GR2HQ IARU Contest Team

IARU HF World Championship Contest 

Each year the IARU HF World Championship Contest is held on the second weekend in July. This is a 24-hour event using SSB and CW, from 1200 UTC on Saturday to 1159 on Sunday, which is administered by the ARRL.

The stated aim of the contest is:

To support amateur self-training in radiocommunications including improving amateur operating skills, conducting technical investigations, and intercommunicating with other amateurs around the world, especially IARU member society headquarters stations, using the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metre bands.

Single-Operator and Single-Operator Unlimited stations may enter as Mixed-Mode, CW-Only, or Phone-Only in a number of power sub-categories; Multi-operator stations may enter as Mixed-Mode (both SSB and CW). Unique to this contest is the IARU HQ Station section where IARU member societies are encouraged to participate and they usually do this with a single call sign activated from multiple Host stations on the six bands and two modes.

(Bob GU4YOX activating GR2HQ on 10m in 2024)

GR2HQ – the RSGB (UK) HQ Team

GR2HQ is the UK Headquarters station in the IARU HF Championship Contest, which is coordinated by the RSGB HF Contest Committee and licensed through the RSGB Contest Club. GR2HQ represents the RSGB and is activated by a network of more than ten stations around the UK and Crown Dependencies. Some of the activating stations concentrate on a single band and mode slot, whereas others activate more than one slot over the 24-hour period.

How does it work?

Although other solutions have been used in the past, for more than ten years the RSGB entry has been based on a network of Win-Test contest logging systems which share their log data using a communications app called wtTunnel to link to a central server. The functionality is that while the contest is progressing, all QSOs that are made can be seen by all the other team members.

Host Stations

The Host stations are those that activate the GR2HQ call sign and mostly are the amateur radio stations of individuals or clubs who are keen contester participants and are well equipped for the bands and modes that they are allocated to operate. Many of the Host stations will welcome contesters to operate during the contest so that operating over the 24-hour period can be shared without any down-time.

Host stations can change from year to year as can the allocation of bands and modes within the Host stations. Some Host stations will make significant changes to accommodate the contest, particularly in erecting additional aerials, to give more worldwide coverage than would normally be expected at an individual location.

(Peter G4MJS operating on 15m CW in 2024)

Partner Stations

A unique addition to the HQ team is the contribution of Partner Stations. Partners are connected to the Win-Test network just as the Host stations are. They are for the most part, individuals who use their own stations to increase the QSO rate and logging accuracy of the Host station operators. This is achieved by the Partners feeding real-time information about the callsigns that they are able to hear on the Host station’s frequency. The Host station operator will proceed immediately to make QSOs with stations who they did not initially hear in the pileup of those attempting to contact them.

In another extremely valuable task, Partners are often able to identify stations who are new multipliers in the band-map of the Host station and send a message requesting the Host to QSY to work the multiplier.

(Richard GW4BVJ operating partner-mode on 15m CW in 2024)

GR2HQ Challenge

The “GR2HQ Challenge” is an Award Programme, organised by the RSGB Contest Committee, encouraging all stations to work the UK’s Headquarters station GR2HQ during the “IARU HF Championship” contest.

Each station entering the GR2HQ Challenge scores points for working GR2HQ on each of the twelve Band-Mode combinations, 160m-80m-40m-20m-15m-10m, CW or SSB. One point is scored for each QSO on 80m and 40m and two points for each QSO on 160m, 20m, 15m and 10m.

Certificates of Achievement are available for all stations, and those stations achieving high scores can receive Certificates of Merit.

In addition, Clubs and other teams are invited to enter the “Teams Competition”, with their score being the total of the individual scores of all their team members.

Full details of the rules and how to enter are on the RSGBCC website.