Radio Society of Great Britain – Contest Committee


RSGB - Contest Committee

  • Home
  • HF pages
  • VHF pages
  • HF Calendar, Results
  • HF Log upload
  • Email alerts
  • Information
  • Privacy Policy
    RSGB 1.8MHz AFS (Club Calls) Contest

    There are three HF AFS Contests annually - the Rules below apply to the AFS 160 (Club Calls Contest) .
    Click     here for background information about these HF AFS Contests.
    See separate Rules for     AFS 80/40m , and the three VHF/UHF AFS contests.

    If you have any queries about these rules, please email afs.query@rsgbcc.org

    Changes for 2017:       Addition of CW mode.     Local and General clubs.     Multiplier scoring.    Remote operation defined.   Reduced log submission time.

    1. Objective To participate (ideally) as a member of a Team representing an Affiliated Society. This requires working stations quickly and accurately using both CW & SSB, and searching for multipliers.
    2. Date & Time Saturday 11th November 2017
    20:00 - 23:00 UTC.
    3. Frequencies and Power

    CW: 1870 - 1890 kHz
    SSB: 1892 - 1990 kHz

    Maximum licensed power is 32 Watts       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. 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.

    Societies must enter in one of two Categories:

    (i) The Local Category is intended for societies drawing their membership from a limited geographical area.

    (ii) The General Category is intended for societies which are national, regional, or more contest-oriented, and which may have a geographically diverse membership. Societies which do not meet the requirements of the Local Category, or do not specify their category, will be placed in this General Category. Society members must operate from within the UK&CD. Members of the RSGB Contest Club, described below, may also enter this section.

    (b) The operators of Stations representing a Society must be members of that Society, but are not required to be RSGB members. Stations not representing a Society may enter and may compete for certificates, but all operators of such stations must be RSGB members.

    (c) If a Society wishes to enter the Local Category then they must register by email to

     afs.query@rsgbcc.org before the first event that club members enter. Societies entering the Local Category must specify a Virtual Meeting Place (VMP) - a reference point from which distances are measured, which need not have any connection with the Society's activities. Local Category Societies that have not already registered a VMP must include a UK&CD Postcode or 6-digit QTH locator of their VMP in the email. A Society's VMP is used for all HF and VHF AFS contests, and for Societies in the Local Category of the Club Sections. The current VMP information can be verified during log submission.

    If a club wishes to change their VMP, the new information will apply to all contest series that start after the change. A list of Societies that have already registered a VMP can be found here

    (d) Society members in the Local Category must operate within, or have their home QTH (as shown on their OFCOM validation document) within, a circle of radius 80 kms from their VMP and be within the UK&CD. These stations must state the UK&CD Postcode or 6-digit QTH locator of their location for the Session being entered when submitting their entry to the contest Robot.

    (e)  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.

    (f)  Special Contest Callsigns or Club Callsigns may be used. All entries are classified as Assisted.

    (g)  Operation must be from a single Station location where all transmitters, receivers, and antennas are located within a circle of a radius no greater than 500m. Remote receivers outside the Station location are not permitted.

    (h)   Remote operation of a station is allowed where the operator is situated within the same country on the DXCC list. Additionally an operator's home station may be operated from a remote location in another country.  A remotely operated station must obey all station licence, operator licence, and category conditions. The callsign used must be one issued or permitted by the Regulatory Authority of the remote station location. The location of the station must also comply with the requirements above. The addresses of the operator and the remote station must be included in the log submission. The RSGB HF Contest Committee may place remotely operated stations in a separate results table.

    (i) The RSGB Contest Club is an RSGB sponsored group for members who wish to enter the Affiliated Society Contests as representatives of a club but who are not members of a participating Affiliated Society. To join the RSGB Contest Club, you need have no previous experience of contesting and you will not be obliged to enter all or any of the Affiliated Society events. Please register with the group by sending your name, callsign and RSGB membership number by email to ContestClub@rsgbcc.org. The same e-mail address may also be used if you have any queries about the RSGB Contest Club.

    5. Exchange Serial Number starting at 001 - sending of RS(T) is optional. If you are not sent a serial number, log a zero.

    In addition, on SSB send: "Club HQ", "Club Member" or "No Club" On CW the equivalent abbreviations to be sent are: HQ, CM or NC.

    Club HQ & Club Member stations also send their four-letter Club Name abbreviation, listed here.

    An RSGB HQ Station e.g. GB3HQ, may be active during the contest, and will submit a Checklog - log as a "Club HQ".

    6. Scoring

    QSO points:
    RSGB HQ Station worked - 15 points
    Each Club HQ station worked - 9 points
    Each Club Member worked - 3 points
    Other stations worked - 1 point

    Multipliers:
    One for each Club HQ worked on CW
    One for each Club HQ worked on SSB
    One for the first Club Member of each club worked on CW
    One for the first Club Member of each club worked on SSB

    The same station may be worked once on SSB and once on CW for QSO Points, and also for a Multiplier if applicable.

    Final score:
    Calculated by multiplying the Total number of QSO Points earned (CW plus SSB) by the Total number of Multipliers earned (CW plus SSB).

    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. The previous Club Calls Cabrillo format with "CLUB”, “MEMBER” or “NONE” will also be accepted.

    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 3 additional QSO points. 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

    Entrants' individual results will be published. Teams scores will published for each Affiliated Society in separate tables for the Local and General category. Non UK&CD entries will be listed in a separate table.

    Certificates will be awarded to the leading team with four, three, two and one entrant.

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

    A comprehensive Awards webpage is available here.
    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.
      Updated 10/11/2017