[UK-CONTEST] Contest Calls

[G3SJJ]

Regarding Special Contest Calls, hopefully I can add some background 
since I was involved in the negotiations and initial introduction of 
SPCs in the UK.

Negotiations originally took place 10-15 years ago and the first year of 
use was 1996. Things have moved on considerably since then. I think the 
first European country to introduce them was Belgium with OT(year)*, eg 
OT6A for 1996, followed by the UK. With usual UK conservatism (small c), 
we were guided by the DTI and RSGB LAC (Licencing Advisory Committee) to 
accept this system, rather than anything else which HFCC put forward. 
After two years use, we managed to convince people that changing the 
number each year was not good. Quite a breakthrough at that time! I 
think the ONs still have to change each year. I recall Contest Managers 
from other countries asking me about our system, and many more SPCs 
followed in Europe.

The authorities were not willing at that time to issue vanity calls or 
contest calls to individuals so we had to agree to an NOV against a 
callsign issued to a constituted Radio Club. Dave's G3TBK point here is 
valid but the reasoning is solid. It is quite acceptable for an 
individual as a single operator to use a Club Callsign in a contest and 
the same follows with SPCs. Dave is correct in saying that people have 
used SPCs as a kind of vanity call, although I can't see that this is 
any form of abuse. Any club member is entitled to use the SPC and if 
no-one else wishes to use it then it tends to become associated with 
that person. I have done just this with G8D. Our team used GU8D from 
1996 to 2005 in the IOTA contest, but outside that I have tended to use 
it for single op, mainly in SSB contests since G8D is better to say than 
G3SJJ ! Similarly I think Andy G4PIQ has used M6T. Nothing sinsister or 
under-hand Dave. There is nothing stopping the East Notts Contest Group 
from taking out an M0 callsign and then applying for an NOV. You have 
enough members to form a committee! This is the main reason I don't 
think a high power licence is valid against an SPC. If, say, one member 
had used the SPC in CQWW CW for several years then another member wanted 
to use it, someone is going to lose out.

As for the list of contests, again Dave is probably right. We had to 
submit a list initially, and subsequently added some VHF and Data I 
think, but I don't recall anything being added in the last few years. 
Probably due for an update, Russian DX contest for example.

With regard to location, the intention of notification was to ensure 
that the callsign was strictly a short call and that /P did not need to 
be added. At this stage I have to hold my hand up and say that apart 
from 1996 and possibly 1997 for GU8D, I have never sent a notification 
of location. If this offends anybody then I apologise, but I get the 
distinct impression that Ofcom are not the slightest interested anyway. 
Not sure about Dave's red herring on this one, I don't understand the 
point you are making.

Sorry for yet another long one, I felt some explanation would be helpful 
to the current discussions.

Chris G3SJJ