RSGB IOTA Contest 2024
1200Z, Jul 27 to 1200Z, Jul 28, 2024
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RULES:
| meeting people outside of their household/bubble and travelling that apply to the location where they are operating and at the time of the event. Any enclosed operating space (e.g. car, tent) will be considered to be an indoor location. The RSGB IOTA Contest is the most popular contest in the RSGB HF Contests calendar, attracting entries from around the world. IOTA refers to the RSGB “Islands on the Air” awards. A newcomers’ guide to the system of IOTA references and further information on the IOTA Contest can be found at the IOTA Contest Information page and on the IOTA Contest FAQ page. A beginners’ guide to operating in the contest is here. If you have any questions about these rules, please email hf.query@rsgbcc.org Changes for 2021: (i) The sending of RS(T) in every QSO is mandatory (ii) The awards for the contest have been reallocated |
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| 1. Objective | To promote contacts between stations in IOTA island groups and the rest of the world, and to encourage expeditions to IOTA islands. | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2. Date & Time | 1200Z saturday , Jul 27 to 1200Z, Jul 28, 2024 till 1200 UTC sunday | ||||||||||||||||||
| 3. Frequencies and Modes | 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz
CW and/or SSB |
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| 4 (a) Entrants |
(a) The contest is open to all stations world-wide. (b) Stations operating from a qualifying island are “Island Stations”. They must make sure beforehand that the QTH from which they are operating is a valid island for IOTA purposes. This can be checked and Island References can be obtained here. (c) Stations not operating from a qualifying island are “World Stations” (d) Special Contest Callsigns or Club Callsigns may be used (e) 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 (f) Remote receivers outside the Station location are not permitted (g) Remote operation of a World Station is allowed where the operator is situated within the same country on the DXCC list as the Remote Station (h) Remote operation of an Island Station is only allowed only where the operator is situated on the same IOTA Island as the Remote Station (i) A remotely operated station must obey all station licence, operator licence, and category conditions (j) The callsign used must be one issued or permitted by the Regulatory Authority of the remote station location (k) 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. (l) The RSGB HF Contest Committee may place remotely operated stations in a separate results table. |
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| 4 (b) Categories |
4.1 CATEGORY – LOCATION: (i) “Island Station – Fixed”, a station operating from a qualifying IOTA island, explained in Rule 4(a). (ii) “Island Station – DXpedition”, a station also operating from a qualifying IOTA island. In addition, the island can only be reached by boat or air. Islands which can be accessed by bridge or causeway, man-made or natural, are not eligible. The majority of operators must also be non-resident on the island. And the operators must take all radio equipment and antennas with them, and must not rely on a resident or on any masts or towers already installed for any part of the station. (iii) A “World Station” is any station which is not an Island Station. 4.2 CATEGORY – OPERATORS: (i) Single Operator Unassisted. (ii) Single Operator Assisted The Category Overlay – NEWCOMER is available to Single Operator entrants, where the operator was first licensed less than 3 years before the date of the contest. In Single Operator categories, only one signal may be transmitted at any one time. (iii) Island Multi-1. Island Stations only, 24-hour Mixed Mode only, High Power or Low Power only, Assisted only. Island Multi-1 stations are restricted to a maximum of two transmitters, where the first station is the RUN station, labelled “0” in the Cabrillo log. The second is the MULTIPLIER station, labelled “1” in the Cabrillo log. The MULTIPLIER station is used to find and call other stations, but only if the station is a new multiplier. The MULTIPLIER station must not be used to solicit other contacts, e.g. by calling “CQ” or “QRZ?”. Any non-multiplier QSOs made accidentally on the MULTIPLIER station must be logged, but will be scored as zero points. (iv) Island Multi-2. Island Stations only, 24-hour Mixed-mode only, High Power or Low Power only, Assisted only. Island Multi-2 stations are restricted to a maximum of two transmitters, where the first station is labelled “0” in the Cabrillo log and the second is labelled “1”. Both stations may be used to solicit contacts and to search for multipliers. Island Multi-1 and Island Multi-2 entrants must include a full list of operators with their entry in the Cabrillo OPERATORS section. There are no World Station Multi-Operator categories. 4.3 CATEGORY – MODE: CW 4.4 CATEGORY – OPERATING TIME: 24 hours. Multi-Operator entries must be 24 hours. 4.5 CATEGORY – POWER: High Power — maximum licensed power, but no more than 1500W output. Any station not indicating transmitter power will be classified as High Power |
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| 5. Exchange |
World Stations: send RS(T) and serial number starting from 1, for example: 599 254 Island Stations: send RS(T) and serial number starting from 1, plus their IOTA Reference, for example: 59 378 EU115 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 Mixed-Mode entrants may contact stations on both CW and SSB on each band. Do not use separate numbering systems for CW and SSB. Multi-Operator entrants may find it convenient to allocate separate blocks of serial numbers for each station, but do ensure if possible that there is no duplication of serial numbers. Island stations should announce their IOTA Reference during CQ calls so that other stations can check for Dupes before replying |
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| 6. Scoring | Island Stations contacting: World Stations: 5 points Island Stations having the same IOTA reference: 5 points Other Island Stations: 15 points World Stations contacting: Multiplier. The multiplier is the total of different IOTA references contacted on each band on CW, plus the total of different IOTA references contacted on each band on SSB The Total Score is the total of QSO points on all bands added together, multiplied by the total of multipliers on all bands added together |
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| 7. Log Submission and Adjudication |
Submit in Cabrillo format here within 5 days of the end of the contest. View the correct Cabrillo format for this contest.
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 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 5 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. |
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| 8. Results and Awards | Awards for RSGB HF Contests are shown here
Winners of awards will be indicated in the results tables complete with downloadable certificates |
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| 9. Supplementary Rules |
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| 10. Declaration | By entering any RSGB HF Contest you declare that:
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| 11. Adjudicator | Mike G3VYI | ||||||||||||||||||
