Entries for this year’s Backpacker contest series were down on last year with only 16 entries in the 3B section and 19 entries in the 10H section.  

In the 3B section, congratulations go to Andrew Vare, G4XZL who has moved up from second place last year to take the 2012 Backpackers Trophy. Andrew was the only entrant to win more than one session, winning the 4th and 5th events.  Keith Haywood, G8HXE takes second spot having won the 3rd session.  The trusty FT817 was by far the most popular rig in use in this section, whereas antenna choice was much more varied, ranging from small homebrew  yagis to the likes of the 9 element Tonna and the SOTA beams. It’s a shame that entry numbers have declined over the last couple of years. Is the lure of carrying a small station to the top of a mountain losing its appeal, or maybe most potential entrants are getting their portable kicks from the weekday UKAKs nowadays? The committee is interested in hearing your views.

The winner of the 10H section this year is Tony Judge, G1ARU, who was active in all 5 sessions, winning the 3rd session.  In second place is Tony Crake G0OVA.  Once again Tristan Quiney, 2E0VXX/P wins the Leading Intermediate Station award.

Congratulations to all the certificate winners and a reminder that certificates can now be downloaded directly from the results tables, just click on the appropriate certificate icon.

Pete Lindsay G4CLA