Belgian Castle Award
Belgian Castle Award was created in order to promote ham traffic and spirit, and to develop better knowledge of national patrimony.
Belgian Castle Award , in brief BCA , applies to Amateur Radio operations made from a castle, a fortified castle or a farm-castle. They will be identified by a two parts reference number:
- two letters for province or region of origin:
for example: BR for Brussels-Capital region, OV for East Flanders province (Oost-Vlaanderen), NM for Namur province;.
- three figures for the activation order : 001, 002, 003 aso for the 1st, the 2nd or the 3rd castle worked in the province or region in question.
Reference number will be given on request 8 days at least before the intended activity; request should be addressed to the BCA-Manager ON5UD either by e-mail or by post with one SASE.
Any castle not previously listed will be accepted on providing the exact geographical position, with one picture if necessary.
Expeditions
Amateur Radio Operation must take place within a distance of maximum 500m around the castle, and may concern only one castle at one and the same time.
To be validated by the BCA Committee, a minimum of 50 contacts in HF or 25 contacts in V- or UHF should be made within one single operation period, i.e. in less than 10 days.
Copy of the log-book ( on paper or electronically in Excel ) should be submitted to the BCA-Manager ON5UD within the following two months after the activity.
Recommendations
During the Radio Amateur Operation, in addition to the exchanged reports, it is strongly recommended to give not only a brief description of the used radio equipment but also to give some information concerning the origin and the history of the castle. In participating to such operation, Hams commit themselves to answer within six months maximum to any QSL demand, either in direct or via bureau.
Any Amateur Radio Operator who activated one castle should provide within two months the BCA-Manager with a copy of his log-book, including a picture showing the radio station and the castle, in order to duly validate this activity.
Any Operator who participated to a validated operation will be automatically credited with one point for this activity; he will be given a certificate which should be included to any award application.
Requirements to be fulfilled
The award is available either in CW, phone or mixed on all HF bands (from 10 to 160m) or in VHF - UHF bands (2m and 70cm), in mono- or multibands. Contacts made by repeaters, satellites, packet or radiotelephone will not be accepted.
Basic Award : 50 Castles, Fortified-castles or Farm-castles, with at least 3 in each province and region.
Endorsements: stickers are provided with each 25 additional castles, with minimum 1 additional castle in each province and region.
Any award application should be presented under the form of one GCR list with reference numbers, callsign of the Amateur Radio Station, date, QTR, QRG, RST and mode. QSL cards must be available to controllers on single request.
Belgian amateur-stations are required to use only the prefix ON for contacts within the BCA. However from 1 st January until 31 st December 2005, all the Radio-amateur stations with a Belgian ON licence are allowed to use also the special OO prefix. Award may also be wined by Amateur Radio Listeners (SWLs) under the same conditions as those applicable to the Licensed Amateur Radio Operators.
All applications must be addressed to the BCA Manager - Eric ON7RN (email : on7rn@eudxf.de).
The award fee is 10 EURO . This amount will be revised on a yearly basis. Endorsement fee is 2 EURO.
The BCA originator ON7RN reserves the right to modify subject rules, taking into account that every validation for previous expeditions will still be valid.
HOME PAGE: http://www.bdxteam.net