Field day 2010 – setup
Welcome to week two hundred and thirty three of NARC’s contest news.
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.
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!
Results:-
On VHF
The results of the 144MHz UKAC of 3rd March were released on 13th March. Our team of 10 came 6th and remain 6th in the 2m series so far. Top scorer on points was Stewart, G4AFF. Link to results here
The results of the 2m FT8 AC of 4th March (2h and 4h sections) were released on 16th March. In the 2h Open section Roger, EI8KN came 3rd and moves up to 3rd overall. In the 2h Restricted section Terry, G0BIX came 7th and remains in 9th place overall. In the 2h QRP section Colin, G0ODR came 3rd and remains in 3rd place overall. In the 4h Restricted contest Terry, G0BIX came 6th and moves up to 6th place overall. Link here to results (2h)
Of note we are still awaiting the results of the 1.3GHz UKAC from 17th Feb and the SHF UKAC of 24th Feb.
In the overall UKAC we are currently 5th, but a long way behind Harwell in 4th. Link here
On HF
The results of the recent 80m CC CW contest of 11th March were released on 16th March. Despite our lower than usual number of entries and a big push from Bristol’s team the result was a bit closer than usual but still a clear win for us keeping our clean sweep of wins running. We scored 7,896 points with Bristol second on 6,681. Our current score after 5 legs so far is 49,779 and Bristol have moved up into second place above Newbury with 23,354 points. Our top scorer was Stewart, G4AFF who came 6th in the 100W assisted section with 155 qso points, I am pleased to report 7th place in this section with 152 qso points. Link here to results
This year’s HF championship results to date are at this link here https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/hfresults.pl?ContestSeries=HF%20Championship&year=2026
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 17th March the 1.3GHz UKAC ran. Conditions waited until the following day to hot up – of course! There were 4 of us active for NARC in this one. G4AFF, G4LPP, G3SGC and EI8KN. Some good DX was in evidence although the really good distances were elusive. Activity was good. Link here to claimed scores
On Thursday 19th March the 4m UKAC ran. Conditions were middling with deep QSB at times and there was little activity evident from the continent. I heard nothing from France, Germany or Denmark which was unusual. A couple of stations worked in The Netherlands. I was aware of 6 NARC members in this one. Link here to claimed scores
On HF
Over the weekend of 14th and 15th March the Commonwealth contest ran. This is always an enjoyable event and a chance to work some rare DX which actually wants to work you! Unfortunately I was away for this one but NARC members were out in force with 11 entries received by RSGB. The station with the highest number of stations worked was Alan, G8OO, as G1Q with 104 but his entry was received as a checklog. Next down the list was Peter, M0RYB, with 92 contacts.
I have had 2 reports sent to me about this, one from Jim g3YLA and one from Alan G1Q (G8OO). See below:-
Hi Phil,
Hope you are not getting too windswept on the IOW, it’s a wet and windy evening back home!
Just a quick note to say quite a few from the club took part in the Commonwealth Contest over the weekend, as you may have seen from the submitted log list.
I had occasional dabbles during the event and managed a meagre 29 Qs. Conditions were not at their best on the Saturday but did have a reasonable spell on the Sunday morning when I bagged a ZL, 6 x VK and a 5Z4. Overall, it felt like a sparsely attended event or just conditions acting as a block to hearing many of the participants, but enjoyable in small doses.
73 de Jim
G3YLA
And from G8OO
The 1st outing for the contest callsign G1Q.
CONTEST: RSGB-COMMONWEALTH – Check log report de G8OO
CALLSIGN: G1Q
QSO’s: 105
GRID-LOCATOR: JO02
CATEGORY-ASSISTED: ASSISTED
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-BAND: ALL
CATEGORY-MODE: CW
CATEGORY-POWER: LOW
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TIME: 24-HOURS
CATEGORY-OVERLAY: CLASSIC
CLAIMED-SCORE: 1010
OPERATORS: G8OO
CLUB: Norfolk ARC
NAME: Alan
SOAPBOX: The Storm yesterday caused a lot of damage to my HF beam
SOAPBOX: and I had to do some very quick repairs to the beam and my long
SOAPBOX: wires just to get on the air.
SOAPBOX: Hence, I started the contest 1/2 hour later than expected.
SOAPBOX: The Bands were the worst I have heard for quite some time.
On Monday 16th March the RSGB FT4 contest ran. This contest is achieving good international support and several NARC members take part. In this one were EI8KN, G1Q (G8OO), M0KKM and G0BIX. (apologies if I missed anyone) I received this report from Alan G1Q (G8OO):-
Report on last night’s FT4 Contest using G1Q with 49 QSO’s
De AlanH g8oo
START-OF-LOG: 3.0
LOCATION: DX
CALLSIGN: G1Q
CLUB: Norfolk Amateur Radio Club
CONTEST: RSGB-FT4
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-ASSISTED: ASSISTED
CATEGORY-BAND: ALL
CATEGORY-MODE: MIXED
CATEGORY-POWER: LOW
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
QSO’s: 49
CLAIMED-SCORE: 1666
OPERATORS: G8OO
NAME: Alan Holdsworth
ADDRESS: Brisley, Dereham
ADDRESS-CITY: Norfolk
ADDRESS-COUNTRY: England
GRID-LOCATOR: JO02
CREATED-BY: N1MM Logger+ 1.0.11148.0
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.
Apologies if I have missed any emailed reports, some go to spam and some get lost in the huge quantity of junk mail! I try to be diligent!
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 21st Mar. 1400-1700 (2m) and 1700-1800 (70cm) AGCW VHF/UHF contest CW – link here to rules
% Tue 24th Mar. 1930-2230 SHF UKAC
% Wed 1st Apr. 1700-2100 2m FT8 AC (2h and 4h sections).
Also of interest for some on the vhf / uhf bands are the EU FT8 activity tests – see the following link 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 21st Mar. 0000-2359 PODXS Club St Patrick’s Day Contest PSK31 – link here to rules
% Sat 21st Mar. 0200 to Mon 23rd Mar. 0159 BARTG HF RTTY Contest – link here to rules
% Sat 21st Mar. 2000-2159 Feld Hell Sprint – link here to rules
% Sun 22nd Mar. 0700-1100 UBA Spring contest SSB – link here to rules
% Thu 26th Mar. 2000-2130 80m CC SSB
% Sat 28th Mar. 0000 to Sun 29th Mar. 2359 CQ WW WPX SSB contest – link here to rules
% Sat 28th Mar. 0000-2359 Bill Windle QSO party CW – link here to rules
% Sat 28th Mar. 1200 for 24h Africa all mode International DX contest CW, SSB, RTTY – 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
73 until next week,
Phil G4LPP