Welcome to the final overall results of the 2016 UK Activity Contests. It's been another very busy  year  for the many entrants, both casual and dedicated. This year the number of clubs entering has reduced slightly, possibly due to the consolidation of entrants into larger groups of fewer clubs. But the number of entries from individual stations has again increased from 682 to 739.

Club Results

The headline news from the club scores is that there will be a new name engraved on the Bolton Wireless Club Trophy this year. Ossett ARO first appeared in the UKAC results in 2011 in 30th place. Since then they have been creeping inexorably up the leader board until they reached the top this year. With excellent scores on all bands and a winning score on 70cms helping them to secure top spot. But it was their outstanding results in the SHF events that really made the difference this year.

I asked Robert, G8BUN to sum up the clubs 2016 result.

Increased membership and last year after an almighty effort we made 3rd. We made it by 222 points. What made the difference was one of our members with no PC, he would radio his modest log into me to enter. He is still with us and I still enter his log. This year I thought perhaps 5th? After a couple of months from memory I seem to recall we were well over 1000 points down, Then I realised that the answer was to get our members active on the  SHF bands. Brian, G0BFJ was the mastermind behind our SHF operations whilst also operating on 6m! I had in mind we had to be in front by November to win overall as there was no SHF in December. Paul G3YDY is our statistician, his gives me an insight into how much effort is required the following week to stay ahead and I email members accordingly.  We have many active members, this serves us well, for although no real superstars we do not suffer from big loss of overall points when members are sick or on holiday All of this was not done by magic but with new members working in isolation, portable stations with extraordinary dedication in all weathers, existing members constantly improving their equipment, and not forgetting Paul all contributed to this extraordinary result. Whether a members contribution was great or small every point mattered and we could not have done it without well coordinated teamwork. Ossett ARO motto "every point matters"

The Travelling Wave CG were in 2nd place overall this year, with overall wining scores on 6m, 4m. 2M and 23cms. Beating their 2015 score by more than 300 points. An outstanding achievement. I asked John GW4BVE to sum up their year.

TWCG contest group members are spread across the country with members as far north as Scotland and as far South as the Isle of Wight. We pride ourselves in developing contest operators, however inexperienced, to their full potential and have support in place to do that. One of our specialities is supporting computer logging programs for which we have a specialist team. Have you every wondered why they know your name when they work you, well now you know!  We are very proud of our /P operators who go out to hilltops every month and special mention goes to G0PEB/P. M0RKX/P, M0COP/P and G8HXE/P who have operated almost every contest in all weathers from their /P locations. One of their members, Tony GW8ASD, has operated every single month from 50MHz to SHF without missing a single slot. Tony and a number of other members have been regular entrants on SHF, so they say "watch this space'. We are looking forward to the challenges of 2017 and are developing strategies for the new B2 scoring system.

In 3rd place was the Drowned Rats CG, who also saw a big increase over their 2015 scores which helped them jump up the leader board from 5th place last year.  I asked Carl, M0ICR to sum up their year.

2016 was an excellent year for the Drowned Rats Radio Group. As far as UKAC is concerned our objective was for a top 3 placing in the Overall Club Score which we were very pleased to achieve and is the best we think we could have managed with our group size. A combination of normalization and aggregated club scores makes UKAC a real TEAM effort and therefore much more enjoyable. Success is not just about how well the top individuals do (although some individuals scores have been very impressive), but the scores of the more moderate stations also makes a huge difference to the overall club score even if they can only come on air for a few minutes and work a handful of stations. 'Every little helps'.

Carl also provided some excellent tips for clubs and individuals which I have posted here.

Individual Results

There are a number of very high scores in the individual table again this year. In 1st place and this year's winner of the  Bryn Llewellyn G4DEZ Award is Keith G4ODA. Keith not only managed to score highly on 4m, 2m, 70cms and 23cms, but somehow also managed to operate on both 6m and the SHF bands at the same time on each 4th Tuesday.  Quite a feat ,which pushed  last year's winner, Pete G4CLA down into 2nd place this year. In 3rd place, up from 5th last year is Mandy M0MDY, who scored over 900 points on all the VHF/UHF bands and has now started to enter logs into the SHF events. Next year the 6m and SHF events will take place on different days and it will be interesting to see how this affects the overall results.

Mark, M0RXK/P was the leading single operator station to enter all session from a portable location. Mark moved up from 35th last year to 8th this year, operating almost exclusively in the Low Power Sections. Congratulation also go to Steve  Andrew,  2E0RET is the highest placed Intermediate licensee and Tony, M6KTP is the highest placed Foundation licensee.

Changes for 2017

There are some important changes to these contests in 2017.  Firstly the 4m and 6m events will take place on the 2nd and 3rd Thursday of the month. This also means there will be twelve 4m events rather than four. For all but the SHF events the M7 multiplier system will be replaced by the B2 Bonus system, details of which can be found in the 2017 Rules. There will be no multiplier system for the SHF events.

Also the club championship for all UKAC will be split into General and Local Sections.  Clubs wishing to enter the Local Section must email their decision to afs.query@rsgbcc.org.  Local Clubs must also specify a Virtual Meeting Place (VMP) -- a reference point from which distances are measured, and which need not have any connection with the Society's activities. Societies must email the UK Postcode or 6-digit QTH locator of their VMP to afs.query@rsgbcc.org before the first relevant contest entry of each calendar year. Their VMP will be used for all HF AFS, 80m CC, VHF AFS and UKAC contests.

An affiliated society must enter the same club section for every UKAC band. Club members in the Local section must operate from or have their home QTH (as shown on their Ofcom validation document) within a circle of radius 35km from their Club's Virtual Meeting Place. However, members may be based outside the 35km radius if there are no other AFS with that 35km. There is no distance restriction on where their station is operated.

There is no distance restriction on club members in the General section.

To summarise the 2016 results, trophy and certificate winners are listed below to whom we congratulate for their outstanding performance.

Club Results

• Winner - Ossett ARO (Bolton Wireless Club Trophy)
• 2nd Place - Travelling Wave CG.
• 3rd Place - Drowned Rats CG.

Individual Results

• Winner  Keith Tatnall, G4ODA (Bryn Llewellyn G4DEZ Award).
• 2nd Place  Pete Lindsay, G4CLA.
• 3rd Place  Mandy Wilson, M0MDY.
• Leading Single Op Portable Station - Mark Hemming,  M0RKX.
• Leading Intermediate Licensee - Andrew Power 2E0RET.
• Leading Foundation Licensee - Tony Purnell, M6KTP.

Good luck to everyone taking part in the UKAC's for 2017.

Pete G4CLA