UK operators only: Changes to UK licence (Part 1)

Do they ? I thought they used the “home association” in your account settings ?

Rick

Perhaps we need to tighten up how we’ve worded this.

Basically, we are adopting the same approach as the RSGBCC, which states:

We will require entrants to use a callsign which correctly defines which DXCC country they are operating from. So - for example - a station operating from Scotland cannot omit the M' or S’ RSL.

So no, you do not need to add the E RSL for England.

I think Martyn @M1MAJ and John @G3WGV make excellent points, and it will be interesting to see how things evolve. “Time will tell” as they say!

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Sorry all, but I’m having difficulties understanding all comments. I appreciate what Andy has said, that is the decision the SOTA MT have taken and we should respect it - a lot of work goes into managing this scheme. Now please understand, we can talk about it all day… month… year… but the end result is: NOTHING HAS CHANGED!

So, let’s continue to enjoy our SOTA activating/chasing as we have done since the scheme arrived in 2002!

73, Ben
GW4BML

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Ah, but it has. There is now a new rule that must be followed which goes beyond conforming with the licence conditions that newcomers to the hobby will learn.

This is fine if it serves a purpose. In a contest which awards points on the basis of DXCC entity then yes, it serves a purpose (notwithstanding that there are many examples world wide of callsigns which do not unambiguously determine the DXCC entity).

For SOTA, I see no purpose. On the contrary, it would be helpful not to have to worry about which side of an invisible line you were when activating a border summit.

Martyn M1MAJ

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The RSL,s are now optional and up to the operator if they want to use them or not ,personally i will be keeping mine for all operations

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For the time being, intermediate licence holders have no choice.

So you are banning the use of GB calls for SOTA?

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A very good point Colin!

Am I missing something here? (probably).

I thought that we enter our contacts (either as Activator or Chaser) into the SOTA database after logging in under our “userid” (which just happens to also be our callsign). In my profile I you can also list “alternative callsigns” that I use at times (e.g. when on holiday) and all the points earned go back to the primary “userid”.

If my callsign with the RSL up to yesterday was GD1ABC and I decided to drop the “D” as it is now voluntary and use G1ABC on the air instead - can’t I simply add G1ABC as an alternative callsign to my GD1ABC account?
Then I could log the callsign that I used on an activation (or while chasing) into the system and it would then know that the points earned should be put on the GD1ABC Userid/Account.
I can see that you don’t want everyone asking to change their account userids (in this example from GD1ABC to G1ABC) but otherwise, wouldn’t the use of adding the without RSL (or with the new E RSL added) call sign into the list of alternative call signs be a workable solution?

73 Ed.

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Not even necessary. That facility has nothing to do with logging contacts; it’s about name display in SOTAwatch. See:

When logging contacts, you give the callsign you used. It can be a variant, special RSL, club call, whatever. It just works.

Martyn

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But can I if I want to? Andy’s announcements suggest I can’t but since it clearly defines the DXCC I don’t see why it can’t be used.

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Anyone know if POTA or WWFF are continuing to mandate the use of RSL’s?

Completely agree.

I for one was looking forward to the simplification of not having to use RSL’s or maintain multiple logs under different callsigns.

At the moment I have to maintain M0GQC (home station), MW0GQC/P (Wales), M0GQC/P (England), M0GQC/A (second location) & if I cross the border into Scotland that will add MM0GQC/P. If I ever get around to going to the Isle Of Mann, that will add yet another.

It would be nice to combine all of my portable ops into one so I only have three logs:- M0GQC for home, M0GQC/A for the other location & M0GQC/P for everything else…simple. Why over-complicate things?

I’m not sure if there’s something in the database which requires the use of the RSL?

As others have already pointed out, activations/chases are logged against our username so I personally can’t see the issue.

I would hope whatever issue has prompted this decision would have been resolved by then, but you get no arguments from me. My jaw practically hit the desk when I came across this topic.

From a publicity standpoint, I don’t think the optics of this decision are particularly good. Especially for new people who join the hobby in a couple of years time having never operated under the old rules.

It doesn’t look very progressive that we are hanging onto old outdated rules.

Having had a good read through all of the posts above, I can’t find any good suggestions as to why RSL’s are necessary for SOTA which draws me to the conclusion that it’s the “that’s how we’ve always done it, let’s not rock the boat” syndrome and maybe a bit of nationalistic pride (or more accurately a fear of offending people).

It’s a bit like 160m. I don’t use 160m & I vary rarely use 80m because I got bored of lectures based on how the rules used to be in the 1950’s!

When all is said & done, the rules which we all abide by when we participate in the SOTA scheme essentially state that the management team have the final say.

I dislike this decision but ultimately there are two options:-

  1. Accept it and play by their rules
  2. Don’t take part & sulk alone in a corner somewhere

Your choice!

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I hope so!!

The UK has possibly more DXCC entities per square inch than probably any other “nation” of comparable size ( at least 7). Makes getting a DXCC award easy (right?).

I just got my RSGB entry level Region One Award recently and thought 40 “countries” would be easy only to discover that DXCC classification is simply a US thing created back in 1937 by the ARRL and so my contacts with Scotland, Wales, England all vanished into one bucket for the UK.

Without thinking too hard about this but definitely tongue in cheek it seems UK calls sign format/protocol have been “inadvertently” influenced by the US……oh horror of horrors……

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+1

What are these “obvious reasons”?
73
Rod

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After further discussion the MT has reached a decision to recommend that UK SOTA operators should continue to use regional secondary locators. This aids identification of the region from which the operation is being made, helping, for example, those who wish to track DXCCs.

However, QSOs with the RSL dropped are legal and may be logged for SOTA.

Foundation and Full licensees wishing to add the ‘E’ RSL for operation from England may do so and log such QSOs for SOTA.

Remember that on border summits the SOTA association code does not necessarily match the operator’s region; we now have two summits where (non-Intermediate) operators have a choice of three prefixes.

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Thanks for the clarification. I feel that this is a fair, sensible & pragmatic approach (for what little my opinion is worth).

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I think that is a very reasonable approach. Thank you for listening.

As I said, I was intending to do this anyway.

Martyn M1MAJ

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Most importantly the summit reference tells us where the activation is taking place, rather than neccessarily the callsign that is being used. Please do not remove the RSL from the summit association reference!!

73 Ed.

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In the vast majority of cases it does (in terms of DXCC). In all cases it does in terms of summit!

No intention. In fact this very thing contributed to the decision to alter “require” to “recommend”.

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