The CRUMB PSK Award Series was devised by the European PSK Club on 22^nd May 2008. This was to sponsor a series of PSK awards for contacts with different DXCC countries by using QRP equipment. This award series is based on the ARRL DXCC Countries List. There are 338 current entities on the list. CRUMB 25, CRUMB 50, CRUMB 75, and CRUMB 100 Awards may be claimed by any licensed radio amateur or club station eligible under these rules who can produce evidence in a form of ADIF log of having contacted amateur radio stations from 25, 50, 75, and 100 different current DXCC entities respectively at the time of application on any PSK mode by using QRP equipment. Deleted entities don't count for these awards. Contacts count on or after 1^st January 2000. The award manager is Nikolaos Georgiadis, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

QRP operation means transmitting at reduced power levels while aiming to maximize one's effective range while doing so. There is not complete agreement on what constitutes QRP power. While most QRP enthusiasts agree that for PSK modes the transmitter output power should be 5 watts (or less). Communicating using QRP can be difficult since the QRPer must face the same challenges of radio propagation faced by amateurs using higher power levels, but with the inherent disadvantages associated with having a weaker signal on the receiving end, all other things being equal. PSK is a highly efficient, narrow-band mode that is very suitable to QRP operation.

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. The output power shall not exceed 5 watts. 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 DMS/SWL stations are accepted as confirmed contacts. All stations contacted must be "land stations." Contacts with ships and boats, anchored or underway, and airborne aircraft, cannot be counted. For the purposes of this award, remote control operating points must also be land based. Exception: Permanently docked exhibition ships, such as the Queen Mary and other historic ships will be considered land based. It is obviously inconceivable that this award series can be issued to DMS/SWL stations.

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.

Please make sure that the TX_POWER field in your ADIF log is filled-in indicating the output power of your radio during the QSO. For those logs that don't have TX_POWER field in the exporting ADIF file please make sure that the COMMENT field contains #PWR 1 to #PWR 5 code (number means your output power) for each carried QRP QSO, where # tag is required. These are mandatory requirements to make able the manager's software to check your application correctly. The award manager reserves the right to spot call sign for inspection of applied contacts. The purpose of this is not to call into question the integrity of any individual, but rather to ensure the overall integrity of the EPC award program. More difficult attained specialty awards (such as CRUMB 100) are more likely to be so called. Failure of the applicant to respond to such spot check will result in non-issuance of the EPC award. 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 can be printed with the highest quality and with optimal performance by applicants themselves. The CRUMB award series is issued to the EPC members only. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the award manager.

CRUMB Award Series 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.