Defcon Wifi Shootout Contest Details

Contest Staff/Judges

Dave Moore, Stefan Morris, Derek Hubbard, Steven Stovall

Contest Location

The location of the contest will be announced at the Friday and Saturday registration times at the Alexis Park Hotel. A location will be chosen that yields the best line of sight to accessibility ratio.

Radio Communications

The former ASLRulz team (2003 contest winners, 2004 contest coordinators) will again coordinate a Special Event Station with callsign W5C.

The main feature of this station will be a 2 meter/70 centimeter crossband repeater. All licensed amateurs are welcome to use the repeater during contest hours on Saturday, 30 July. Contest participants are welcome to use
this repeater during competition to enchance their voice communications capabilities.

The main purpose of the repeater is to enhance communications capabilities for contest staff and participants, as well as support emergency communication needs. Contest staff will relay messages for any unlicensed participants as staff availability permits.

For licensed participants who wish to utilize this service, the repeater will be optimized for use as follows:

- base camp team members should have 70 cm low power equipment

- mobile team members should have high power 2 m equipment

Participants are advised:

1. Be prepared for desert conditions. Rain may fall. Sun may shine. Bathrooms may be a 30-mile hike. Cellular radio communication equipment may not work. Electrical power will NOT be provided.

2. You are responsible for transporting your human bodies and equipment to and from the event location. Fill your gas tank before departing. Depending on transportation availability, you may also be asked to transport contest staff members to your remote location for distance verification.

3. Contest staff will accept no responsibility for the welfare of contest participants, or for the proper operation of your equipment. Fuses may blow. AC inverters may fail. Tires may go flat. Think ahead.

4. You have been warned!

Contest Categories

1. Commercial

- Stock/unmodified commercially available or manufactured
- Both ends comprised of commercial antennas

2. Homebrew

- Not commercially available or manufactured
- At least one end comprised of a homebrew antenna

3. Enhanced Power Commercial

- Same as Category 1 with amplified power
- Both ends comprised of commercial antennas

4. Enhanced Power Homebrew

- Same as Category 2 with amplified power
- At least one end comprised of a homebrew antenna

Judging Procedures

1. Every effort will be made to fulfill requests for official distance measurements in the order they were received. Judges reserve the right to modify this order slightly if travel to remote sites can be handled more efficiently.

2. An official distance measurement will be recorded as soon as possible after each request. Submitting a request requires the following information:

a) Team name

b) Category

c) Approximate distance (or GPS coordinates)

3. An official distance measurement will be recorded only after contest staff witness the passing of a message via any communication protocol over 802.11b/g to demonstrate full two-way communications capability. Staff will provide a message at base camp, which must be sent to the remote end. A message will then be provided at the remote end which must be sent to base camp.

4. A finite amount of time, at the discretion of contest staff, will be allowed for the message exchange to fulfill each distance measurement request. Participants are required to confirm each distance before submitting a request for distance measurement. Leading contest staff to untested remote sites will not be tolerated.

Prizes

The official Defcon Awards ceremony hosted by Dark Tangent will be held on Sunday, July 31.

Prizes will be awarded for each of the four categories, as well as greatest overall distance and most innovative antenna design.