NARC Field day 2004
Welcome to week two hundred and twenty one of NARC’s contest news.
Results:-
On VHF
The results of the 144MHz UKAC of 2nd December were released on 14th December. This was the last in the 144MHz UKAC series this year. Our team of 7 scored well coming 7th overall and leaving us 7th in the series. Top scorer in this one for us was Stewart G4AFF who came 6th in the open section. Overall on 2m Stewart has made the highest score for the club in the series with 8,704 points. Link to results here
In the overall UKAC we are still running 6th in section out of 69 clubs so far. Of note, we are only 1 point below 5th place Gower/GwyrCC. Link to this here.
The results of the 144MHz FT8 AC 2 and 4 hour sections of 3rd December came out on 15th December. This was also the last of this year’s series. Club member Roger, EI8KN gets a certificate for Highest placed non-UK station coming 3rd overall in the Open section. Colin, G0ODR came 3rd overall in the Low power section. Link to 2h results here. In the 4 hour contest once again Roger, EI8KN was awarded a certificate for highest placed non-uk station in the open section coming 7th overall. Link here to 4h results
The results of the 144MHz AFS contest of 7th December were released on 17th December. Last year only David, M9BLX turned out for this under his old callsign so efforts were made to rally the troops for this one! We managed 6 entries this time providing us with one and a half teams. A team was Myself, G4AFF, M5BFL and M9BLX and the B team was G8VPE and G4DYC. Thanks to everyone for turning out for this which counts towards the club’s total AFS score. Our A team came 4th and the B team 22nd out of 29 club entries in the Local section. Once again Roger EI8KN gained a certificate for the highest placed Overseas station. Link to results here
Now in the overall AFS which includes HF and VHF sections the scores are at this link here. We remain in 4th place but by a good margin.
On HF
No new results of note of which I am aware this week.
This year’s HF championship results to date are at this link 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 16th December the 1.3GHz UKAC ran. NARC managed 5 entries however 3 were only each able to make one QSO for a number of reasons. Graham G3SGC managed to get on the air from his new QTH near Gorleston where he’s not really set up yet with a low yagi fixed north. He was 59 plus 10dB here but I was the only station he managed to work. Jim G3YLA and Mike G4DYC managed to work each other gaining useful points. I managed 33 QSOs best DX OZ2ND although that only places me 6th out of 13 in the Open section. Stuart G4AFF was also on although had some issues with his pre-amp after 45mins. At the time of writing his log is awaited. Link to claimed scores here
On Thursday 18th December the 70MHz UKAC ran. Conditions were very poor with deep QSB, Xmas light noise and a flat band. 4 of us were on for this the final leg of this year’s UKAC series, Myself, Mike G4DYC, Mike G4KQY and John G8VPE. Best DX here was GM4JTJ on CW via KLM flight 933! Link to claimed scores here
On HF
I am not aware of any HF contests with NARC interest this past week. It is possible some NARC members dabbled in the ARRL 10m contest at the weekend. I worked for a couple of hours on CW to give some CWOPs in the US some points but worked little else and have not put in a formal entry. If anyone has put in a serious entry please let me know and I’ll mention it here. I must say 10m was very wide open during the daytimes for this contest.
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 27th Dec. 1500-1700 50MHz RSGB Christmas contest (christmas cumulatives) – link here to rules
% Sun 28th Dec. 1500-1700 70MHz RSGB Christmas contest (christmas cumulatives) – link here to rules
% Mon 29th Dec. 1500-1700 144MHz RSGB Christmas contest (christmas cumulatives) – link here to rules
% Tue 30th Dec. 1500-1700 432MHz RSGB Christmas contest (christmas cumulatives) – link here to rules
Also 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
% Sat 20th Dec. 0000-2359 Feld Hell Sprint – link to rules here
% Sat 20th Dec. 0000-2400 OK DX RTTY contest – link to rules here http://okrtty.crk.cz/index.php?page=english
% Sat 20th Dec. 0000-2359 RAC (Canada) Winter Contest, CW and Phone – link to rules here
% Sat 20th Dec. 1400 for 24h Croatian DX contest CW and SSB – link here to rules
% Sun 21st Dec. 2300 for 2h Run for the Bacon QRP Contest – link to rules here
% Sat 27th Dec. 1500 for 24h Stew Perry top band contest CW – link here to rules
% Sat 27th Dec. 1500 for 24h Original QRP contest CW and SSB, 1W 5W and 10W categories – link to rules here
% Sat 3rd Jan. 1300-1700 RSGB 80m-40m AFS CW – part of HF championship and AFS super league – link here to rules
See Link to WA7BNM for other contests not mentioned above. There are several to choose from!
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 CW OPS 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
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.
I particularly need any contest related photographs, you may be prepared to share, to head the news each week.
73 until next week,
Phil G4LPP