144MHz Trophy 2016

The weather featured in many entrants comments this year.  A band of weather passed over the UK with most stations having heavy rain, gusty winds and for some cold temperatures at some point during the event.  The unlucky ones got wet during the take down!  Only one mast suffered a failure.  Static rain was an added bonus for some.  Conditions were rated as average and reasonable with some enhancement to the south west.  There was an aurora for over two hours on the Saturday evening but few stations took advantage of it.  The number of entrants rose again, up from 82 in 2015 to 85 this year.

Although conditions were not highly rated by entrants, the distances worked were far in excess of those in 2015. In total twenty countries appeared in the logs in one hundred and eleven locator squares which included twenty-seven UK squares.  There were 175 contacts greater than 800kms of which 56 were greater than 900kms and eleven exceeded 1000kms.  Of the 56 QSOs over 900kms, 42 were made from JO01, 3 from JO00, 3 from IO93, 2 from IO90, 3 from IO81 and three auroral QSOs from IO78.  These longer distances were worked into DL (8), EA (10), F (9), I (2), OE (9), OK (9), ON (1), OZ (2), SM (2) and SP (2). The best contact was between G8T and OE1W at 1125kms.

For the fourth year European entry logs were used as part of the adjudication process. These comprised the following logs: DL(354), F(150), PA(26), OK(11) and ON(5).  These logs are particularly useful for identifying errors in the more challenging longer distance QSOs! Logging standards showed a slight improvement with 5.1% of all QSOs being disallowed.  A number of leading stations lost less than 3% of their scores, while other stations in the top three of their sections lost between 8 and 16% of their claimed scores. The errors were spread across all elements of the exchange: callsigns 34%; received RS(T) 22%; received serial number 20%; locators 17%; and 7% not-in-logs.

A few reports of poor and wide signals were received.  While most were isolated cases, one entrant has received a warning letter regarding his signal.  It is worth remembering that while it may appear that there is a problem with a transmission, the effect can also be caused by the receiver being unable to cope with very strong signals.

Congratulations go to:

• The Parallel Lines, G8P, who won the open section for the eleventh year running to retain the Mitchell-Milling Trophy;
• Erik G8XVJ/P, for winning the single operator (others) section and, as the highest scoring single operator, is awarded the Thorogood Trophy for the second year;
• Anthony G7LRQ, who won the single operator (fixed) section;
• Mick M0ICK, operating as G1ONE/P, who won the six-hour (others) section.
• Alwyn G8DOH, who won the six-hour single operator fixed section.

These stations together with those identified in the results tables will receive certificates.

Roger - G4BVY