PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS:

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

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

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

An English translation facility which should work with any browser is available here.

RECENT RESULTS (by Quin G3WRR & John G3XDY)

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

70MHz UKAC
144MHz UKAC
432MHz UKAC
1.3GHz UKAC
SHF UKAC
Overall UKAC

IARU Region 1 September 144 MHz
IARU Region 1 October UHF/Microwave
50 MHz AFS
23/13 cm Trophy
VHF Championship (Full series plus commentary)

80m Club Sprint (CW & SSB - full series plus commentary)
HF Championship

2014 RSGB CONTEST CALENDARS (by Quin G3WRR)

The RSGB HF and VHF contest calendars for 2014, which have previously been at provisional status, are now firm and are available here (HF) and here (VHF).

CHANGES TO RSGB CONTEST RULES FOR 2014 (by Ed GW3SQX)

Here is a brief note on some changes you will see in RSGB contest rules for 2014. It summarises information which has already been published, but might be a useful reminder as the new year begins.

(1) Virtual Meeting place. This affects the six AFS contests, on 160m, 80m, 6m, 2m and 70cm, and the Local Category of the 80m Club Championship and 80m Sprints. Affiliated Societies may specify a "Virtual Meeting Place" – a reference point from which distances are measured. This must be notified before the first contest of the year which the society enters to afs.query@rsgbcc.org. Otherwise the previously notified meeting place will be used. For more information, please see here.

(2) Contest Calls (SCCs). These may now be used in more RSGB HF and VHF contests – see the contest calendars (links provided in previous item) for information.

(3) The duration of the 432MHz AFS Contest in February has been reinstated to 4 hours. This in order to increase the overlap with the French and German contests taking place on the same day.

(4) The log submission deadlines for the 4m cumulative contests are now 14 days. This affects contests in February, March, May, June and August.

As of 18th December, the position regarding revalidation of existing SCCs was as follows:
* received by CC from Ofcom for approval 91
* approved 84
* pending 3
* rejected 4
* still to be received 117.

Readers are reminded that existing SCCs that have not been revalidated by Ofcom will expire at 23:59 on 31st December 2013!

DISQUALIFIED AND BANNED (by Steve G3ZVW)

For those of you who (heaven forbid) may not have read your January Radcom from end to end, the following extract from Steve G3ZVW's Radio Sport column is repeated verbatim...

"Early last year the Contest Committee became aware of someone who was suspected of operating portable in the UKACs from a location other than where he said he was. Tip-offs were received that beam headings and signal strengths did not coincide with what would be expected. Naturally the CC takes an extremely dim view of cheating, but before they take action against anyone they exercise extreme caution. First of all they don’t simply take anyone’s word for it; they gather evidence of their own. In this instance bearings were taken over some months, because it was suspected that the person concerned repeatedly operated a considerable distance from the Locator being given. Eventually, sufficient evidence was collected that proved beyond reasonable doubt that the person in question was giving a misleading Locator about 50 miles away from the location being used, in a totally different Locator square.

The penalty for this breach of the rules is a personal ban of three years from participating in RSGB contests in any way. Those who made contact with this station have not had points docked from their scores, because QSOs were made in good faith."

AND FINALLY

Well, that's another year over....and with it the first year of the Contest Committee Newsletter. The CC would appreciate any feedback, so that we can produce a Newsletter which is of maximum use to its readers (over 650 are registered at present). In particular we'd like to hear:
* what you like
* what you don't like
* what you would like to see but isn't included
- but any input would be useful. Please e-mail to editor@rsgbcc.org.

That’s all for this month - and this year. So a Happy Christmas to you all from the members of the CC, and all the best for 2014!

73, Quin G3WRR

For RSGB Contest Committee