Hi

The Commonwealth Contest is a DX contest and DX means long distance and challenging radio contacts. Just hold that thought in your mind for a moment.

The first HQ station was GB5CC in 1987 operated for the 50th contest, so ‘5’ for the 50 anniversary and ‘CC’ for Commonwealth Contest. GB5CC is a bonus station for all entrants including the UK&CD entrants. UK&CD entrants do not work each other for points. Since 1987 Australia, Canada and New Zealand national societies have allowed the use of their HQ call suffixes in the contest. It has been accepted that there should be one HQ station per Commonwealth call area. GB5CC has been the UK&CD headquarters station.

We have to recognise that in the period of poor solar conditions there is a need to provide extra stimulus when the HF bands are closed. So in 2017 ( 80th contest) a number of G#80CC HQ stations were activated from individual countries in the UK&CD. The UK was still one call area for entrants but these extra HQ stations provided local activity and bonus points for UK entrants. This year, 2021, in addition to GB5CC other UK HQ stations G#6XX and G#3DR were activated. If fully operated this potentially leads to 5 (bands) * 15 (call areas )*20 bonus points being available to UK entrants. Further all these points are available as local short range QSOs. Whilst these bonus points do not give equivalence with stations in Canada, especially , and Australia less so, they distort the contest for UK stations. These QSOs are hardly DX. Moreover these UK HQ stations have to be manned by someone. So as the number of UK contesters is limited it is inevitable that the more HQ stations there are, the fewer UK entrants there will be. This suggests that the best use of HQ stations is to encourage newer contesters to build technique and experience rather than be operated by leading UK contesters who might otherwise compete at the highest level in the main sections.

With COVID hopefully behind us and international travel resuming what options might we consider :-

1. Revert to GB5CC only. Comment has been made that GB5CC is an unusual call for a contest ( it might be unique ). But it has the benefit of having been used for the last 34 years, so should be familiar by now.

2. Have only one HQ station per country for the UK, probably G#6XX. Possibly retain GB5CC for G only with G#6XX for the other UK countries. Focus effort on getting HQ activity from the smaller UK countries and new contesters.

3.Approach OFCOM to issue G#xRSGB ( or G#xHQ ) to bring the suffix into line with other HQ stations. The explicit use of G#xHQ would clarify the role of the station without ambiguity.

Finally recall this is a DX contest and DX means long distance and challenging radio contacts, so the stimulation of more DX contacts is the real goal.

73 Bob G3PJT