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Russian YL/OM Contest
2025
«Between breakfast and lunch.» This humorous name of a short-lived «women’s» shortwave radio contest is true, of course, only for the European part of our country. The name «between lunch and dinner» is more appropriate for its Asian part. But no matter how it sounds, the YL/OM Contest gives women the opportunity to celebrate International Women’s Day by working in their contest. Please the amateur radio broadcast, which is not spoiled by female voices, with the chance to conduct several dozen QSOs with YL stations in Russia and other countries.
Once upon a time, the all-Soviet Union women’s shortwave competitions gathered more than one hundred participants, but, alas, that’s all in the past — in the last three decades, YL’s activity on the air has been low. In order to keep YL’s interest in amateur radio communications alive, «Radio» Magazine holds the annual YL/OM Contest. Since 2024, the Russian Contest Club has joined the organization of the competition.
Radio amateurs from all over the world are invited to participate in the Russian YL/OM Contest.
1. Contest dates, bands and modes
The contest is usually held annually on the Saturday closest to March 8th, and if Saturday falls on March 8th, on the next other day off.
In 2025, due to the fact that the Russian Championship will be held on the traditional dates of the contest, and next weekend the Russian DX Contest will be held on March 22 from 07:00 till 10:59 UTC.
Bands: 10, 15, 20 and 40 meters
Modes: CW and SSB
The CQ in CW for YL radio stations is TEST OM, and for OM radio stations is TEST YL.
2. Entry categories
- Single Op High Power YL;
- Single Op Low Power YL (no more 100 W);
- Multi Op YL (Ops must be only YL);
- Multi Op SSB YL Junior (Ops must be only YL – under 19 years old);
- Single Op High Power OM;
- Single Op Low Power OM (no more 100 W);
- Multi Op OM;
- Multi Op SSB OM Junior (Ops under 19 years old);
- Single Op SWL
There is only a mixed (CW and SSB) all band for all participants (except for the Junior subgroups) in these contest.
3. Exchanges
For YL-stations — RS(T) + 88
For OM-stations — RS(T) + 73
4. QSO Points, Multipliers and Final score
- 5 points for QSO with YL stations;
- 1 point for a QSO with OM.
Each YL callsign a multiplier on each band, each mode.
The final result is obtained as the sum of QSO points for all bands multiplied by the total number of multipliers.
All QSOs are counted according to the principle of everything with everyone.
Same station may be worked once per band each mode.
5. Log Submission
Logs are accepted in CABRILLO file format only.
Web upload is the prefer method of log submission. Web upload of logs is available at: https://ua9qcq.com/hf-logs.php. If you have problems uploading the log, you can send it by e-mail: contest@radio.ru.
There are very few paper logs coming in. The editorial board of the Radio magazine will continue to receive them, but in order not to delay the judging of the competition, only those that arrive at the editorial office by the beginning of the judging (about three weeks after the end of receiving electronic reports) will be counted. Therefore, please send paper logs IMMEDIATELY after the end of the contest to the address: Editorial office of the Radio magazine, per. Protopopovsky 25B, Moscow, 129090, Russia.
Logs must be submitted to the contest sponsors within 14 days after the end of the contest.
Receipt of the log will be confirmed on the «Uploaded Logs» page on ua9qcq.com Website (https://ua9qcq.com/uploaded_logs_list.php)
Logs submitted after the deadline may be listed in the results, but are not eligible for awards.
6. Awards
The winners in the Single Op High Power YL and Multi Op YL subgroups are traditionally awarded with plaques from Radio magazine.
The winners in the remaining subgroups are awarded with plaques from the Russian Contest Club.
All participants of the competition will be able to download an electronic certificate on the website https://ua9qcq.com after the contest results are published.
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