Stamps and combos

Every point a QSO earns comes from a fact about the contact, represented as a stamp. The stamp is created the moment the host confirms with QSL. A combo is a name for a pattern of stamps on one QSO. A combo doesn’t have any points of its own, it’s just a fun name for a combination of stamps on a QSO.

The how to score points page describes how and when points are assigned to a QSO and to the two participants in the contact.

Stamps

Some stamps have similar characteristics, for example, there are several stamps that are related to location, like Nessie (when someone is located on a lake), and Foreign Lands (when the host and the chaser are located in different countries). Stamps with similar characteristics belong to the same family.

These interpretations of location are made using the information in the APRS position report sent by the host and the chaser. The system is pretty good at interpreting these locations, it can usually figure out if you are on a lake and the name of that lake. But these calculations, including which country you are in, are limited by the resolution of publicly available datasets. If you are very close to a border between countries, or send approximate location precision in your APRS beacon report, APRS OTA might think you are in a different country than you actually are.

If you are on a boat in a slip, it might say you are at sea, or it might say you are on the land. The system doesn’t know about maritime exclusive economic zones or other maritime laws. If you aren’t on the land of a country, or a lake within a country, then you are deemed to be at sea. If one of the parties in a QSO is at sea, you can not earn the Foreign Lands stamp, because by definition if you are at sea, you are not in a country.

Remember rule #2, this is for fun. OTA makes its best effort and whatever it decides is final. There is no appeals process and no re-adjudication.

Combos

When the stamps on a QSO match one of the combo patterns below, a special combo graphic is shown instead of the original stamps. The combo doesn’t change the score, it celebrates the existing stamps with a unique name and graphic.

New combos can be defined which apply to old QSOs, but because combos don’t earn points, the previous score of the QSO will always remain what it was when it was completed.