Commonwealth Contest (March): This is a contest for DX enthusiasts which involves contacts between stations in the British Commonwealth and is a good opportunity to work stations with rare prefixes on 80 to 10m CW. Signal strengths from the more distant countries are often poor and good, low-angle antenna systems are advantageous. Even so, success can be had with the smallest of stations. This contest, which dates back to 1932, used to be called the "British Empire Radio Union" contest.

Club Calls Contest (November):This topband team contest is an early version of the AFS series which developed from the Verulam ARC’s ‘Clubs Contest’. It aims to promote social contact between club members and to activate club callsigns. Clubs, club members and individuals may enter, with their scores contributing to the AFS Super League. Foundation and Intermediate licence-holders are encouraged to operate the club call under the supervision of Full licensees.

Other specialist contests (throughout the year):Other special-interest groups affiliated to the RSGB organise their own events. These include RTTY and SSTV contests, WAB contests and events for members of groups such as RNARS and FOC. The rules and results are generally published by the groups concerned and often appear in summary form in the Contesting Radio column of RadCom.

HF Contest Championship (yearly, Jan - Dec):This is not a specific contest in its own right but involves participation in a number of single-operator HF events during the year. Entrants' callsigns are put forward for inclusion automatically. Qualifying points for each event entered are calculated on the basis of position in the table of entrants. To win the Championship requires consistently good performances and represents a great overall effort.

Non-RSGB International HF Contests

Can I enter non-RSGB contests?

In addition to the RSGB events mentioned here, most other national societies and amateur radio organisations have their own HF contests, many of which are open to all comers. In general they take place at weekends and the normal exchange is report and serial number, so casual entrants can usually participate. The exceptions are those events which specify contacts within the same country/ society (contacts with overseas stations or non-members although ‘permitted’ do not count for points - so entrants will avoid you if you call them!). Some contests use special exchanges like WAB locators - to enter these it is necessary to know the correct information to send. If you cannot find a copy of the rules or figure it out from the information being exchanged you can always try asking one of the entrants (don’t pick the station who is working a pile-up! Find someone who is not likely to be one of the winners - you stand a better chance of getting a reply).

What about the rules?

Links to some web sites are given in the Contesting column in RadCom, but anyone intending to make a serious entry is advised to check with a web site such as that provided by SM3CER. The RSGB awards trophies for the UK winners of some overseas contests and these are presented annually at the RSGB Convention. There follow brief descriptions of some of the major overseas events:

CQ World-wide (CQWW) & World Prefix (WPX) Contests:CQ Magazine runs these major events annually on both CW and SSB. Each is a full weekend (48hrs) long on each mode and literally thousands of amateurs enter. CQWW usually provides great opportunities to work rare countries, often activated by "DXpeditions" who go there specifically to operate in the contests. In CQWW the contest exchange is signal report and "CQ Zone", which for the UK is ‘14’. DXCC Countries and CQ Zones worked on each band (160 - 10m) count as multipliers. In the WPX contests, scoring is by multipliers for each prefix, rather than country... G3IFB and G4IFB would be counted as different prefixes (multipliers). This contest is unusual in that multipliers may be counted only once, regardless of band. The full rules are published in CQ Magazine, and a comprehensive summary in RadCom.

ARRL DX contests: The Amateur Radio Relay League organises major DX contests on SSB and CW. These events, where the rest of the world works the 48 mainland US states plus Canadian provinces on all six bands 160 to 10m, are as popular as CQWW. US/VE stations send report and State/Province while all other stations send report and power output. The multiplier is the number of states/provinces contacted on all bands. ARRL also run contests on 160m and 10m.

IARU HF Championship: The International Amateur Radio Union runs this major event on all the HF bands in mid July. The RSGB Headquarters station is one of several stations around the world representing a country's national society. All such stations count as additional multipliers.

WAE DX Contests:Europe works the rest of the world. In this contest extra points can be earned by DX stations sending back to EU stations details of their previous QSOs (called QTCs). The rules are complicated and anyone intending to enter should obtain a copy from the German national society (DARC) who organise the events.

Other Contests: Other societies throughout the world organise all sorts of contests, some of which are very well supported. The certificates and plaques to be won in many of these events are well worth the effort. The rules are available through the SM3CER web site, and can normally be found from a Search Engine. Advance warning of both RSGB and overseas contests is usually given in RadCom.