Radio Society of Great Britain – Contest Committee


RSGB - Contest Committee

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    RSGB AFS 80m & 40m Contests

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

    Rule changes for 2025:
    1. On a trial basis for 2025, self-spotting is permitted

    1. Objective To work as many stations as quickly and accurately as possible on two bands, preferably as part of a club team. These contests are fiercely competitive. Club are asked to encourage members to take part in all eight AFS contests which take place across the amateur spectrum including HF, VHF and UHF.

    2. Date & Time AFS CW - Saturday 4th January 2025, 1300-1700 UTC
    AFS Datamodes - Sunday 12th January 2025, 1300-1700 UTC
    AFS SSB - Saturday 18th January 2025, 1300-1700 UTC

    QSOs will not be accepted at or past the end time

    3. Frequencies and Power CW: 3510-3565 kHz - any speed, 3565-3570 kHz - 15wpm maximum speed
             7000-7040kHz - any speed
    SSB: 3600-3775kHz, 7060-7200kHz
    PSK63: 3580-3590 kHz, 7040-7045 kHz
    RTTY: 3590-3620 kHz, 7045-7060 kHz

    There are 3 Power sections:

    (i) Maximum licenced power (Datamodes - 100W max PSK63, maximum licence power RTTY)

    (ii) 100W 

    (iii) 10W

    A station may be contacted once for points on each mode, on each band.

    Only one signal may be transmitted at any one time.


    4. Entrants and Sections

    (a) Clubs entering these contests must be affiliated to the RSGB

    (b) A club may be represented by any number of stations, all of whom must be within the UK&CD

    (c) 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.

    (d) RSGB Affiliated Societies must enter either the Local Category or the General Category for the whole of this contest series:

    (d.i) Local Category. Entrants representing a Local Society must operate within a circle having an 80km radius - the centre being the Society's Virtual Meeting Place (VMP). Exceptionally, those whose home QTH is within the circle may operate from an alternative or temporary location elsewhere.

    One of the officers of the Society must notify the adjudicators of the chosen VMP - specified by the UK&CD Postcode or 6-digit QTH locator, by email to afs.query@rsgbcc.org before any of the Society members enter an event of the series. In the notification email, Societies that have not already registered a VMP must state their chosen VMP, the Society's RSGB membership number and the Society's call sign. This VMP will be used in all HF and VHF contests in which the Society enters the Local Category. Entrants must state the UK&CD Postcode or 6-digit QTH locator of their location or home QTH, for each event when submitting their entry to the contest Robot.

    (d.ii) General Category. Societies whose members' home QTHs cannot fit within an 80km radius circle, those that do not notify their entry category and those who prefer not to enter the Local Category, will be placed in the General Category.

    (e) The operators in teams representing an Affiliated Society must be members of that Society, but need not be RSGB members themselves

    (f) RSGB members and Non-UK stations may enter as individuals

    (g) Where an Affiliated Society has Branches, it may define a separate VMP and enter a separate team, with a different name for each Branch.

    (h) A list of Affiliated Societies that enter RSGB contests showing those that have registered a VMP and giving details of each Society's selection of Local or General categories for all relevant contest series, can be found here. Society selections of Local or General Categories will be carried over to future years, but not to other contest series, so please check the list for your society and use the notification email address to request any changes.

    (i) If a Society finds it necessary to change their VMP, they should also use the notification email address (afs.query@rsgbcc.org) for this. The new information will apply to contests that take place after the change. Please allow a minimum of one week for a change to be implemented. Each Society is responsible for checking that a change does not exclude their members from representing the Society.

    (j) Stations may be single or multi-operator

    (k) Multi-Operator entries by RSGB members may include non-member operators whose highest class of licence is Foundation or Intermediate

    (l) Special Contest Callsigns or Club Callsigns may be used

    (m) All stations are classified as Assisted

    (n) 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

    (o) Remote receivers outside the Station location are not permitted

    (p) 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, as shown in the licensee's licence documents, may be remotely operated from a 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.

    (q) The address of the operator must be included in the 'Address of Operator when operating Remote from Station Address' box on the Station Information Page and the address of the remote station must be included in the Cabrillo header 'ADDRESS:' box. 

    (r) The RSGB HF Contest Committee may place remotely operated stations in a separate results table.

    (s) Members of the RSGB Contest Club who are not members of another participating Affiliated Society may enter any of the relevant contest series as representatives of the RSGB Contest Club - in the General Category. To join the RSGB Contest Club, you do not need any previous experience of contesting and you will not be obliged to enter any of the Affiliated Society events on behalf of the club. If you wish to join, or need more information, please register with the Club by sending your name, callsign and RSGB membership number by email to ContestClub@rsgbcc.org.


    5. Exchange RS(T) plus Serial Number starting at 1 and incrementing by 1, irrespective of band; entrants will not be penalised if their sent serial numbers are logged slightly out of sequence

    Logging software may interleave serial numbers, but the same serial number must not be sent to two different stations

    Please log any exchange that you are sent to the best capability of your logging facility; if you are not sent an exchange, log a zero

    6. Scoring

    1 point per valid QSO. Individual winners in each section will be those with the highest total number of points

    Team scores are calculated solely on QSO numbers without adjustment for the power level used

    In the Datamodes event, the same station may be worked once on PSK63 and once on RTTY on each band

    The score in Datamodes events is the sum of the score on PSK63 and the score on RTTY

    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.

    Before submission, check that you have used the correct Cabrillo Mode Codes:
    RTTY = RY, PSK63 = PS, SSB = PH, CW = CW.

    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.  Second and subsequent log uploads may be subject to analysis of any changes that have been made.

    If you have difficulties preparing or uploading your Cabrillo logfile, please contact the contest adjudicator (see section 11 below) to ask for assistance, before the submission deadline.

    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

    Four separate tables (High Power, 100W, 10W, non-UK&CD) of entrants' individual results will be published. Team scores will be published for each Affiliated Society in separate tables for the Local and General category.

    Awards for RSGB HF Contests are shown here. The trophies for this series of contests are for UK&CD entrants.

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

    A certificate may also be downloaded by all entrants showing their position in their entry section.

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

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

    9. Supplementary Rules
    (a)   Any infringement considered to be outside the spirit of the contest may result in QSOs being disallowed, the entry being reclassified as a Checklog, or the entry being disqualified.
    (b)   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.
    (c)   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.
    (d)   You must send your callsign at least every 3rd QSO and no less often than once a minute .
    (e)   Proof of contact e.g. an MP3 audio recording, may be required as part of the adjudication process.
    (f)   UK&CD entrants are required to use a Regional Secondary Locator (RSL) where it is necessary to clarify the entity from which they are operating. Stations operating from England may optionally use the RSL “E”. If no RSL is used e.g. M0HDG, G6XX or GB4ABC, the station will be assumed to be in England. The use of a misleading RSL will disqualify the entry.
    (g)   UK&CD entrants may append their call sign with one of the following: /A (Alternative Address), /P (Temporary Location), /M (Mobile) or /MM (Maritime Mobile) and this will comprise part of the call with which they enter. Other suffixes used by UK&CD stations, whether or not they are entrants, will be removed in adjudication and need not be logged.

    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.

    11. Adjudicator  CW: Mike G3VYI
     SSB: John     G4CZB
    DATA: Simone     M0BOX
    Updated 4th November 2024