coupe du ref
The French national contest is one of my favourite contests, but sadly participation from much of Europe is limited. I have created this page in the hope that I might encourage others to join this annual event.
For me, the Coupe du REF is one of the most challenging contests because the rules, unlike most national society contests, are stacked against foreign entrants: a French station gets 6 points for contacting a fellow Frenchman but only 1 point for contacting another European and 3 points for a non-French station outside Europe. Consequently, the French operator has to know that he is not wasting his time on making such a low counting QSO.
The contest is based around the French départements, each of which has its own number (allocted in a roughly alphabetical order), with, for example, 01 for Ain, 29 for Finistère, and 75 for Paris city centre.
Dates:
- 24-25 Jan 2004: HF CW
- 28-29 Feb 2004: HF SSB
- 5-6 June 2004: VHF
Each leg starts at 0600 UTC on the Saturday and finishes at 1800 UTC on the Sunday.
Exchange:
Foreign station sends: RST + Serial number.
French station sends: RST + Département number.
(eg: F1ABC de M0BLF 599001, M0BLF de F1ABC 59975)
or French overseas station sends: RST + Prefix (eg M0BLF de FG5AB 599FG)
Software:
WinREF is freeware software written by Robert F5AIB, which is available for the REF Contest, and runs under Windows™. It fully supports the DX station leg and I have used it for the last two years. It may be downloaded via f5aib.free.fr
Rules:
Full official rules are in PDF Format (in French). I have also translated them into English.
Hope to see you in the test!
