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General Rules | Cabrillo | Codes
| Special Contest Calls | Contesting
Guide
General Rules for RSGB HF Contests
*** See new rules 6 (f) for
portable stations! ***
1. These rules apply to
all RSGB HF Contests, except where superseded by the specific
Contest Rules.
2. UK means England, Scotland, Wales,
Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
3. Entrants must abide by their licence
conditions.
4. Contacts:
(a) A contact consists of an exchange
with incrementing serial number commencing from 001 and acknowledgement
of receipt of callsign and contest data. Incomplete contacts
must be logged with zero points claimed. Points are not lost
if a non-competing station does not send appropriate information,
but a report must be logged and any other exchange sent by
that station must be recorded. The full contest exchange must
be sent to all stations worked.
(b) One contact only with the same
station per band counts for points, regardless of that stations
operator or callsign. More than one contact with the same
operator using different callsigns may not be claimed. Contacts
with stations which have no other contest contacts may be
disallowed. Duplicate contacts must be logged, with zero points
claimed.
(c) Cross-band contacts do not score.
(d) Contacts scheduled before the
contest do not count for points. Schedules may only be made
during the contest.
(e) Simultaneous transmissions on
more than one frequency below 30MHz are not permitted, but
in multi-operator / assisted events use of VHF/UHF to access
the DX cluster is permitted. Access must be to the public
cluster network, private clusters are not permitted.
(f) Proof of contact may be required.
(g) For contest purposes, /AM and
/MM stations are treated as /M stations in their own country.
Other stations are regarded as being in the call area / country
indicated by their callsign as sent.
5. Multipliers: where applicable,
are scored per band, and consist of:
(a) for UK stations: Countries as
per the DXCC countries list, except that JA, W, VE, VK, ZL
and ZS call areas count as separate countries.
(b) for non-UK stations: one for each
UK district.
(c) IOTA and SSB Field Day contests,
see specific rules.
6. Portable stations
(a) Entrants must operate from the
same site for the whole contest.
(b) Stations must not be located in
a permanent building or shelter.
(c) No permanent building or structure
may be used as an aerial support (trees are acceptable).
(d) Power must be obtained solely
from on-site batteries, portable generators or solar cells,
without use of mains.
(e) All equipment, aerials and supports
must be set up on site no more than 24 hours before the start
of the contest. This does not apply to short term storage
of equipment on site.
(f) All portable stations will still be required
to sign /P when taking part in any RSGB contest with a
portable section even if new licence regulations make the use
of the /P suffix optional when operating portable.
7. All operators of UK stations must
be RSGB members except visiting amateurs, not normally resident
in the UK. UK stations may not use special (eg GB, GX etc)
callsigns nor be /MM or /AM.
(a) A single-operator station is operated
by one person, who receives no assistance whatsoever from
any other person in operating, log-keeping, checking and so
on, and who does not receive notification from others by radio
(including packet), telephone or any other method, of band
or contest information during the contest.
(b) Multi-operator entries are those
not covered by 7a. One operator must act as Entrant and sign
the Summary Sheet.
8. Adjudication
(a) Errors in sending / receiving
are penalised by the loss of all points for the QSO.
(b) Points may be deducted or entries
disqualified or excluded for any breach of the rules or spirit
of the contest. The decision of the RSGB is final.
9. Entries.
(a) Log entries may be submitted by
email, on 3.5in disk or on paper. Paper entries are acceptable
only if logging during the contest was not done on computer.
The adjudicator reserves the right to treat a paper entry
derived from a computer as a checklog. Unless specified otherwise
in a particular contests rules, the entry must be sent no
more than 16 days after the end of the contest. Log entries
become the property of the RSGB.
(b) The preferred log format for computer
entries is Cabrillo. Where a contest exchange includes information
not covered by the basic Cabrillo definition, the contest
specific Cabrillo format is defined on the RSGB HFCC webpage
www.rsgbhfcc.org Entrants unsure of what information is required
for a particular contest are encouraged to use software which
provides full support for RSGB contests, such as SD by EI5DI.
(c) Computer entries must be named
with the stations callsign and the extension .log. Portable
stations should use a hyphen, eg g3xyz-p.log. For Cabrillo
entries this is the only file that is required. For a limited
period other ASCII formats may be accepted and for these,
in addition to the log file a summary file (eg g3xyz-p.sum)
must also be submitted.
(d) Each RSGB contest has a specific
email address for log entries, given in the rules for that
contest. Log entries should be sent as an e-mail attachment,
and the subject line of the e-mail must include the stations
callsign. An automatic acknowledgement of the entry should
be received after a short period but if no acknowledgement
is received please allow a few days before resending.
(e) Disk and paper logs should be
sent to RSGB G3UFY, 77 Bensham Manor Road, Thornton Heath,
Surrey CR7 7AF, England. Acknowledgement will be sent if a
stamped, addressed postcard or IRC is enclosed.
(f) Paper logs (and any not in Cabrillo
format) must ensure the following information is shown for
each contact: Time, Callsign worked, RS(T)/serial sent, RS(T)/
serial received, other data (specific to the contest), new
bonus/multiplier, QSO points. Send a single log in time sequence,
not separate logs for each band.
(g) Paper summary sheets should include
the following declaration "I declare that this station
was operated in accordance with the rules and spirit of the
contest and within the conditions of my licence. I agree to
the data from this entry being entered into a computer for
the purposes of contest adjudication and production of statistics.
I agree that the decision of the Board of the RSGB shall be
final in all cases of dispute." Submission of an entry
in Cabrillo or any other format implies acceptance of the
wording of this declaration.
(h) Ensure that the section or category
being entered is clearly shown in the Cabrillo header or summary
sheet. Entrants are encouraged to use soapbox lines in the
Cabrillo header to give information about the equipment and
antennas used as well as comments about the contest.
10. Awards.
Trophies as specified will be presented at the annual HF Convention
and will be held for a maximum period of one year for any
particular annual event. Certificates of Merit will be awarded
to leading stations in each category / band as appropriate.
Note: A variety of contest logging
programs can be used in RSGB contests. The most popular is
SD by EI5DI, and its the only one which supports all the Society's
contests and produces a correctly scored log. Full details
can be found on the website www.ei5di.com
or by writing to EI5DI, QTHR (e-mail: paul@ei5di.com )
If you use a different logging program you must take steps
to ensure that your entry is correctly formatted and that
QSO points, bonuses and multipliers are correctly shown for
each contact. It supports RSGB and other major contests.
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