ARSI , Amateur Radio Society of India is pleased to announce the First Vhf Hill Topping Contest for Radio Amateurs in India.
For those who are new to this radio sport, the Bangalore Vhf group conducted the First VHF Hill Topping in Dec 1985 as an exercise to explore the various hills around Bangalore and a feasibility study to put up a Vhf Rptr, VU2RSB was formed and the first rptr was installed at Nandi Hills in 1987.
5 teams set out to the following locations
| Nandi Hills | VU2POP, VU2GGM |
| Chamundi Hills | VU2CAP, VU2RAV |
| B R Hills | VU2TS, VU2WP |
| Tala Kaveri / Bramhagiri | VU2ZAP, VU2AK, VU2GUY |
| Doddabetta | VU2JX, VU2RPS, VU2DVP, VU2NTA |
To encourage Vhf DXing on a Contest style, it’s planned to revive Hill Topping as a Contest for Ham Teams to operate, exploring new summits, experimenting with various kinds of antennas, contacting various Grid locations across.
As this may be the first experience for many hams, we plan to keep the rules simple as follows.
a) A contesting Team may consist of one or more hams operating ONE contest station from that particular Hill top location.
b) We restrict to only Two teams per Hill Top so as not to cause QRM or desense any other contest station in the vicinity, however with a minimum separation of 1 Km aerial distance between Hill top contest stations.
c) Each Hill Top station should specify their exact Grid location or Point of operation and will not be allowed to shift locations during the period of contest.
d) It should be mutually decided among the contesters who form their own teams to intimate in writing to the organiser minimum 7 days before the contest date, complete details of their exact Hill top location, co-ordinates, Team Callsign & members.
e) Applications should be filed by email only, no SMS or phone application is acceptable.
f) Location allotment will be considered on a first come first basis and in the event of more than 2 applicants for the same location, the 3rd and so on will be standby in order.
g) In the event of any Hill top contest station withdrawing in advance, the slot will be filled in by the next station who has applied in serial order.
h) Each Hill top contest station may be operated by any of the team members but the logging will be for that particular Hill Top contest team Callsign as assigned.
i) All Hill Top stations should strictly adhere to Amateur Rules, specially with regard to max RF power levels.
j) Mode of operation will be FM, as most commonly available rigs and used by majority of hams.
k) Antennas can be any kind but safe, as long as they do not cause harm to the public or co-members of the team.
l) Each Hill Top contesting team should make the max number of SIMPLEX contacts (Contacts thru Repeater & ECHOLINK INVALID)
SIMPLEX Contacts with other Hill top stations or with other Non hill top, fixed stations from various Cities or towns, etc
m) Mobile stations contact will be considered as ONE point, as its exact position cannot be determined. NO MULTIPLIER FOR MOBILE.
n) No Duplicate contact can count as static once and also as mobile in another instance
o) Only One contact is counted for scoring points. NO duplicate Contact to be logged for points.
p) Each contact is counted as 1 point
q) Multiplier of 1 for every 10 kms of distance between the contesting stations as Distance Multiplier.
r) If you have access to GPS its an advantage to refer the location
Or accurate Maps online like:
Download a simple free software WINGRID http://www.dd3dj.de/wingrid/ to calculate distances between two stations by inputting the correct grid co-ordinates.
s) Contact Exchange is followed as 8 character the first 2 character will be Signal report and the following 6 character will be the grid designation of the respective stations in contact
EXAMPLE: 59 MK82SX is contact exchange VU2POP will give to the opposite stn.
t) To curb fudging of contacts & multiplier points, the Organisers will have various Referees Monitoring on different locations and Freqs.
Hence you need to be true to the spirit of Competition, to avoid disqualification.
u) The Contest will be held during weekend 19-20 Jan 2013 and the duration of the Contest will be from 12 noon of Saturday upto 12 noon of Sunday.
v) No entry fee for contesting.
w) The Organisers are not liable towards any expenses incurred by the contesting teams
x) Hill Top contest teams are solely responsible for all arrangements at their respective hill top location and not the responsibility of the organisers.
Contesting teams should equip themselves with Radios, Antennas, protective gear like tents, rain coats, warm clothing, food, water, First Aid Kit, essential Medicines, transportation, etc.
y) All acts of contesting teams will solely be their own responsibility and void of any encumbrances with the organisers.
z) Completed logs must reach the Contest manager before the 20 Feb 2013 as per log format.
bb) Final ranking & results will be the sole discretion of the Contest Manager & Organiser.
Logs could be disqualified even if one discrepancy is found.
Hence prepare your logs meticulously
cc) 3 Top Positions will be awarded and all participants will receive Certificate of participation.
dd) Vhf Hill Topping Contest Manager: VU2POP
ee) Referees List
By default all Office bearers of ARSI are Contest committee members & Referees
ff) ARSI office bearers & Referees can contact the contest stations to add points to contesters but cannot contest for Awards.
Contester earns Only 1 point for such contacts & No multipliers.
Four teams from Chennai are fanning out to four differ hilltops including Yelagiri hills , Thirumalai Vaiyavoor hill etc. Pls ensure all listen in to 144.550 Mhz 144.150 Mhz from tomorrow evening and provide all the support.
