[UK-CONTEST] Short contest call failure

[Contest Committee Chairman]

The Short Contest Call rejections are not what the RSGB 
Contest Committee expected, and not what Ofcom are 
supposed to be doing.  We have made protests, and expect 
to have the whole thing sorted out this coming week.

The problem is that nobody at Ofcom knows anything about 
contests, and they don't really understand how contesters 
go about their "jobs".  It had never occurred to anyone 
there that club SCCs could be used by individuals, and 
also that people go abroad specifically to do contests, or 
take gear when they go on business/holiday. When the first 
applications came in, and some amateurs qualified using 
calls other than that which Ofcom had issued to 
individuals for UK use, they seemed to go into meltdown, 
and rejected them out of hand.

The wording of the form says nothing about the callsign 
used when qualifying, and it would not have been 
acceptable to the RSGB side if it had. The fact that a 
"callsign" box is there on the form itself ought to have 
been a clue.

After a certain amount of commotion, some from the Contest 
Committee, some from elsewhere, Ofcom are reconsidering. 
I don't think they have a leg to stand on, but I am not a 
lawyer. If the rejectees would like to hold their fire for 
a few days, they may get some good news. The only thing 
that could go wrong is that the Ofcom bureaucrats say 
something like "This was not what we intended, so we have 
to re-word the form, and the lawyers will need to look at 
it again".  That seems unlikely, but if it happened, it 
would really cause an excrement and turbine situation, and 
would delay the whole thing by months.

I've no idea why Ofcom should really be over-interested in 
this at all, but perhaps all quasi-governmental agencies 
will go the same way as organisations look for places to 
cut jobs, and employees have to make sure they are always 
busy.  However, I get the impression that the Ofcom people 
we are dealing with just want to get this sorted out, and 
move on to other, more important things.  I understand 
that the department's other remit, radio licensing for 
shipping, is absolutely fascinating, and there is urgent 
business to attend to.

I'll keep you posted -- we have a meeting with Ofcom in 
London next Thursday.

73,

Ed, GW3SQX
Chairman, RSGB Contest Committee