added in 2018) to the RFF Directory in 20 Entities of the Russian Federation.

GPS tracks have been implemented as a necessary (and enough) evidence (proof) of the activator’s location within the boundaries of the protected area since the end of March.
Work started to prepare RFF reference boundaries in the form of GPX files for using in various GPS navigation programs. At the moment the boundaries of all RFF references in Moscow city and Moscow oblast, Karelia, the Bryansk oblast and in part some other oblasts are completed. This work requires a lot effort and is carried out step by step as time allows.
Therefore, if you need the boundaries of some specific territory, contact the coordinator in advance to get the required boundaries out of turn.

Finally we finished out some of the RFF awards, and it will be possible to apply for awards of WWFF Series (RFF-H and RFF-A) on the WWFF website since the end of January/beginning of February. The issuance of the “Sanctuary Russia” Series awards should also start in the same 2020 year.

What's new

In accordance with the precedent, if pretenders for same awarded place in the TOP-10 or TOP-44 have the same number of references at the end of the year, the number of QSOs conducted by each of them will be considered as an additional factor.

A referential indicator will be added into TOP-10 activators chart — the average QSO number per 1 activation.

Based on the practice of the previous two years, there are RFF “activators”, who indicated the RFF reference while on the air, but sent no logs for uploading either in a month, or in three, or in half a year... who did not send it at all. Or those, who failed (or did not want) to provide proof of their location within the boundaries of the respective protected territory during supposed activation, so activation could not be accepted. A list of those “activators” appears on our website since 2020. Decide yourself whether it’s worth getting involved into pile-up for QSO, spending time and making efforts if it still does not give you the desired RFF reference onto your count.

The sections “Announcements”, “Forum” and “QRP Marathon” will be removed as unclaimed on our website.

activators				hunters all over the world				hunters in russia
place	call sign	refs.		place	call sign	refs.		place	call sign	refs.
1–2	R7KFF	41		1	OM1AX	105		1	UA4PKN	90
1–2	RA7K	41		2	SP8LEP	98		2	RW4PP	89
–	UA3LMR	35		3	OH3GZ	92		3	RA7KW	66
3	R5AF	18		4–5	OH6RP	90		4	R9AB	52
–	RN3ANT	17		4–5	UA4PKN	90		5	RU6K	48
4	R9GM	7		6–7	OM3CND	89		6	RA3RGQ	42
5–6	RU5A	6		6–7	RW4PP	89		7	R6LZ	41
5–6	UA3FQ	6		8	ON4ON	87		8–9	RA4AAJ	37
7	RU9SO	4		9	DK4RM	85		8–9	RW7B	37
8–9	RA9DF	3		10–11	IW2BNA	83		10	R7KM	36
8–9	UA3LDU	3		10–11	UT5PI	83		11	UA4NBA	35
10–13	R2ABT	2		12	UR7ET	82		12	UA1ZID	34
10–13	R3YC	2		13	I5FLN	79		13	R4AN	32
10–13	RU9CK	2		14	IZ2BHQ	78		14–16	RM9RZ	30
10–13	UA4AVN	2		15	DL2ND	77		14–16	UA3AAJ	30
				16–17	IW2NXI	73		14–16	UA3GJM	30
				16–17	S58AL	73		17–18	RN2F	29
				18–19	IK3HMB	72		17–18	RU9CZ	29
				18–19	S52KM	72		19–20	RA4HQG	27
				20–21	ES1IP	68		19–20	RM6J	27
				20–21	YL2TQ	68		21	RX6LG	26
				22	RA7KW	66		22	RN1CW	25
				23–24	IZ8DFO	65		23–25	R7KC	24
				23–24	UX1IM	65		23–25	RM1O	24
				25	DL1FU	64		23–25	UA3GX	24
				26–29	HA8DD	60		26–29	R1AC	23
				26–29	IK8FIQ	60		26–29	RA9AJ	23
				26–29	OH6GAZ	60		26–29	RN3ANT	23
				26–29	ON4VT	60		26–29	RW7F	23
				30	DL5EBG	58		30–31	RA7KR	22
				31	E77O	56		30–31	UA9LT	22
				32	F8DGF	55		32–34	R6AC	21
				33–34	SP1MVG	53		32–34	UA1D	21
				33–34	SP2SV	53		32–34	UA6F	21
				35	R9AB	52		35	RT6C	20
				36	YO3JW	50		36–40	RA1AVP	19
				37–38	9A4FM	49		36–40	RA6LEL	19
				37–38	DF1YQ	49		36–40	RD3FT	19
				39–41	DL6KVA	48		36–40	UA1ADZ	19
				39–41	RU6K	48		36–40	UA3LMR	19
				39–41	YO6LB	48		41–43	R6KA	18
				42–43	F1BLL	47		41–43	UA4HY	18
				42–43	YO6CFB	47		41–43	UB7K	18
				44–46	IK1GPG	46		44–49	R7KPZ	17
				44–46	LZ3SM	46		44–49	RA7T	17
				44–46	OZ7JZ	46		44–49	RJ6J	17
								44–49	RJ7A	17
								44–49	RN4ZT	17
								44–49	RZ9OL	17

---

RFF Rating 2024

RFF Rating 2023. Results

RFF Rating 2022. Results

RFF Rating 2021. Results

RFF Rating 2020. Results

RFF Rating 2018. Results

Rules of RFF activators and hunters Rating