Outdoor QRP Activity Group invites radio amateurs around the world to take part in the “Field Flowers” yearlong marathon. The aim of the Marathon is increasing of the interest for outdoor (fields) activity with QRP rigs, experiments with antennas and equipment as well as improving of skills of operating in a case of emergency.

We stand for careful handling of nature and presenting of the most beautiful and interesting places of our planet Earth on the HAM radio air.

The “Field Flowers” outdoor QRP Marathon starts at 00:00 UTC of January 01, 2017 and lasts a whole year, until 23:59 UTC of December 31, 2017. Marathon participants will meet with surprises like as interesting short-term gaming events. Absolute winner and winners inside categories will be determined in beginning of 2018 after the Marathon completing.

Contacts are credited with any HAM radio correspondents, on any bands, by any modes, but the Marathon participant's radio station must operate outdoors only with QRP (no more than 5 watts CW / DIGI and no more than 10 watts of peak output power in Phone) or less output power.

Duplicated QSO on different bands or modes are not counted. Besides that, duplicated contacts are not counted even if correspondent uses any additions ¹ to call sign.

Contacts, made in the framework of any activities of other amateur radio societies (i.e. SOTA, NPOTA, GMA, Fox Hunt, any contests, field or activity days etc.), may be applied for the Marathon, if conditions of these QSO correspond to requirements of the Marathon.

Radio stations are considered to be field, if they meet the criteria:

• autonomous power supply is used, such as Battery Pack, solar panel, gasoline generator, etc.;
• radio station is located at a distance no closer than 300 meters from the inhabited locality. Placing of radio station in parks and recreational areas, located in settlements, allowed if outside of capital buildings ^2A and autonomous power supply used;
• stationary antennas ² are not used at the position of the participant.

Scoring group of participants

• Portable (P) — participants operating with a fixed outdoor (field) position;
• Mobile (M) — participants operating on move: bike, car, motorcycle, etc.;
• Pedestrian Mobile (PM) — walking participants operating on go.

Participation is allowed in one or several groups.

Points and multipliers

Each valid QSO counts 1 point.

Additional bonuses will be added for the scoring of each outing in case of:

• multiplier x2 for new outdoor location ³ or new route ⁴ ;
• for an illustrated story (reportage) ⁵ published by author on www.outdoorqrp.org website based on voting ⁶ of authorized visitors:
  – I place +50 points;
  – II place +30 points;
  – III place +10 points.
  Bonuses for the story (reportage) are awarded immediately after the vote completing.
• for participation in the Seasonal Activity Days on the basis of points obtained for established QSOs (bonuses for new place / route is not used in determining the winners of Activity Days):
  – I place +50 points;
  – II place +30 points;
  – III place +10 points.

Reports

Reports on participation should be sent to the email address in a week at the end of the outdoor outing.

The "Subject" field of e-mail message should contain only call sign of a participant and the kind of report - Marathon, seasonal activity days, etc.

The body of e-mail message should contain:

1. Scoring group.
2. Is outdoor location or route new or old?
3. Geographical coordinates, clearly indicating the place of activity or a route track attached ⁷ .
4. Attached file ⁸ — extract from the log in ADIF format. It is recommended to previously remove all of the duplicated QSOs.

Additionally, there may be specified:

• postal address for sending a Marathon Participant Certificate (only in the first report);
• any additional pertinent information.

Intermediate results are published on the website www.outdoorQRP.org as processing of incoming reports.

Awards

Every participant of the Marathon who has sent at least one report, regardless of the number of QSO, will get free by mail a Certificate of the Marathon Participant.

The absolute winner and winners by each group (P, M, PM) in the World will be determined by results of the whole year after the completion of the Marathon and will be awarded by plaques if there are at least 10 participants in each group.

Second and third places winners will be awarded by special Diplomas of Winner.

The Rules may be supplemented ⁹ by provisions regarding founding of new awards and prizes, lotteries, and other rewards for Participants of the Marathon.

Special prize for most distant QSO

We announce a competition for all Marathon participants for most distant QSO by CW, SSB and DIGI in Portable (P) group, besides that regardless of the emission mode for most distant QSO in the Mobile (M) and Pedestrian Mobile (PM) Groups. An additional prize will be issued for most distant QSO established by power 500 mW or less.

Application with:
— call sign;
— QSO data;
— equipment and power used;
— distance from applicant to the correspondent;
— both WW-Locators
should be sent until January 10, 2018 to e-mail .
Subject of your message should contain your callsign and word "competition".

¹ — for example, if the call sign UR0ET is already credited earlier, any other QSO with DL/UR0ET or UR0ET/a, etc. are considered as duplication and do not counted into score.

² — antennas are deployed / installed on arrival to the position before activity and dismantled at the end of activity prior to leaving of the position.

^2A — at least 150 meters away from the capital buildings — residentials, industrial buildings, shopping centers, etc.;
Sports facilities — ramps, ice and skating rinks, sports fields etc., cafes, kiosks with ice-cream/water/bakery/fastfood and newspapers, summer theater, outbuilding, pavilions and pergolas, attractions etc. are not included into this limitation.
Refinement takes effect since 01 March 2017.

³ — position is considered as a NEW LOCATION, if its distance from any of earlier used locations is at least 500 m and within first 24 hours since first QSO at this location. Bonus multiplier will be applied for all QSO points, earned in this new location within first 24 hours only.

⁴ — route is considered as NEW ROUTE if its any part, used for establishing QSO, is outlying at least for 500 m from same parts of any previous routes of the participant.

⁵ — a story (reportage) should be published in two weeks after the completion of the corresponding activity.

⁶ — voting in a special electronic form on the web site begins every 15th and ends every 30th day of the month following the reporting one. Each authorized visitor may vote for only one story each month. Each author may apply any number of his reportages (stories) for voting.

⁷ — geographical coordinates in any format (DD MM SS, DD MM.MM, DD.DDDDD, where DD - degrees, MM - minutes, SS - seconds) or GPS-track in .gpx or .kml format, or link to a map with the track (gpsies.com, maps.google.com, maps.yandex.ru etc.).

⁸ — we recommend to name the attached file in form of CALLSIGN_17.MM.DD.adi.

⁹ — Marathon Participants, other interested persons, organizations, communities can become sponsors and founders of awards, raffles, lotteries in any other nominations and categories (for example, modes, bands, territories, continents, distance, number of outputs, the best publication on a specific topic, etc.) in coordination with the organizers of the Marathon.

Rules of “Field Flowers 2016” Marathon