SARL 80 m QSO Party

Three hours of phone on 80 m on the first Thursday of April and of October, with DX contacts worth more than local ones.

Rules at mysarl.org.zaThe rules are the sponsor's. This page holds the dates and the facts.

When it runs

First Thursday of April, and First Thursday of October

1700Z → 2000Z Thursday

Times are UTC, as the sponsor states them.

Next runnings

1700Z Thu 1 Oct → 2000Z Thu 1 Oct · 3h2026
on the air now
1700Z Thu 1 Apr → 2000Z Thu 1 Apr · 3h2027
in 182 days
1700Z Thu 7 Oct → 2000Z Thu 7 Oct · 3h2027
in 371 days
1700Z Thu 6 Apr → 2000Z Thu 6 Apr · 3h2028
in 553 days
1700Z Thu 5 Oct → 2000Z Thu 5 Oct · 3h2028
in 735 days
1700Z Thu 5 Apr → 2000Z Thu 5 Apr · 3h2029
in 917 days

Operating

Modes: SSB
Bands: 80m
Only 3 603-3 650 and 3 703-3 800 kHz may be used; 3 651-3 699 kHz is contest free.
Exchange: Call sign, RS signal report and the operator's name.
Logs: no deadline or format recorded
Who can enter: Anyone, anywhere.
No entry restriction is stated, and the scoring explicitly rewards 'every contact with a station outside South Africa'.

Where this comes from

Checked against the sponsor: Yes. The rule on this page was read off SARL's own published rules. Link last confirmed 2026-08-19.
What the source says: 2026 SARL Contest Manual Version 1.1 (2025-12-15), mysarl.org.za, https://mysarl.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2026-SARL-Contest-Manual-Version-1.1-2025-12-15.pdf, 'The SARL 80 m QSO Party': '2.1. 17:00 to 20:00 UTC on the 1st Thursday of April - 2 April 2026 2.2. 17:00 to 20:00 UTC on the 1st Thursday of October - 1 October 2026'. Aim: 'to create an interest in and activity on the 80-m band. It is a phone only contest.' Exchange: '4.1. Call sign, RS signal report and operator's name.' Scoring: '10 points for every contact with a South African station, 15 points for every contact with a station outside South Africa'. Every date is checked against SARL's own Date Ordered List of Contests in the same manual, which states UTC directly, and against SARL-Contests-2026-Calendar.ics.
Recorded caveats: Two legs on one record: both run 17:00-20:00 UTC on a first Thursday. A Thursday evening rather than a weekend, which is unusual enough to be worth stating. log_format and log_deadline_days are absent: this pass read each contest's Aim, Dates, Frequencies and Exchange sections and did not read its Log Sheets section, so neither is recorded rather than assumed from SARL's other contests.

Something wrong? How to report it — a link to the sponsor's own page is all it takes.

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