[CQ-Contest] IARU HQ Callsigns

[John Dorr]

Good morning all,

I'd like to shed some light on the IARU HF Championship callsign debate,
put forth the final action plan and have us move on.

Several years ago, the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF)
offered to take on the tasks of scoring and adjudicating the HQ station
logs for the IARU HF Championship. The ARRL agreed. As a result, WWROF has
been providing log-checking and score-calculation services for this event
to ARRL since that time and have had no issues.

In recent days, we have become aware that the Italian national society
(Associazione Radioamatori Italiani, or ARI) plans to use more than one
callsign on several bands in the contest next weekend (different callsigns
on CQ and Phone on some bands). The ARI has been operating in this manner
for a few years. This is a violation of Rule 4.3.3, which states "Only one
HQ station callsign per member society per frequency band is permitted."

This rule exists so that it is clear that working the same HQ station on
Phone and CW on one band counts for only one multiplier. With different
callsigns on each mode, some operators may think they are working a new
multiplier when they contact a "second" HQ station in the same country.

In some countries, it is possible to use a single callsign across all
regions (TM0HQ, for example). In other countries this is not allowed
(Italy, Spain, Japan, for example), so a multi-site operation may require
the use of multiple callsigns for one HQ operation. If you review the IARU
HF Championship results for 2012, you will notice that the HQ stations in
Italy and Japan are listed as "IUxHQ" and 8NxHQ", since each of these
stations was spread out over multiple call areas and the score computed as
if all were using the same callsign.

A close review of last year's logs shows that three HQ stations (LRxF,
IUxHQ, and 8NxHQ) violated Rule 4.3.3 by using different callsigns in the
CW and Phone segments of several bands. This rule was not enforced last
year nor in any previous years.

The URE (Spain) has announced their plan for an operation in this weekend's
2013 contest that is in full compliance with the rule (e.g., the HQ
stations will use the same callsign on both modes on the same band).

On the other hand, both the ARI and the Radio Club Argentino have also
announced their plans for this weekend with a planned callsign approach
that does not comply with Rule 4.3.3.

The ARI has claimed that they received permission from someone at ARRL at
some time in the past to use different callsigns on a band. Any such
permission was given in error. However, we will honor that permission this
year, and will not disqualify the ARI entry or any other entries that
violate Rule 4.3.3.

Planning a major multi-site HQ station operation is a significant
undertaking, and it seems unfair to force the ARI (or RCA, or JARL) to move
some of their stations to different call areas at this late date in order
to comply with a rule that has never been enforced. We will note in the
results that the ARI station (and any other stations in the same situation)
did not comply with Rule 4.3.3.

This is going to be a one-time exception. All IARU member society HQ
stations will be required to comply fully with all rules for the 2014 IARU
HF Championship.

It is understandable that some member societies that are working hard to
plan HQ operations in strict compliance with the rules will be unhappy with
this ruling. We ask that they accept this decision in the spirit of good
sportsmanship and that everyone have fun and make lots of QSOs this weekend.

73,
John, K1AR
Chairman, WWROF