BQPA - Binary and Quadrature PSK Awards
General Rules The
Binary and Quadrature PSK Award Series [BQPA] was devised by the
European PSK Club on 31st August 2006. This was to sponsor a series of
PSK awards based on different binary and quadrature PSK boud rate
two-way digital contacts. There are six different BQPA awards available
at the moment: BPSK31 Award, BPSK63 Award, BPSK125 Award, QPSK31 Award,
QPSK63 Award and QPSK125 Award. Any BQPA award may be claimed by any
licensed radio amateur, club station or SWL eligible under these rules
who can produce evidence of having contacted/monitored amateur radio
stations by using different binary and quadrature PSK boud rate modes.
All claims must be submitted in an appropriate application form listed
on the EPC website. Contacts with none EPC members have no date/time
restrictions; contacts with EPC members must be made on or after 10th
June 2006.
QSL-cards are not required. Awards are issued to the
person or club. The person or club can use any legal call sign.
Contacts made from club stations or special event stations count to the
credit of both the club and the operator. All stations must be operated
in accordance with their licensing conditions. Contacts may be made
from any location in the same DXCC country. Credit will be given for
contacts made on any of the amateur bands below 30 MHz. Confirmations
from the EPC Short Wave Listeners are accepted as confirmed contacts.
The
submission for credit of any altered or forged log extractions or,
equally, bad behaviour on or off the air which is judged by the
European PSK Club to bring a particular programme into disrepute may
result in disqualification of the applicant from the Award Programme.
The decision of the award manager on this and other matters of dispute
will be finals.
All awards are issued FREE of charge in a high
quality PDF format and sent via email to the applicants. Awards could
be printed then with the highest quality and with optimal performance
by applicants themselves. BQPA awards are issued to the EPC members
only. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. 
The
BPSK31 award may be claimed by any EPC member eligible under the BQPA
General Rules listed above who can produce evidence in a form of ADIF
log of having earned 1000 points for contacts with any amateur radio
stations by using BPSK31 mode (31.25 baud rate). Each contact with EPC
member is worth 5 points. Each contact with none EPC member is worth 1
point. The final score is the result of the total QSO points. | | 
The
BPSK63 award may be claimed by any EPC member eligible under the BQPA
General Rules listed above who can produce evidence in a form of ADIF
log of having earned 1000 points for contacts with any amateur radio
stations by using BPSK63 mode (62.50 baud rate). Each contact with EPC
member is worth 5 points. Each contact with none EPC member is worth 1
point. The final score is the result of the total QSO points. | | | | | 
The
BPSK125 award may be claimed by any EPC member eligible under the BQPA
General Rules listed above who can produce evidence in a form of ADIF
log of having earned 1000 points for contacts with any amateur radio
stations by using BPSK125 mode (125 baud rate). Each contact with EPC
member is worth 10 points. Each contact with none EPC member is worth 2
points. The final score is the result of the total QSO points. | | 
The
QPSK31 award may be claimed by any EPC member eligible under the BQPA
General Rules listed above who can produce evidence in a form of ADIF
log of having earned 1000 points for contacts with any amateur radio
stations by using QPSK31 mode (31.25 baud rate). Each contact with EPC
member is worth 5 points. Each contact with none EPC member is worth 1
point. The final score is the result of the total QSO points. | | | | | 
The
QPSK63 award may be claimed by any EPC member eligible under the BQPA
General Rules listed above who can produce evidence in a form of ADIF
log of having earned 1000 points for contacts with any amateur radio
stations by using QPSK63 mode (62.5 baud rate). Each contact with EPC
member is worth 5 points. Each contact with none EPC member is worth 1
point. The final score is the result of the total QSO points. | | 
The
QPSK125 award may be claimed by any EPC member eligible under the BQPA
General Rules listed above who can produce evidence in a form of ADIF
log of having earned 1000 points for contacts with any amateur radio
stations by using QPSK125 mode (125 baud rate). Each contact with EPC
member is worth 10 points. Each contact with none EPC member is worth 2
points. The final score is the result of the total QSO points. |
Technical Information
The
Phase Shift Keying (PSK) is a method of digital communication in which
the phase of a transmitted signal is varied to convey information.
There are several methods that can be used to accomplish PSK. The main
advantage of PSK is its excellent signal-to-noise ratio, which allows
communication under adverse conditions such as severe fading, noise, or
interference where other communications modes fail.
The
simplest PSK technique is called binary phase-shift keying (BPSK). It
uses two opposite signal phases (0 and 180 degrees). The digital signal
is broken up timewise into individual bits (binary digits). The state
of each bit is determined according to the state of the preceding bit.
If the phase of the wave does not change, then the signal state stays
the same (0 or 1). If the phase of the wave changes by 180 degrees -
that is, if the phase reverses - then the signal state changes (from 0
to 1, or from 1 to 0). Because there are two possible wave phases, BPSK
is sometimes called biphase modulation.
In quadrature
phase-shift keying (QPSK) are four phases (0, +90, -90, and 180
degrees), and each phase shift represents two signal elements. In QPSK,
data can be transmitted at a faster rate, relative to the number of
phase changes per unit time, than is the case in BPSK.
The
BQPA awards are based on contacts made with three data transmission
rates - 31.25, 62.5 and 125 baud. Baud was the prevalent measure for
data transmission speed until replaced by a more accurate term, BPS
(bits per second). One baud is one electronic state change per second.
Since a single state change can involve more than a single bit of data,
the BPS unit of measurement has replaced it as a better expression of
data transmission speed. The measure was named after a French engineer,
Jean-Maurice-Emile Baudot. It was first used to measure the speed of
telegraph transmissions. Application Procedure
Since 1st June 2008 all claims for the EPC awards should be made using our UltimateEPC Award Management Software
written by DK5UR. The award applicant should re-submit his application
when claiming for higher classes of awards. The award manager will keep
all your records in our database. Please make sure before you submit
your ADIF log that you have checked it with the appropriate software. | 
