Antennas at SM6VTZ – often workable in the UKACs!
Welcome to week two hundred and thirty nine 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 432MHz UKAC of 14th April were released on 28th April. I was away. NARC managed 4 entries with Stewart G4AFF being our highest scorer. We came 9th in this one and remain in 5th place in this series. Link here to results
The current VHF championship placings are at this link here
In the overall UKAC we are currently 5th, but a long way behind Harwell in 4th. Link here
On HF
The results of the 80m SSB CC of 22nd April have been released. Disappointingly due to a low turnout by our members we were narrowly beaten into second place in this one by Bristol destroying our run of wins in the series. 13 stations turned out for us and there was good news in that Andy M0NKR won the 100W section scoring a full 1000 points so congratulations to him! The other good news is that we still have a huge overall series points lead! Link here to results
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
The SHF UKAC ran on Tuesday 28th April. I was our only entrant and on the 2.3 GHz band. Conditions seemed terrible and I only managed 5 stations, however on checking my equipment today I found that the lead at the masthead between the PA and the antenna was degraded giving a 6:1 SWR. It has been replaced! Link here to claimed scores
On HF
The 80m CC DATA contest ran on 30th April. Good scores were claimed by particularly G3G and G4IVV. There were some software issues for a couple of us which didn’t help requiring multiple software reboots and giving sub-optimal performance. Our turnout of stations was also, once again, lower than usual. Conditions were reasonable as was activity. Link here to logs received
Tracey, 2E0CEY has once again been active over the weekend and has sent this report of her activity:-
Hi Phil
Entered the SP DX RTTY on Saturday and conditions were much improved from previous contests and weekends so far this year.
I did not manage to do much on the Sunday morning due to family visiting but, still managed to enter 270 qsos.
Link to logs received here –
On Sunday evening I entered the BARTG 75 sprint. It was quite difficult with some operators only sending callsigns and exchanges twice, sometimes only once which made it near impossible at times to decode. I did however, persevere until the end, only managing 85 qsos.
There did not seem to be as many stations participating this year either.
Still, all good fun!
Link to logs received here –
Tracey 2E0CEY
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 2nd May 1400-2000 432MHz Trophy Contest (VHF championship) – link here to rules
% Sat 2nd to Sun 3rd May 1400-1400 May 432MHz-245GHz contest – link here to rules
% Tue 5th May 1900-2130 144MHz UKAC
% Wed 6th May 1700-2100 144MHz FT8 AC (2h and 4h sections)
% Sun 10th May 0900-1200 70MHz CW contest VHF CW Championship – link here to rules
% Tue 12th May 1900-2130 432MHz UKAC
% Wed 13th May 1700-2100 432MHz FT8 AC (2h and 4h sections)
% Thu 14th May 1900-2130 50MHz UKAC
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
On HF
% Sat 2nd May 1200 to Sun 3rd May 1159 ARI (Italy) International DX contest Phone, CW, RTTY – link here to rules
% Sat 2nd May 1200 for 24h F9AA Cup PSK – link here to rules
% Sun 3rd May WAB 7MHz Phone contest – link here to rules
% Sat 9th May 1200 for 24h Volta WW RTTY contest – link here to rules
% Sat 9th May 1200 for 36h SKCC Weekend Sprintathon CW – link here to rules
% Mon 11th May 80m CC SSB
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