RSGB February 2017 Contest Newsletter

RSGB President Nick Henwood, G3RWF is writing a report on the implementation of the 2015 Review of Contesting. He’ll look at what progress has been made, what still needs to be addressed and consider the current priorities.

A questionnaire forms an important part of the input to this report, but there will also be feedback from clubs, groups and individuals as well as factual analysis of performance where possible. The questionnaire is now available on the RSGB website on the ‘Consultations’ page and will be live until 19 March. All those interested in the future of contesting are urged to complete it – the RSGB is asking for your help.

The questionnaire asks you to score the importance of the various 2015 recommendations and also to score progress to date.

Offers of assistance or requests to talk or meet are very welcome (president@rsgb.org.uk)

The report will be made available to RSGB members and is due to be completed by early April (i.e. in time for the AGM).

RSGB HFCC Spring Survey is now open (by Nick G4FAL)

Autumn Series
In September last year the RSGB HFCC announced that for the autumn of 2017 we are planning to have a new series of 80m contests for which we are inviting ideas from our contesters.

We are grateful for suggestions received from: David G3YYD, Quin G3WRR, Steve G3ZVW, Bob G3ORY, Clive GM3POI, Nick G4FAL, Paul EI5DI, Graham G4FNL and Lee G0MTN.

After considering their ideas in detail we made some decisions that we have agreed and have some choices on which we would like your views. We have consulted with the other contest committees to make sure that the proposals are able to be adjudicated and the items that are common with the VHF contest community are agreed.

DX Contest
We also asked for suggestions for the DX Contest in October and received them from: Clive GM3POI, Mike G3WPH, Steve PJ4DX, Mike G7TWC, Nick G4FAL, Bob G3ORY and Tim G4FJK; thank you for those.

There are two bodies of opinion around this contest; one that it should continue and the other that it should not.

We are suggesting some changes to you and asking if you will commit to taking part in a DX Contest in October this year if some of these changes are implemented. The decision to proceed will be based on your responses. We need about a hundred UK & CD participants for this to be viable. If the decision is that we do proceed, we will endeavour to market the contest to the international contesting community as well as within RSGB.

AFS
We have some news about AFS and a suggestion on which we would like your opinion.

HFCC Spring Survey
We committed to carrying out this questionnaire in September last year and have been working towards it since then. The survey is available here. It will be open for three weeks; you can only enter once from a particular computer but you can return to make changes or to complete your entry later. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you have any questions or need any clarification please contact me directly.

73,
Nick Totterdell G4FAL,
RSGB HF Contest Committee Chair
HFCC.Chair@rsgbcc.org

AFS CW 2017 (by Nick G4FAL)

In 2015 the RSGB Contest Committee introduced a dispensation clause to the VMP circle rule in AFS on HF.

During the 2016 rationalisation of AFS rules the current HFCC retained the clause, understanding that it would be appropriate to apply it to allow competitive teams to be assembled in sparsely populated regions – an issue that had been raised by GM3YTS in the Presidential Review discussions in 2015. However this interpretation of the clause was not explained widely to our contesters.

I received and granted one application for a dispensation, which happened to be from a team including two fellow committee members, in respect of their forming part of a team in one of the least populated parts of the British Isles. No mechanism was in place to notify other competitors of this dispensation.

Some have interpreted this as an attempt to cheat and on reflection we can see why this method of introduction may have been seen as inappropriate. One of the winning team members has graciously volunteered to transfer to another team and the team scores have been recalculated.

We still have a contest series that favours more densely populated areas and also excludes those affiliated societies that have relatively small memberships and are national rather than regional. HFCC in conjunction with the other contest committees are working on proposals which will make this popular contest series more inclusive. Contesters will be given the opportunity to comment on these proposals before any changes are implemented.

73,
Nick Totterdell G4FAL,
RSGB HF Contest Committee Chair
HFCC.Chair@rsgbcc.org

Power Limits on 4m in the UKAC (by Ian G0FCT)

The power output limits on 4m in the UKAC series of contests is different to the limits on 6m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm. In the AL section the maximum power output is 4W. In the AR section, the maximum power output is 40W. Please make sure you submit your entry for the correct section of this contest.

Youth Award (by Ian G0FCT)

The VHFCC has introduced a set of awards for the leading stations aged 18 or under to encourage more young operators to try, and hopefully stay with contesting. You can register for this award by sending an email to vhf.query@rsgbcc.org giving your name, call sign, RSGB membership number and your date of birth.

FM Activity Contests (FMAC) (by Ian G0FCT)

The VHFCC has introduced new short low power FM contests on 4m, 2m and 70cm which will run in the hour prior to the UKAC events (1900 – 2000) on those bands. These simple events are particularly aimed at newcomers, and have power levels aligned with the Foundation and Intermediate licences, although we welcome all classes of licensee entering. Entry levels have been encouraging so far, but we’re not yet seeing as many newcomers as we would like. Please spread the word amongst your friends that there is a new way for people only equipped with FM to dip their toes into VHF Contesting. The rules for the 4m, 2m and 70cm FMAC are available via the VHF Calendar.

New Affiliated Society Section in VHF Championship (AS Section) (by Ian G0FCT)

With the aim of increasing weekend activity, the VHFCC has introducing a new Affiliated Society (AS) section to the VHF Championship for weekend contests. In this section, the scores from every individual entry to a contest from a club’s members will count towards an overall score for the club. You don’t need to come on for the whole event to contribute to your club’s score, and there is no upper limit to the number of club members whose scores will count. So – why not go out and encourage other members of your club to come on for some time during the weekend VHF contests and build up a club entry. The first qualifying event is the March 2m and 70cm contest on 4th/5th Match. More information on the VHF Championship is available here (select 'VHF Contests Championship' in the list of rules).

Minutes of Contest Committee Meetings

The minutes of contest committee meetings are available here.

RSGB Contests in 2017

The full 2017 RSGB contest calendars and rules for all RSGB contests are available here (HF) and here (VHF)

Other HF Contests in 2017

For more data on a wide range HF contests, the SM3CER and WA7BNM websites are very useful sources of information.

Another useful source of HF contest information is on the website of HB9DHG which can be reached by going to http://www.hb9dhg.ch, and selecting "Contest Calendar".

That's all for this edition of the Newsletter

73, Ian Pawson G0FCT
Chair, RSGB Contest Support Committee