The idea for a club-oriented contest has its origin
in 1946, with the yearly Magazine Club Contest run by Short Wave
Magazine on 1.8 MHz. The appeal was that the contest lasted just a few
hours, and that all members of the club would get on the air and
contribute to the score. This event ran for over 20 years.
In the 1970s, the RSGB organised the Club Calls Contest
based on a similar idea, and this Saturday evening contest continues
annually in November as part of the AFS grouping. Although CW and SSB
were both initially permitted, Club Calls more recently became
SSB-only. To add extra interest and activity, CW is reintroduced from
2016, and stations may now be worked on both modes for points.
The AFS CW Team Contest, four hours on a Sunday
afternoon in January, also began in the 1970s, but on 80m rather than
Top Band. This proved popular right from the start, in part because
antennas for 80m were more practical in normal-sized gardens than those
for 160m.
Also on 80m, the first AFS SSB contest was
introduced in 1992, becoming an instant success. It attracted 58
Affiliated Societies and 139 individuals. The top station in this first
event made 285 QSOs and the winning Club made about 760 QSOs with a
team size of three, later increased to the current four members per
team.
The SSB allocation for 3.5 MHz AFS was always very crowded,
so 7 MHz was added in 2015, a change welcomed by participants. Although
the spectrum available for the CW event was never under similar
pressure, 7 MHz was included to the CW leg in 2016. In both cases,
stations in the less central parts of the country benefited from better
propagation during the whole contest.
In 2018, a DATA 3.5 MHz and 7 MHz AFS contest was added to the contest calendar.
Consequently there are now four HF AFS Contests --
- CW on 80m & 40m
- SSB on 80m & 40m
- DATA on 80m & 40m
- SSB & CW on 160m (Club Calls)
