This is a friendly contest for all club members, newcomers to old hands, and the scoring multipliers are intended to level up the playing field for foundation and intermediate licence holders who aren’t allowed to use higher power. The idea is that contacting each country in the DXCC( DX Century) list earns a point. In the first year ( 2024) the 'contest' will run over a 6 month period and trust and transparency will be the keynotes. Self-reporting will be to an online spreadsheet and need only be updated once a month. There are very few rules:-
1.each country may only be scored once over the duration of the challenge, except where countries are so big that calls are zoned, e.g. VE1 to VE6 ( Canada) VK1 to VK6 ( Australia), where each zone may be counted once. The USA and Russia have more complex allocations e.g in the USA calls are prefixed W,K or N and the numbers are not allocated spatially. Keeping it simple, W1 to W6, K1 to K6, N1 to N6 are countable but the second letter e.g.WA,KB is not. The idea is encourage small country hunting!
2.QRP ( <=10W) earns a score multiplier of 1.5
3.High Power ( >100W <=400) has a multiplier of 0.5
4. Type of aerial is not considered i.e. can be any,and scoring is not affected
5. Any mode is OK, but the two that will score most highly will certainly be FT8 and CW
1.each country may only be scored once over the duration of the challenge, except where countries are so big that calls are zoned, e.g. VE1 to VE6 ( Canada) VK1 to VK6 ( Australia), where each zone may be counted once. The USA and Russia have more complex allocations e.g in the USA calls are prefixed W,K or N and the numbers are not allocated spatially. Keeping it simple, W1 to W6, K1 to K6, N1 to N6 are countable but the second letter e.g.WA,KB is not. The idea is encourage small country hunting!
2.QRP ( <=10W) earns a score multiplier of 1.5
3.High Power ( >100W <=400) has a multiplier of 0.5
4. Type of aerial is not considered i.e. can be any,and scoring is not affected
5. Any mode is OK, but the two that will score most highly will certainly be FT8 and CW
RSGB Contests and Contesting
The RSGB through its Contest Committee organises or approves many contests throughout the year. When contests run, they bring out many more opportunities for QSOs and exotic ones too!
Countries contacted are eligible for the DXCC challenge and give great opportunities for developing skills in operating and the thrill of working the world.
A contest calendar is available on the RSGB CC website ( Just Google RSGB CC and select the HF pages.) Click on a contest of interest and all the rules and info will appear.
Probably the best for new starters will be the RSGB 80m CC series which has contests for SSB,CW,FT8, and other digimodes as separate events.
If you are unsure about how to begin remember that you can make just a few contacts and simply submit a checklog which means you are not officially in the contest but it allows the few contacts you have made to have their points verified.
IVARC recommends:
1.80m CC
2. The Commonwealth contest - great chances to work countries you might not otherwise hear very often.
3.EI/UK contest
4. 160m contests - if you can create an antenna at your QTH
Some are CW based but there are many with multi mode options such as:
5 IOTA - Islands on the Air- think about how many islands exist in the world.
Also there are casual non-contest events that the club likes to support, such as: Churches on the Air; Summits on the Air; Railways on the air; and many more.
IVARC also tries to support the three Field Days CW;VHF; and SSB that occur in the Summer months. Ask at the club meetings for more information.