Contest going on tonight?

Folks please forgive me,I'm new to HF and very ignorant to contesting. There is a contest going tonight that I cant figure out the exchange. I'm tuned on a NJ station to see if he is asking for the grid square but I'm not really sure. If anybody could help me I would appreciate it. Most of this seems to be going on 80,and 40 meters. Some folks are saying " Please copy 74 charlie tango. He is saying please copy 84 Northern New Jersey. I have a pritty good idea thats not our grid square because my grid square is fn20.

Yes, there is indeed an HF contest this weekend... the two digit number is for the year of first license.
The letter(s) refers to power level of the station and single op, multi op, school or club. ARRL
Home should have all the info, if you're interested.

Ok thank you weak signal. I guess then the three digit number would then indicate how many contacts one single operator or station made? After I created this thread I heard another station call CQ sweep steaks, it's was then that I went to the ARRL calendar and starting to read the rules of the contest. It sounded like field day. So far I had never seen my DX spotter that active.

The contest is the ARRL Sweepstakes.

The exchange is a bit complicated and I think it's that way to counter the people who say a simpler exchange, like many contests have, is not a meaningful test of actually making a two-way contact. So, the first part of the exchange is a consecutive serial number (your first contact in the contest is your number 1 and you count up from there), followed by a single-letter "precedence" which indicates your entry category (“Q” for Single Op QRP; “A” for Single Op Low Power; “B” for Single Op High Power; “U” for Single Op Unlimited; “M” for Multi-Op; “S” for School Club), followed by your callsign, followed by the last 2 digits of the year of first license for either the operator or the station, followed by the ARRL/RAC Section (abbreviated).

For example, if I was operating single-up with 100 watts (low power) and I was responding to your CQ, I'd send "AC2OY 123 A W9BU 91 IN".

Each ARRL/RAC Section is a multiplier and if you are lucky enough to make contacts with every one (it's really tough to make contact with the Northern Territories in Canada since there are very few hams up there) that's called a "Clean Sweep".

W9BU said:

The contest is the ARRL Sweepstakes.

The exchange is a bit complicated and I think it's that way to counter the people who say a simpler exchange, like many contests have, is not a meaningful test of actually making a two-way contact. So, the first part of the exchange is a consecutive serial number (your first contact in the contest is your number 1 and you count up from there), followed by a single-letter "precedence" which indicates your entry category (“Q” for Single Op QRP; “A” for Single Op Low Power; “B” for Single Op High Power; “U” for Single Op Unlimited; “M” for Multi-Op; “S” for School Club), followed by your callsign, followed by the last 2 digits of the year of first license for either the operator or the station, followed by the ARRL/RAC Section (abbreviated).

For example, if I was operating single-up with 100 watts (low power) and I was responding to your CQ, I'd send "AC2OY 123 A W9BU 91 IN".

Each ARRL/RAC Section is a multiplier and if you are lucky enough to make contacts with every one (it's really tough to make contact with the Northern Territories in Canada since there are very few hams up there) that's called a "Clean Sweep".

Click to expand...

So my response to your CQ would AC2OY 001 A 14 NJ and that would be ok? I think I get it now thank you very much for all your help!!

I've worked Field Day and the VHF Contests and was at first thinking, "Ho hum. Another contest... maybe I'll check in and see what is going on." So I built a spreadsheet to handle the exchange and logging and went on the air. I was quite surprised at how much fun it was! The ARRL Sweepstakes is pretty neat... LOTS of stations, lots of bands, interesting exchange. And I worked Hawaii for the first time on my Off-Center Fed Dipole! Not to mention a slew of western states and Canadian provinces. It is a little disheartening when you give your QSO sequence number as, say "39" and the other station comes back with "Please copy my contact number twelve hundred and sixty one....". But hey, I was in it for fun... and that's what I got.

1261 wow I guess he was "at it" or operating for hours?

Great online calendar to see what contests are on.
WA7BNM Contest Calendar: Home

You can click on each contest and see what the exchange is as well.

There's a contest nearly every waking moment. It's ridiculous.

mancow said:

There's a contest nearly every waking moment. It's ridiculous.

Click to expand...

So is that statement.