In 1981, the first contact was established between members of the “Bavarian DX Group” in the Munich area and the “East Bavarian DX Association” in eastern Bavaria. Perhaps the beginning of the common history we can be traced to a QSO from the log of GU5EAH (this was DL6RAI on his first DX-pedition) with DL1MAJ in Grünbach on August 22, 1981.
Friendship soon developed between members of both groups and the contact was intensified. So in 1983, the idea of a common name “BCC” emerged, with a charter to represent Bavaria in international competitions. The initial membership was completed by radio amateurs in Bavaria who were not members of either of the two groups.
The proposal, initially posted by DL7MAE and DL6RAI, was appreciated more and more and so in 1984 a first victory could be established over the Süddeutsche DX Gruppe (SDXG).
Since there was no real organisation in the first years, records from this era are very sparse. The list of the founding members of the BCC who are still active today includes the following 18 callsigns:
BDXG: DF3CB DJ1OJ DL1MAJ DL3MAA DL5MAE DL6QW DL7MAE DL7MAT
EBDXA: DF2RG DF4RD DF7RX DJ3TF DK6NP DL4NAC DL6RAI
no affiliation: DK2OY DL5MBY DL6FBL
Since 1986, the BCC holds its annual meeting, the “Heilig-Drei-Königstreffen”, around January 6th every year in the Landshut/Lower Bavaria area.
The leading forces of the BCC (if we can call it that at all), initially were DL7MAE and DL6RAI, succeeded by DF7RX in 1990. Bernhard headed the BCC for nine consecutive years and was personally involved in many expeditions of the club. He was the secretary, newsletter editor and QSL manager of the BCC – all in a single person.
In 1999 a small task force led by DL8OH took over and reorganized the BCC.
Highlights of the major contest activities of the BCC:
1985: LX9BV
1986: 4U1ITU
1987: HB0/DL8OH
1988: HB0CZS und LX8A
1989: LX7A Multi-Multi European Records
1990: DA0BV und DL0CS Multi-Multi German Record
1991: RH2E (Turkoman)
1993: RW2F (Kalinigrad)
1995-1997: TK2C, TK1A, TK5NN
1998: 9Y4NW, C56T
1999-2000: CN8WW Multi-Multi World Records
2003: First place in the club competition of WAE, secondplace in WPX and CQWWDX
2004: First place in the club competition of CQWWDX, CQ WPX (first time), WAE and CQWW 160m (first time, with world record).
2005: First place in the club competition of CQWWDX, CQ WPX, WAE and CQWW 160m (world record again).
2006: First place in the club competition of CQ WPX, WAE, CQWW 160m (world record again) and CQWW RTTY (first time issued) and second place in CQWWDX.
2007: First place in the club competition of CQ WPX, WAE, CQWW 160m, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX and second place in RDXC.
2008: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX
2009: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX.
2010: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX
2011: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX (with All-Time-Rekord), RDXC, DLDX-RTTY-Contest, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX
2012: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWWDX and second place in CQWW RTTY.
2013: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX.
2014: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX
2015: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY and second place in CQ WPX
2016: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX
2017: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX
2018: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX
2019: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWW RTTY, CQWWDX
2020: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX, RDXC, WAE, CQWWDX and second place in CQWW RTTY.
2021: First place in the club competition CQ WPX RTTY, CQWW 160m, CQ WPX
BCC issued the jubilee award “Worked All BCC”(WABCC) on the occasion of the 20-year anniversary during the period of Oct 1, 2003 and Sep 30, 2004. At the same period we made with our special callsign DA0BCC more than 50.000 QSOs.
BCC is not only active in Contests but also in many contest-related activieies, such as:
- Establishing and maintenance of the European Packet Cluster network since 1990 with the callsigns DB0BCC, DB0ABH and DB0CLX. DJ0ZY developed CLX, a PacketCluster compatible software still widely in use today.
- Promotion of communications inside the club using Web technology and an open E-Mail reflector (DF4RD, DL4NER).
- Development and deployment of contest-related software such as:
- UKWTEST – VHF/UHF/SHF contest logger by DL2NBU
- BV QSL management software by DF3CB
- RCKLOG Contest and RTTY Logging software by DL4RCK
- Developing equipment for the contest operations including:
- Band pass filters for Multi-Multi operations (DL7AV, DK4VW, DL2NBU)
- HF-Transceiver Contol (DL2NBU)
- BCC-Preselectror (DL2NBU)
- Head Phone Amplifier (DJ5IW)
- Different publications by members of the BCC
- DLCJ – German Contest Journal, on paper until 2000, nowadays a Web site
- The BCC Handbook for the Contester
- BCC runs the only (unique) worldwide Meteor Scatter Contest.
- BCC members took part in WRTCs 1996, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018.
- Contributions to many national and international events such as HAM RADIO Friedrichshafen, HF and VHF Conferences in Munich, Germany, International DX and Contest Meeting Helsinki, Finland.
Moreover, many BCC members are currently DARC officials and contest managers and are active in international affairs such as the CQ World Wide Committee.
The BCC has been a member of “Runder Tisch Amateurfunk” since 17th of January 2010.