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The Commonwealth Contest 2007 - the Australian
team needs you!
The RSGB's Commonwealth Contest is one of
the oldest radio contests in existence, having been first run back in
1931 when it was known as "British Empire Radio Week" and lasted
for six days!
All those countries that were part of the great family of the British
Empire - including Australia, of course - were invited to participate.
While the Sun set several decades ago on the Empire and the colonies are
long gone, strong ties still exist between the countries that once were
all ruled by the Queen or King of England.
British Empire Radio Week metamorphosed into the 24-hour British Empire
Radio Union or BERU (pronounced berroo) contest in 1935 , with the objective
of linking all those having an interest in the amateur radio within the
Empire.
In 1976, BERU morphed into the Commonwealth Contest, substituting the
Commonwealth for British Empire, but with the spirit of the original objective
intact.
The spiritual objective survives to this day - and is one of the main
attractions of the Commonwealth Contest - which sits alongside the Australian
Remembrance Day Contest as one of our "greats".
The Commonwealth Contest stands for everything that is good about being
part of a big family - friendly exchanges, mateship and a fierce rivalry
that never tips over into antagonism.
There is a saying that in order to know where you are going, you have
to know where you have come from - and in the case of Australia, Canada,
New Zealand, the West Indies, India and Pakistan, we all owe our existence
to the Commonwealth.
This year, the Commonwealth Contest 2007, which takes
place on 10/11 March, has a new team section. The format of this team
contest will follow loosely that of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, which
is being held around the same time, with teams from the United Kingdom,
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Indian sub-continent. Hopefully,
winning the team section will become the radio equivalent of taking home
the World Cup cricket trophy.
Full rules for the Commonwealth Contest 2007 can be found at: www.contesting.co.uk/hfcc/rules/rberu.shtml
The 14-person Australian squad to take part in the 2007 event consists
of:
| 1. Les VK4BUI |
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8. Kevin VK6LW |
| 2. David VK2NU |
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9. Phil VK2BAA |
| 3. John VK4EMM |
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10. George VK4XY |
| 4. Alan VK8AV* |
|
11. Bernd VK2IA* |
| 5. Barry VK2BJ |
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12. Rob VK6HG |
| 6. Mike VK6HD |
|
13. Alan VK6BN |
| 7. Russ VK4XA |
|
14. Steve VK6VZ |
The asterisked members are those who may not be able to take part owing
to personal circumstances, but hope to be available.
In order to make the best possible score it is important for each member
of the Australian squad to work as many "bonus stations" as
possible. Each Australian state counts as a separate call area for the
contest on each band, and the first three contacts made with each Australian
state other than our own on each band each earns us a vital twenty bonus
points.
What this rather confusing statement means in practice for a VK6 station
is that each of the first three contacts with VK5 on each band is worth
60 bonus points. If you multiply this by five bands, as the contest covers
80, 40, 20, 15 and 10m, this means that contacts with the state next door
alone can be worth 300 points - a huge amount in the Commonwealth Contest.
On this basis, if as many Australian amateurs as possible can get on in
the Commonwealth Contest and help the team out by working them on as many
of the HF bands as possible, that would help us to beat the Poms, Kiwis
and
Canucks, etc.
Please help us to win the Commonwealth Team Contest.
You might also have a lot of fun too!
For those who would like to enter, there is a brilliant free software
program called SDC, which has been written by Paul EI5DI especially for
the Commonwealth Contest.
This runs under Windows and can be downloaded from: http://www.ei5di.com/sd/sdcsetup.exe
See you in Commonwealth Contest 2007, I hope - and "Go Australia"
in the Cricket World Cup!
Steve Ireland VK6VZ
MARCH 10/11 Commonwealth Contest.
www.contesting.co.uk/hfcc/rules/rberu.shtml
Source: Wireless
Institute of Australia
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