The Salmon Run 2023 Rules are out and published on the Rules Page. The only minor change this year is that self-spotting will be allowed by stations in all classes.
In hard-core contests, self spotting is a big no-no. Operators have to be careful not to ask to be spotted or even post a photo to social media that shows their operating frequency and mode.
A QSO party like Salmon Run is a friendly competition, but our main goals are to advance the radio art, get stations across Washington on the air, activate rarer counties for county hunters worldwide, and generally generate as many contacts as possible with and between Washington stations. To this end, stations participating in Salmon Run already post intricate minute-by-minute roving plans and stations help to spot rovers and rare counties as they are heard across the bands. CW operators are regularly spotted automatically by remote stations in the reverse beacon network, and this can be taken advantage of to “self spot” intentionally or not.
Over the past decade, programs like SOTA and POTA have taken the airwaves by storm and generated huge interest amongst operators new and old. These programs, as well as programs like county hunting, rely on spots to generate interest in those activations. Salmon Run operators have historically operated rare counties from SOTA summits and POTA parks, but have been limited in their ability to spot themselves for these programs due to the self-spotting rules.
This year, we’re going to allow self spotting with the goal of fostering even more contacts with and between Washington stations. Please use this new tool responsibly (don’t spam the clusters with your spots!) and remember that spotting oneself isn’t a claim to any frequency or mode — ensure the frequency isn’t in use first and please don’t QRM others!
If you’re operating mobile or portable in an area where there isn’t a good internet connection, check out apps like SOTAMat and Winklink for spotting yourself.
In addition, we’ve updated the wording around Canadian multipliers to clarify that our multipliers are different than the ARRL/RAC sections and operators should send the specified multiplier based on their location. We’ve stuck with the same 8 Canadian multipliers as the past couple of years, and these are part of the “horse race” awards for WA stations that we introduced last year.
For DX stations, it’s important to note that “DX” is not a valid multiplier. DX stations should send their country prefix, e.g. “F” for France or “JA” for Japan. We are aware that some prefixes overlap other multipliers, and our scoring software is aware of this and uses the combination of the callsign and multiplier for scoring purposes. Stations logged as “DX” will not be scored for multiplier credit.
–Justin, K5EM on behalf of the WWDXC Salmon Run Committee
