Patch panel at W8JI contest team
Welcome to week two hundred and forty 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!
First a bit of not entirely contest news from Roger EI8KN who is off on a DXpedition:-
From 13 – 21 May 2026, David FitzGerald EI7BR (G4CKS) and Roger Greengrass EI8KN will be QRV from St.Kitts, West Indies using the callsigns V4/EI7BR and V4/EI8KN respectively. Roger, a keen contester, has also been issued with the callsign V49B which he plans to use in any appropriate contests that occur during the stay.
Their QTH will be the fully-equipped holiday home of John, W5JON, in Calypso Bay, located 200 feet from the Caribbean Sea. Activity will be on 160-6 metres (incl. 60m) using SSB and FT8. Equipment is a Yaesu FT3000D and an Elecraft KPA500 Amplifier. Antennas are a Mosley Mini32A 10/15/20m, 33′ Vertical 10-40m, 35′ Top Loaded 80m Vertical, 160m Vertical and 6m 5 element Yagi.
This will be a holiday style DX-pedition with wives/partners there too but the pair hope to get in a decent amount of operating time during the stay!
Activity periods will be advertised on the Cluster.
The QSL policy will be included on QRZ.COM
Results:-
On VHF
The results of the 70MHz UKAC of 16th April were released on 3rd May. I was away and the only entry for NARC was Mike G4KQY so thanks go to him for keeping us in there! Mike managed 49th of 64 in the Restricted section and the club remains in 4th place overall 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 RSGB FT4 contest of 27th April have been released. NARC stations spotted in the results were Ted G4OZG 12th in the 100W Single radio section, Terry G0BIX 29th and Kevin M0KKM 43rd. Link to results here
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
Over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd May the 432MHz Trophy contest ran as well as the 432MHz to 245GHz May contest. The usual activity from Trimingham failed to appear this year for various reasons. Two of us from NARC entered the Trophy contest albeit I only dabbled due to having visitors. There was quite a lot of European DX about due to the Sub-Regional Region 1 contest also running. Roger EI8KN made 22 contacts (best DX G3M at 609 Km) and I managed 19 (best DX DR9A at 661 Km). Link here to claimed scores 432 Trophy and here for the May UHF (432 and up) contest
On Tuesday 5th May the 144MHz UKAC ran. 191 logs were received at RSGBCC with 9 from NARC. Highest claimed score was from Stewart G4AFF who really has an excellent site for VHF work south of Norwich. Portable stations were out in force and conditions seamed pretty reasonable in all directions. Best DX here was EI3KD at 669Km. Thanks to all who turned out. Link here to claimed scores
On Wednesday 6th MAy the 144MHz FT8 AC (2h and 4h sections) ran. In the 2h section I spotted Roger EI8KN, Terry G0BIX and Colin G0ODR and in the 4h section only Terry G0BIX. Link here to claimed scores (2h)
On HF
There were no new RSGB contests this week but I have a report of other activity:-
Bob, 2E0OBO, reported that he had entered 2 contests – his email is here;
Hi Phil,
Dabbled in two contests this week. Samuel Morse: Claimed scores here
Got my usual 50, hard work, took one hour 55 minutes as other contests on.
UkEI 80M cw: – Link here to series
61 in the hour, pretty unremarkable🤣
Bob 2E0OBO
and a follow-up here;
Hi Phil
Got my 50 in just over the hour. Ran most of the time but had to resort to sandp for some of the time. Condx not terrific on 20M. My mmtty is not working at the moment due to a com port issue but I can resolve it. That’s when I spotted Tracey,
hi. Catch you on cwt = Bob
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.
% 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
% Sat 16th May 1400 for 24h 144MHz May contest. Part of the VHF Championship – link here to rules
% Sun 17th May 1000-1400 1st 144MHz backpackers – link here to rules
% Tue 19th May 1900-2130 1.3GHz UKAC
% Thu 21st May 1900-2130 70MHz 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
% 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 1900-2030 80m CC SSB
% Sat 16th May 0600-2100 UN DX contest (Kazakhstan based) SSB and CW – link here to rules
% Sat 16th May 0800-1100 NZART Sangster-Shield Contest (New Zealand based) CW – link here to rules
% Sat 16th May 1200 for 24h His Majesty the King of Spain CW contest – link here to rules
% Sat 16th May 1200 for 24h EU PSK DX contest (BPSK63) – link here to rules
% Sat 16th May 2000-2359 Feld Hell Sprint – link here to rules
% Sat 16th May 2100 to Sun 17th May 0200 Baltic contest CW and SSB – link here to rules
% Sun 17th May 2300 for 2h Run for the Bacon QRP contest CW – link here to rules
% Mon 18th May 1900-2100 RSGB FT4 contest
% Wed 20th May 1900-2030 80m CC DATA
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