RSGB CONTEST COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER
ISSUE 1a
DATE: January 2013
A NEW CONTEST
COMMITTEE INITIATIVE
Welcome to this, the first issue of the RSGB Contest Committee (CC) Newsletter. Its aim is to provide a channel of communication from the CC to the UK contesting community to make its members aware of items that are likely to be of interest to them. Some of these will already be available on the CC website but will be presented or summarised here for convenience. Information contained will include:
· Notification of upcoming RSGB contests
· Notification of results of RSGB contests published since the last issue
· Notification of matters that may affect participation in RSGB contests by individuals and clubs
· From time to time, topics under discussion: these may involve requests for feedback from UK contesters.
There will be some overlap with parts of Steve G3ZVW’s monthly Radio Sport column in Radcom, but whereas the latter is intended to be of interest to a fairly general RSGB audience, this Newsletter is aimed specifically at UK contesters.
The Newsletter will be issued on an approximately monthly basis and will be e-mailed to those who have registered here.
RSGB CONTESTS FOR
JANUARY 2013
Tuesday |
1st January 2013 |
144 MHz UK Activity Contest |
2000 – 2230 UTC |
Tuesday |
8th January 2013 |
432 MHz UK Activity Contest |
2000 – 2230 UTC |
Sunday |
13th January 2013 |
Affiliated Societies Contest (AFS) CW |
1400 – 1800 UTC |
Tuesday |
15th January 2013 |
1.3 GHz UK Activity Contest |
2000 – 2230 UTC |
Saturday |
19th January 2013 |
Affiliated Societies Contest (AFS) SSB |
1400 – 1800 UTC |
Tuesday |
22nd January 2013 |
50 MHz UK Activity Contest |
2000 – 2230 UTC |
Tuesday |
22nd January 2013 |
SHF UK Activity Contest |
2000 – 2230 UTC |
Tuesday |
29th January 2013 |
70 MHz UK Activity Contest |
2000 – 2230 UTC |
Please note that the times for the UKACs were incorrectly shown in issue 1 (as previously displayed here and circulated by e-mail). The correct times are shown in this version (issue 1a) and in the rules: the correction has also been notified on the uk-vhf-contesting reflector .
Further details including rules are available here (HF) and here (VHF).
RSGB CONTEST RESULTS
The following results have been published recently:
5th 144MHz Backpackers (2/9/12)
1.3 & 2.3GHz Trophies (6/10/12)
UKAC 2012 (full year, all band)
144MHz Backpackers Championship 2012
AFS Super League 2012/3 (cumulative to date)
OTHER CONTESTS IN
JANUARY
Details of French events can be found here
The NAC Contests in Scandinavia
Czech VHF/UHF/SHF Activity Contest
The SM3CER website is also an excellent source of contest information.
VHF RULES FOR 2013
The 2013 VHF contest rules can be found here.
A new section is to be added to VHF NFD this year, for single transmitter
operation. It is hoped that this will encourage smaller groups and individuals
to enter the premier VHF contest in the calendar. Entrants for the new section
can choose up to 3 bands but must only operate on one band at once, and all the
antennas must be on a single mast. Only one antenna per band is permitted, at a
maximum height of 12m. Operation is for a maximum of 16 hours during the contest
period. Full details are included in the VHF NFD rules here . There
is also an FAQ page here .
As many will have seen, the M5 multiplier system used in the UK Activity Contests has been retained for 2013. There was a very limited response to the consultation on the introduction of a new system to include country multipliers from outside the UK. There was a clear preference to retain the existing multiplier system from those that did respond.
DISTANCE BASED
CONTESTS
The rules for certain RSGB contests involving Affiliated Societies (specifically the AFS series and the 80m CCs & Sprints) have a distance based element establishing eligibility or selection of category. All Affiliated Societies are therefore advised to check that their “normal meeting place” is on file with the Contest Committee. This information may be obtained here . This web page also contains information as to whether entrants in the 80m CCs and Sprints are assigned to the local or general category. The CC has assumed that the category used for 2012 will also stand for 2013. Entrants are advised to check that the category shown for their club / group is correct. Any changes or additions may be notified to afs.query@rsgbcc.org
NFD 2013
The CC circulated a questionnaire about CW NFD to the UK contesting community and RSGB Affiliated Societies in early October this year. Exactly 50 responses were received (almost all from UK contesters - predominantly recent NFD entrants), and all respondents are thanked for their inputs. As expected a broad divergence of views on a number of topics was received. The CC has reached top level agreement on what the 2013 rules will include, providing as balanced a match as possible to the inputs received. Detailed wording to reflect that agreement is currently being worked up. The new rules will be issued in plenty of time to allow entrants to plan their stations for the event in June. A summary of the rationale on which the rules are based will be provided in a future issue of this Newsletter.
ADJUDICATION AND PENALTIES
Contesters may remember some correspondence on the uk-contest reflector about log irregularities and a penalty imposed. Here is more information and amplification of the circumstances.
The background is related to the adjudication of unique contacts, that is, contacts with callsigns which only appear in a single entrant’s log. The CC does not normally disallow uniques - after all, one of the ways that leaders become leaders is by working stations that others don’t! However when an entrant’s log appears to contain an unusually high proportion of uniques, the CC investigates further.
The majority of apparent uniques generally turn out to be busted calls, and these can usually be identified using the CC’s AdjSQL adjudication software. Circumstances also arise (typically in Field Days) when club members come on and work the club station. That shows support, which is good – but when such members work nobody but the club station, that is against the spirit of the contest and these contacts are likely to be disallowed. Very occasionally, entrants will indulge in “log padding” – claiming contacts that did not take place at all. This is blatant cheating, a serious matter, and the CC will take appropriate action.
In the case of one of the 80m Club Championship data contests during 2012, AdjSQL showed an unusually high proportion of uniques in one entrant’s log. A Software Defined Radio recording had been made by the Committee. Modern techniques using SDR allow the whole bandwidth of an entire contest to be recorded for subsequent analysis. Detailed scrutiny showed that the suspect QSOs had not actually taken place, and the entrant could not provide a satisfactory explanation as to how these contacts could have been legitimately made. The CC therefore notified the entrant of its intention to disqualify the log for that contest, and to impose a ban on participation in RSGB contests for a period of one year. An opportunity to appeal to the Board of the Society was not taken up.
Following a subsequent violation of the terms of the imposed penalty by the entrant, the ban was extended and now remains in force until the end of 2013.
IN CONCLUSION
The CC hopes you have found this Newsletter useful and interesting. We would be pleased to receive any comments on format, contents or any other aspect you would like to tell us about, at editor@rsgbcc.org .
73 and a Happy New Year to you all,
Quin Collier G3WRR
Newsletter Editor on behalf of RSGB Contest Committee