Radio Society of Great Britain – Contest Committee


RSGB - Contest Committee

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    RSGB AFS 80m & 40m Contests

    There are three HF AFS Contests annually - the Rules below apply to the AFS CW and SSB contests on 80m & 40m .
    Click here for background information about these HF AFS Contests.
    See separate Rules for AFS 160, and the three VHF/UHF AFS contests. If you have any queries about these rules, please email afs.query@rsgbcc.org

    Changes for 2017:
    Reduced log submission time.
    Scores for single-operator entrants contribute to the HF Championship.

    1. Objective To work as many stations as quickly and accurately as possible on two bands, preferably as part of a club team.
    2. Date & Time AFS CW - Sunday 8th January 2017, 1400-1800 UTC
    AFS SSB - Saturday 14th January 2017, 1400-1800 UTC
    3. Frequencies and Power AFS CW - 3510-3560kHz, 7000-7040kHz
    AFS SSB - 3600-3775kHz, 7060-7200kHz

    A station may be contacted once for points on each band . Only one signal may be transmitted at any one time.

    4. Entrants and Sections
    (a)  Clubs entering the contest must be affiliated to the RSGB . A club may be represented by any number of stations, who may use different power levels.
    Teams consist of up to four stations . The adjudication process allocates the four highest-scoring stations for a club to "Team A", then the next four highest-scoring stations to "Team B", and so on.
    RSGB members may enter as individuals if they are not representing an Affiliated Society.
    (b)  Each Club must specify a Virtual Meeting Place (VMP), a club-defined reference point, and must e-mail the 6-digit QTH locator of their VMP to afs.query@rsgbcc.org no later than the 1st October each year. Stations representing a Club must be within a radius of 50 miles of the Club's VMP, and be within the UK&CD. Exceptions to this rule are at the discretion of the HFCC Chair
    (c)  Where a Club has Branches, e.g. RNARS, it may define a separate VMP for each Branch, and the Team(s) entered by each Branch will be considered to be separate from those entered by other Branches, except in respect of affiliation.
    (d)  Special Contest Callsigns or Club Callsigns may be used. All entries are classified as Assisted.
    Remote operation is allowed, but only where the remote station complies with the location requirements above, and where authorisation has been granted by the HFCC Chair.
    (e)  There are 3 Power sections (a) 400W, (b) 100W, (c) 10W
    5. Exchange RS(T) plus Serial Number starting at 001 and incrementing by 1, irrespective of band. Logging software may interleave serial numbers, but the same serial number must not be sent to two different stations.
    If you are not sent a serial number, log a zero.
    6. Scoring 1 point per valid QSO. Individual and team winners will be those with the highest total number of points irrespective of band splits.
    7. Log Submission
            and Adjudication     		Submit in Cabrillo format here by 23:59:59 UTC on the day after the contest finishes. View the correct Cabrillo format for this contest.

    Logs must be uploaded individually, using the appropriate AFS Club Name chosen from the list on the contest entry robot. If the robot finds format errors, it will reject the log and ask for resubmission of a corrected logfile. Adjudicated results will be online and will include online logfiles for all entrants.

    Errors will incur penalties as outlined in the RSGB HF Adjudication Principles This penalty will be the loss of an additional 1 QSO point. The use of CAT control to log the correct frequency and mode is highly recommended - you will lose QSO points for frequency and mode errors.

    8. Results and Awards Three separate tables (400W, 100W, 10W) of entrants' individual results will be published, and a table of results for Teams representing each Affiliated Society. Non UK&CD entries will be listed in a separate table.

    The highest scoring Team for each club will have its normalised score entered into the AFS Super League -- this combines scores from six AFS contests on HF, VHF and UHF.

    For single operator UK&CD entrants their scores from both these contests contribute to the HF Championship.

    A comprehensive Awards webpage will be online in due course.

    9. Supplementary Rules
    (a)  Any infringement considered to be outside the spirit of the contest may result in an entry being reclassified as a Checklog or disqualified.
    (b)  Self-spotting or asking to be spotted is not permitted.
    (c)  Call signs logged must be the same as those exchanged over the air by the entrants during the QSO. Correction of logged call signs and exchanges after the contest, by use of any database, recordings, email or other methods, is not allowed.
    (d)  All requests for contacts, responses to calls, and copying of call signs and contest exchanges must be accomplished during the contest period using the mode and frequencies of the contest.
    (e)  You must send your callsign at least every 3rd QSO and no less often than once a minute .
    (f)  Proof of contact e.g. an MP3 audio recording, may be used as part of the adjudication process.
    10. Declaration By entering any RSGB HF Contest you declare that:
    (a)  Your station was operated strictly in accordance with the rules and spirit of the contest, within the conditions of your licence, and that the power output from your transmitter was no greater than that permitted in the section of the contest that you are entering.
    (b)  You agree that decisions of the RSGB HF Contest Committee will be final in cases of dispute.
    (c)  By submitting a log entry, entrants give the RSGB permission to score, amend, publish, republish, print, and otherwise distribute that entry by any means.