PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS:

RSGB CONTESTS FOR DECEMBER 2013 (by Quin G3WRR & John G3XDY)

RSGB CONTESTS FOR JANUARY 2014 (by Quin G3WRR & John G3XDY)

Please note that there are no 50MHz or SHF UKAC events in December.

Further details including rules for the remaining 2013 contests are available for HF contests and VHF contests.

Rules for all contests in the 2014 calendar are available from here (HF) and here (VHF).

OTHER UK CONTESTS IN DECEMBER (by John G3XDY)

The UK Six Metre Group is introducing a new contest for the winter season called the "UKSMG Winter Marathon", to promote activity during the Northern Hemisphere winter months. The contest is a Marathon style event and will be held over a two-month period, commencing on the first day in December 2013 and ending on the last day in January 2014. The contest is open to all six metre enthusiasts anywhere in the world, you do not have to be a UKSMG member to participate. Full rules are at UKSMG Winter Marathon.

OTHER EUROPEAN VHF/UHF CONTESTS IN NOVEMBER (by John G3XDY)

Details of French events (An English translation facility which should work with any browser is available here).

The NAC Contests in Scandinavia

Czech Activity Contest

RECENT RESULTS (by Quin G3WRR & John G3XDY)

The following results have been published or updated since the previous Newsletter:

50MHz UKAC
144MHz UKAC
432MHz UKAC
1.3GHz UKAC
SHF UKAC
Overall UKAC

2nd 70MHz
144MHz Trophy
5th 144MHz Backpackers
144MHz Backpackers Championship
VHF Championship

80m Club Sprint (CW)
80m Club Sprint (SSB)

RSGB IOTA Contest (final)
SSB FD

ON 10m CONTEST (via Leon ON5WL)

The ON 10m Contest will take place on 19 January 2014 from 0900 - 1100 UTC. Rules are shown here.

SPECIAL CONTEST CALLS (by Quin G3WRR)

It was announced in last month's Newsletter that holders of existing Notices of Variation (NoVs) for Special Contest Calls (SCCs) would need to re-apply by 31st December 2013 if they wished to continue to use them. Readers may be interested to note that as of the time of writing (evening of 24 November), 58 applications had been received from Ofcom by the CC for validation. Of these, 54 were accepted, 2 were not and a further 3 are pending. The 2013 and 2014 RSGB HF & VHF contest calendars have been updated to identify in which RSGB contests the SCCs may now be used. However it is important to note that this extension of use relates only to holders of new style NoVs. Holders of old style NoVs continue to be restricted to the contests explicitly listed therein.

CLAIMED SCORES FOR HF CONTESTS (by Quin G3WRR)

At present the facility exists for VHF contest entrants to submit their claimed scores, on a voluntary basis, into a dedicated page on the CC website. A facility to enter claimed scores for HF contests, based on the VHF scheme, will be introduced next year.

DURATION OF 432MHz AFS CONTEST (by Quin G3WRR)

Last year the duration of the 432MHz AFS Contest was reduced to 3 hours. As a result of a number of requests from entrants, its duration will be restored to 4 hours for 2014, in order to reinstate the overlap with the F/DL contest.

AFFILIATED SOCIETIES - VIRTUAL MEETING PLACE (by Ed GW3SQX)

A new system will come into effect for Affiliated Societies entering some RSGB contests, with effect from the 1st January 2014. The events affected are the six AFS contests, on 160m, 80m, 6m, 2m and 70cm, and the Local Category of the 80m Club Championship and 80m Sprints. At present, a society is required to specify its Normal Meeting Place, and members in the events mentioned must operate within a certain radius of that meeting place. Societies near the coast are at a disadvantage, since much of the circle within which their members are allowed to operate can be in the sea. Maritime Mobile is not usually an option!

Accordingly the Contest Committee is instituting a system whereby a "Virtual Meeting Place" may be defined. This is a reference point chosen by the society, which need not have any actual connection with the society's meeting place or its activities. The Virtual Meeting Place must be notified to the Contest Committee before the first relevant contest entry of each calendar year. The first event for which clubs might need to specify their Virtual Meeting Place will be the 80m AFS contests in January 2014. The committee will use the currently held meeting place information as Virtual Meeting Place if no notification is made before any relevant entries.

Once notified, the Virtual Meeting Place will be fixed for that calendar year. To make this notification, societies must e-mail the 6-digit QTH locator or the postcode of their Virtual Meeting Place to afs.query@rsgbcc.org. A useful utility to help identify the QTH locator for the chosen spot is available here. The Virtual Meeting Place will be used for all HF and VHF AFS contests, as well as for entries in the Local Category of the 80m Club Championship and the 80m Sprint contests. The data is held on file, and may be viewed during contest log submission to the robot.

AND FINALLY

While finishing this off, I've been popping into the shack to make a few QSOs in the CW leg of CQWW (and I do mean a few - current total early Sunday evening is around 400 QSOs and 66 countries). But it's been good to see 10m in particular on good form, although this leg is perhaps not as good as the SSB one a month ago, and today things do seem quieter than yesterday. Long may it last - but what on earth is the sun up to?!

That’s all for this month - good contesting to you all.

73, Quin G3WRR

For RSGB Contest Committee