CQWW Adds New 'Xtreme' Category:

(Hicksville, NY – June 10, 2009) – A new “Xtreme” category is being added to the CQ World Wide DX Contest to encourage the development of new technologies in amateur radio communications in general and contesting in particular. According to CQ WW Contest Director Bob Cox, K3EST, this new category has been established to allow amateurs to participate in the CQ WW contest while experimenting creatively with Internet-linked stations and other new technologies.

“Contesters are often early adopters of new technologies,” said Cox, “and we want to encourage this as a continuation of ham radio’s pioneering spirit. However, many of these technologies are not currently permitted in any existing CQ WW categories. The Xtreme category will allow these stations to compete, but only with other stations using new technologies.”

Scoring for logs submitted in the new category will be a mix of standard CQ WW scoring plus a more subjective score for level of innovation and originality, as determined by a panel of judges on the CQ WW Contest Committee. The highest-scoring entries in the single-operator and multi-operator categories will win the John Kanzius, K3TUP, Memorial plaques, sponsored by Tim Duffy, K3LR. Kanzius, a prominent contester, was also an experimenter who developed a potentially ground-breaking approach to cancer treatment in the course of his own, ultimately unsuccessful, battle with the disease.

The new category will take effect with the 2009 CQ World Wide DX Contest this fall. It was introduced to contesters at the 2009 Dayton Hamvention® and received an immediate positive response. Complete details of the Xtreme category are in the June issue of CQ and are on the CQWW page of the CQ magazine website, http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/.

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