The WWFF Rules are generally intended for WWFF , for World Wide activities, but are of course superseeded by National Awards Rules, where there are.

This, although clearly stated in the WWFF Rules at 2.1 (… In countries where a National WWFF program exists, then any existing National rules take priority over the global rules) is very often not known by activators going in other countries.

So it may happen that operators coming from countries where the Activation requirements are different, believe honestly that they may do activities in other countries following their country rules. This is not exactly so!  The same is for the Awards: he must follow the local rules, as recalled also by the above stated point 2.1 of the WWFF Global Rules.

Our HBFF Switzerland and Liechtenstein Flora Fauna difference.

They differs mostly from WWFF for the amount of QSOs, operation time, and bands, necessary to validate an Activation.

In our cases it happened to some Operators coming to Liechtenstein believing HBFF was only for Switzerland, or coming to Switzerland believing WWFF were activable separately from HBFF by its own rules. It is not so!

As we wrote on our web pages and rules, we are ready to help Activators by giving Informations on the References, Operations, and also making agreements in case of expeditions or in case of faulty activations by bad propagation or other bad events..

Our actitude is to be helpful and to assist the Activators, as they are what sustains our HBFF activity. We also welcome, examine and accept observation and constructive criticism, when  intended to better our Awards.

But on the other side, we espect our Guests to be respectful of laws and reglements, and of our work: we do not make business by managing the HBFF, au contraire, we often invest not only our free time, but also other resources and money, too. It’s not nice to deal with absolutely negative people who denigrate our work: we accept constructive criticism, not destructive.

Below we want to give useful information and indicate what are the main differences, compared to WWFF, to be taken into account if you want to come to Switzerland or Liechtenstein to make activations.

Our sitepages are http://ssfg-gsrc.ch/intro.html for all our awrds: Castles, Abbeys, and Parks.

SSFG-GSRC is the Name of our Group; as usual the acronym is formed using the national languages, and means “SSFG-GSRC: Schweizer Schloessern Funkamateur Gruppe – Gruppo Svizzero Radioamatori dei Castelli – Group Suisse des Radioamateurs des Chateaux “.

Pages for HBFF parks:  http://hbff.ssfg-gsrc.ch/HBFF_Intro.htm ; from these pages the Reference Lists and the Rules are downloadable, and the late news are displayed, as links for other Awards of ours and of the world.

For the differences between WWFF and HBFF in Activators rules, we report below an excerpt from our rules, recently modified following activators feedback:

      *) Activations: The activation, that is to be announced, is accepted and validated only if the operator follows the HBFF Rules and the following requisites:

  • It is possible to activate two HBFF References for each day, but activating only one reference, or park, at a time.
  • The station (aerials, radio sets, power supply, etc) must be located and must transmit from inside the park.
  • At least 100 (modified to 51 : reported by HB9TZA @ 6th june 2020) valid QSO should be done, it is mandatory the use of at least 2 bands; use of 20m band with a signifiant number of QSOs is very recommended; it is also mandatory a minimum operating time of 2 hours from the 1st QSO on the same Reference. For serious reasons or troubles the Award Management may allow exceptions to these rules.
  • In special cases and on prior request, the management can allow to carry out a greater number of HBFF References activations a day, without prejudice however to the other conditions.
  • The Credit for the activated Reference will be given, both as Hunter and as Activator, to the YL or OM that takes part, but only if operating at the Radio, during the Activation.
  • To validate the activation, the Activator must send to the management, within 30 days from the end of operations, the following documents : ADIF log files, clear self-made digital photographic documentation proving the activation; if it will be possible, the photographic documentation of the reference only, no aerials nor operators in the image; the Station Callsign and the list of all Operator’s Callsigns, if different, and permissions obtained for the activation, if any.
  • The operators living in the HBFF Reference must send the geographical coordinates of their stations, or the Position file.
  • If informations are missing, even if the log is sent, the QSOs will be considered valid for the hunters, but the activation will not be credited to the activator and the operators.
  • The sending of documents must be by email, better to the email address of the HBFF Management staff@hbff.ssfg-gsrc.ch .
  • The Management will take care to upload the log, if validated, to the WWFF.

The Rules and other Infos are available on our Sitepages http://hbff.ssfg-gsrc.ch

We warmly welcome every Ham that would like to come and operate, and we remain willing to read messages from you for preliminary contacts to plan your activity.

Please write us at staff@hbff.ssfg-gsrc.ch .

73 es 44 de Augusto HB9TZA, in name of the SSFG-GSRC Staff