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Welcome to week one hundred and eighty two of NARC’s contest news.
Results:-
On VHF
The provisional results of the 2m Marconi contest of 2024 were published on 11th March. 766 Region 1 logs received at IARU from 28 countries. Entries were received from 28 UK stations in G, GM and GW. NARC stations seen were G4AFF 4th in the 6H section, G3YLA 10th in the 6H section and G4LPP 3rd in the SO section. Link to provisional results here IARU
In the overall UKAC we are running 5th in section out of 41 clubs so far. Link to this here.
On HF
The results of the 80m CC DATA contest of 3rd March were released on 13th March. All I can say is well done guys!! An amazing 5 digit score which got a mention in the contest write-up. NARC scored 10,742 points compared to second placed Echelford ARS with 4,914. This now gives us 37,308 vs second place Bristol on 16,999 in the series so far! In terms of individual results in this one, Ray G3G came 3rd, Andy M0NKR came 6th in the 100W Assisted section, Malcolm G3PDH came 7th and Jon G4IVV came 11th in the 100W Unassisted section and In the 10W Unassisted section Peter M0RYB/P came 3rd and Chris G0TZZ came 4th. Link to results here
The raw results of the CQ WPX RTTY test of 8/9 February have been released this week. Tracey, 2E0CEY came 6th in England, 144th in Europe and 218th in the world. Wilson, G6WQN came 5th in England, 143rd in Europe and 216th in the world. In their group there were 40 entries from England, 732 from Europe and 1390 from the World so well done to them both! Link to Raw results here
The results are out for the CQWW CW contest of 23/24 November 2024. A major effort was put in in the Multi two category using 100W by a team consisting of Peter M0RYB, Chris G0TZZ, Kim G4WUG and myself, Phil G4LPP. We used the call M0RYB from Peter’s field near Diss. We managed 3,946 confirmed QSOs in 113 zones and 362 countries scoring 3,027,175 points coming first in the England in our category. In all categories for England there were 190 entries and we managed 9th place. Also spotted in the list were G4DYC with an entry in the 10m SO low power section and Alex M0UKR as M3A with an entry in the 10m SA QRP section. I also note that Stewart G4AFF was an operator in the overall leading team for England at M6T in the Multi Multi section – Link to results here
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 Tuesday 11th March the 432MHz UKAC ran. NARC managed 5 logs for this one. Conditions were quite difficult with deep QSB and generally weak signals although some surprise DX did show itself at times with several GM, DL and OZ stations in evidence and a brief burst of Cornwall at excellent strength. Our leading scorer was Stewart, G4AFF with 67 QSOs. Link to claimed scores here
On Wednesday 12th the 432MHz FT8 AC was on. Club members G0BIX and EI8KN were once again in evidence in the 2h section and G0BIX in the 4h section. It’s noticeable that entry numbers in this contest seem to be declining gradually. Link to claimed scores 2h here
On Thursday 13th March the 50MHz UKAC ran. Bad static, weak signals, deep QSB, some aurora early on. That’s the summary of conditions! Despite this there was a good turnout by NARC members with 11 of us on, I’m not certain all will turn in logs though! The early aurora resulted in a CW contact to GM4VVX up in IO78 square for G4AFF and Myself. Almost every QSO outside JO02 was hard going. Link to claimed scores here
On HF
On Saturday 8th March for 24h the Commonwealth contest (BERU) ran. Several NARC members were actively involved. 308 logs were received at RSGB. 9 NARC members were seen to have participated. Some respectable scores were obtained. I have reports from Peter, M0RYB and Alan G800. See below:-
From Peter – Low power, unassisted but using a beam as well as an off-centre fed dipole, so out of the running for any trophy! Trophy categories are listed separately to the rules, which is individual.
(My apologies to Peter, the score table in the newsletter was incorrect)
Link to interactive map of contacts
From Alan – Had a play in the Commonwealth CW contest to experiment with the new SDC contest software that Roger LDI recommended.
I decided to only worked mults in the 12 hour section on this occasion. 64 QSOs LP-SOU 12h section.
On Wednesday evening 12th March the 80m CC CW test ran. Conditions were good except for a strong Aurora which distorted signals affecting particularly those using CW readers. NARC members came out in force with 17 logs expected, 16 being up at the time of writing. Some excellent scores were achieved. Once again, there was good support from continental stations with some long skip being in evidence at times. Link to logs received here
I’ve not had any reports of other activity although there were, once again, several good contests to choose from!
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.
* Sat 15th Mar 1400-1500 144MHz and 1700-1800 432MHz AGCW VHF/UHF contest, CW - Link to rules here
* Tue 18th Mar. 2000-2230 1.3GHz UKAC
* Thu 20th Mar. 2000-2230 70MHz UKAC
* Sun 23rd Mar. UBA Spring Contest 6m CW and Phone - Link to rules here
* Tue 25th Mar. 1930-2230 SHF UKACAlso 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 15th Mar. 0000-2359 PODXS 070 Club St. Patricks day contest PSK31 - Link to rules here
* Sat 15th Mar. 0200 to Mon 17th Mar. 0159 BARTG HF RTTY Contest - Link to rules here
* Sat 15th Mar. 1200 for 24h F9AA Cup SSB - Link to rules here
* Sun 16th Mar. 2000-2159 Feld Hell Sprint - Link to rules here
* Sun 16th Mar. 0700-1100 UBA Spring Contest SSB - Link to rules here
* Sun 16th Mar. 2300 for 2hours Run for the Bacon QRP Contest CW - Link to rules here
* Mon 17th Mar. 2000-2200 RSGB FT4 contest
* Sat 22nd Mar. 1200 for 24h Africa all mode International DX Contest CW SSB RTTY - Link to rules here
* Sun 23rd Mar. 0000-0400 North American SSB sprint - Link to rules here
* Thu 27th Mar. 2000-2130 80m CC SSBSee 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 CW OPS 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