Welcome to week one hundred and ninety of NARC’s contest news.
Results:-
On VHF
Several VHF results this week.
The results of the SHF UKAC of 22nd April were released on 9th May. As you will be aware, we only have one station who enters this on our behalf, Graham, G3SGC. He’s gradually getting active on more SHF bands. He came 12th on 2.4 GHz this time moving up from 18th to 15th place overall as a result on this band. On 10GHZ he managed 13th place and remains in 13th overall. Link to SHF results here
The results of the 1.3GHz UKAC of 15th April were published on 10th May. I was away for this one but our club managed 2 valiant entries from Mattishall in the form of G4DYC and G3YLA – as a result, we remain in 6th place overall which is unchanged. Link to results here
In the overall UKAC we are running 5th in section out of 48 clubs so far. Link to this here.
The results of the 144MHz May contest of Sunday 4th May were released on 13th May. In the open section, the new Trimingham team, M6R which had several NARC members operating came second to G8T, receiving a runner-up certificate of merit. In the Single operator fixed category, Phil G4LPP came second also receiving a Runner up certificate of merit. In 6th place was Steve, M5BFL and in 40th and 41st places were Mike, G4DYC and Jim G3YLA. Link to results here
The above contest was part of this year’s VHF Championship. NARC are running 6th in the AFS section. Link to that here
The results of the 432MHz Trophy contest of 3rd May were released on 15th May. The single operator fixed category was won by G3XDY with G4ODA in second place, NARC interest was Phil G4LPP in 5th, Stewart G4AFF in 10th, John G8VPE in 30th and Jim G3YLA in 41st place. Link to results here
The results of the May 432MHz and up contest were published on 15th May. The only NARC interest was, I’m afraid to say, myself. I ended up 5th with my 6h 432 trophy entry and 2 long distance 23cm contacts I made on request via KST. Quite surprised really. Link to results here
On HF
The results of the 80m CC DATA contest of 24th April have been released this week. Once again we seem to have scraped a reasonable win! Our 17 entries scored 10,884 points compared to second placed Echelford with 4,737 points. This leaves us currently leading over Bristol with 81,123 vs 48,511 points. Of interest is that in the General clubs section, 3As lead with 72,860 points. Keep up the good work team! Our top scorer in this one was Malcolm, G3PDH, with 992 points. He is also the top NARC scorer of the series so far. Link to results here
As mentioned elsewhere on the website I must re-iterate congratulations on winning the Multi Operator section of last year’s UK Six Metre Group Summer contest – G4ANT/P was run by Andy M0NKR and Chris G0DWV. See the image below:-
If people are entering other contests of whose results I am obviously unaware please e-mail me to let me know the outcome and I’ll mention it here.
Contests:-
On VHF
On Sunday 11th May the 70MHz CW contest ran. Part of the VHF CW Championship. Conditions were poor and entry levels low. 24 logs have been received by RSGB. There were 4 entries from NARC members which is a good proportion! Link to claimed scores here
On Tuesday 13th May the 432MHz UKAC ran. Conditions for this were truly excellent with USB workable stations from Sweden and GM4JTJ coming in at 59+10 off the side of my beam! NARC have managed 7 good entries in this one with top scorer on claimed score being Stewart, G4AFF. Link to claimed scores here
On Wednesday 14th May, the 432MHz FT8 AC ran 2h and 4h sections. This week I didn’t spot any current NARC member who were involved.
On Thursday 15th May the 70MHz UKAC ran. Conditions were fairly average with some high noise and deep slow QSB. Despite this activity was reasonably good and some reasonably long distances were workable. 5 of us entered logs for NARC. Link to claimed scores here
On HF
On Monday 12th May the 80m CC SSB contest ran. Conditions were quite good and NARC managed 17 entries. Our leading scorer with a magnificent 172 contacts as well as working the bonus station was Andy, M0NKR. Almost all the rest of us managed to find the bonus station too which bodes well for results. Link to logs received here
Please let me know if you were on in any other VHF or HF contests and I’ll put a summary in next week’s news.
Upcoming contests in the next 2 weeks (all times in UTC):-
On VHF / UHF / SHF
Before each of the 2m and 70cm UKACs there is an FM leg starting 1 hour before for 55 minutes. I hear almost no activity in this from here but others may have more luck! Rules etc on RSGBCC site.
* Tue 20th May 1900-2130 1.3GHz UKAC
* Tue 27th May 1830-2130 SHF UKAAlso of interest for some on the vhf / uhf bands are the EU FT8 activity tests – see the following link for more information. These are on the first (144 MHz), second (432MHz) and third (1.3GHz) Wednesdays of each month. 1700-2000 Hrs EU FT8 series website
On HF
NB:- Note the RSGB has changed several of the rules for HF contests in 2025 – Link here to changes.
* Sat 17th May 0600-2100 UN DX Contest CW and SSB - Link to rules here
* Sat 17th May 0800-1100 and Sun 18th May 0800-1100 NZART Sangster Shield contest CW - Link to rules here
* Sat 17th May 1200 for 24h His Majesty the King of Spain CW contest - Link to rules here
* Sat 17th May 1200 for 24h EU PSK DX contest BPSK63 - Link to rules here
* Sat 17th May 1200-1600 Feld Hell Sprint - Link to rules here
* Sat 17th May 2100 to Sun 18th May 0200 Baltic contest CW and SSB - Link to rules here
* Sun 18th May 0000-2359 FISTS Sunday sprint CW - Link to rules here
* Sun 18th May 2300 to Mon 19th May 0100 Run for the Bacon QRP contest CW - Link to rules here
* Mon 19th May 1900-2100 RSGB FT4 contest
* Wed 21st May 1900-2030 80m CC DATA contest
* Sat 24th May 0000 for 48h CQ WW WPX CW contest (M0RYB/P team will be entering)- Link to rules here
* Thu 29th May 1900-2030 80m CC CW contestSee Link to WA7BNM for other contests not mentioned above.
Wednesdays throughout the year, CW ops 1 hour mini tests 13:00, 19:00, Thurs 03:00 and 07:00, exchange Name and G if not a member or CWOPS number if you are a member.
See CWOPS website for more details.
Also on Fridays 2000 to 2100 and Mondays 0000 to 0100 each week CWops runs the K1USN slow speed CW contests. Any speed up to 20wpm is acceptable. For rules see :- CW OPs SST page these contests are open to anyone.
All RSGB contest rules and further details plus log submission at RSGB contest site
Look to WA7BNM’s contest calendar for other contests and links to rules etc at WA7BNM weekly contest calendar
A link to John 2E0TWQ’s site’s Narc contest history page – 2E0TWQ’s NARC contest results page
Contesting can be great fun but I know there’s a reluctance to step into unknown waters. It’s a great way of improving many aspects of our hobby including one’s own performance and the quality of your station. If you have any interest whatsoever please call in to the contest net on Friday evening at 9pm on 145.250MHz FM or speak to any of the regular contesters on 450. Or indeed email me!
Submissions or comments for this news to thedoctorphil@gmail.com
73 until next week,
Phil G4LPP