The CRUMB PSK Award Series was devised by the European PSK Club on 22nd 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 the EPC Awards General 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 1st January 2000.
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.
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.
