Welcome to week one hundred and sixty six of NARC’s contest news.
Results:-
On VHF
The results of the 144MHz UKAC of 5th November were released on 18th November. Conditions were excellent from JO02 to Europe and some excellent contacts were made. 9 of us entered and good results were obtained. Our combined scores put us in 3rd place in this one closing the gap slightly on overall 3rd placed Wirral & DARC. Link to results here.
NARC is running 10th at the moment in this year’s VHF championships out of 84 clubs. Link here
In the overall UKAC we are still running 4th out of 57 in the General clubs section. Link to this here
On HF
There are 3 new HF results this week.
Firstly, the results of the 80m Autumn series SSB contest of 13/11/2024 were released on 20th November. Despite some good placings by the 7 of us who entered, not enough of us entered to gain an overall win coming in 5th place. Despite this, our overall score means a win for the series is almost certain. Link to results here.
The results of the 160m Club Calls AFS contest of 9th November were also released on 20th November. We managed an A team of 4 and a B team of 1 this time. The A team who came 6th overall comprised M0RYB/P who was our leading scorer, Myself, G3LDI and M1AFQ and our B team who came 30th was John G8VPE. Link to results here.
The results of the 2nd 1.8MHz contest, (CW), of 16th November were also released on 20th November. Activity was reasonable and many Europeans joined in. Congratulations are due to Stewart, G4AFF, who has won the UK Assisted secion and therefore wins the Victor Desmond Trophy. Roger, G3LDI came 3rd and this station managed 5th place. 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
The 1.3GHz UKAC contest ran on Tuesday 19th November. Conditions were abysmal for this one ! Average scores were much lower than usual as were mean distances worked. I am aware of 4 stations on for NARC. Currently only 3 entries from us have been received out of 63. Link to claimed scores here.
The 70MHz UKAC ran on 21st November. Conditions were really terrible with a lot of noise in some directions and long, slow very deep QSB. Really only managed some of the usual distances using aircraft scatter. Scores were generally lower than usual. At least 4 of us were active, Myself, G4DYC, G8VPE and G4KQY. Link to claimed scores is here.
On HF
On Saturday 16th November the 2nd 1.8MHz contest, CW, ran. The results are already out – see above. (I wonder if this is a record?)
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.
* Tue 26th Nov. 1930-2230 SHF UKAC
* Tue 3rd Dec. 2000-2230 144MHz UKAC
* Wed 4th Dec. 1700-2100 144MHz 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 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 23rd Nov. 0000 for 48h CQ Worldwide DX CW contest – Link to rules here
* Mon 25th Nov. 1300-1400 QCX (includes QMX and QDX) CW challenge – Link to rules here
* Thu 28th Nov. 2000-2130 80m Autumn series CW – this is the last in this year’s series – please turn out to support our team.
* Mon 2nd Dec. 1630-1729 OK1WC memorial CW contest 80 and 40m – Link to rules here.
* Tue 3rd Dec. 0100-0159 Worldwide SSB Activity contest. Link to rules here.
See 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 CWops 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
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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 whatsover 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!
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Submissions or comments for this news to thedoctorphil@gmail.com
73 until next week,
Phil G4LPP
