For 2006, Low Power stations (i.e stations running less than 100 watts to single element antennas) will be highlighted in the results as being eligible for the John Dunnington Award. Such stations should mark their entry ‘Low Power’.

The 68th RSGB Commonwealth Contest, 2005.

Conditions were a bit mixed for this year’s contest. Some entrants felt that conditions were better than expected at this point in the solar cycle, whilst others were very disappointed. In fact, as the chart below shows, the contest coincided with a significant peak in solar flux.

Many found 10 metres absolutely dead, although some lucky (or skilful) souls found a good opening between the UK and Australia towards the end of the contest. Nonetheless, the lower frequency bands naturally provided a substantial proportion of the traffic, and overall scores are down from their peak of a few years ago.

That said, the 174 entrants submitted logs containing details of a total of 26739 separate QSOs, and 794 individual callsigns appear in the list of stations worked. The spread of activity across the five bands reveals no surprises - 80m provided 10% of the contacts, 40m 24%, 20m was the busiest with 38%, 15m gave 25% and a faltering 10m just 3%.

As usual, those parts of the Commonwealth with a large amateur population provided much of the traffic, notably Canada (20% of the logged callsigns), Australia (8%) and New Zealand (5%), whilst the UK contributed 59%. At the other extreme there was welcome activity with one resident station each from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Norfolk Island, Eastern Malaysia and the Falklands. A total of 58 different Commonwealth call areas were worked by participants during the contest.

There was a strong effort from ZS75PTA, a special station commemorating 75 years of the Pretoria Radio Club, which caused problems for a few logging programs (it counts as ZS0).

A few intrepid expeditioners escaped the UK winter to set up in warmer climes - Dave G3TBK as J88DR in St Vincent and Bob VP9/G3PJT in Bermuda. Strangely, nobody felt inclined to make a similar trip to VE8 or VY1 - maybe next year? One of the downsides of operating BERU from such a spot is the unwanted attention of non-Commonwealth callers who, quite understandably, want a “new one” in their log and fail to understand or heed the “BERU only” message. No such problems for those of us with a common G prefix!

This year there were also four ex-Presidents of RSGB active in the contest: G3RZP, VK4OQ (G3HCT), VP9/G3PJT and G3BJ. A contest with such a pedigree attracts many devoted entrants over the years, such as 86 year-old Lindsay who has been in every BERU since 1977 as VK5NLC, VK5EZ and now VK2YN. However, such a close-knit community notices when a regular is absent. One such missing stalwart this year is Frank, G2QT, who has been unwell for some time. Get well soon Frank, you were missed!!!

Open Section

Congratulations to Vlad, 9H1ZA, for taking first place in the Open category and winning the Senior Rose Bowl. Although the second-placed station VC3A (operated by Ron, VE3AT) found more Band-Call Areas, it was the sheer number of QSOs that kept Vlad out in front. In third place is Dave, VO1AU, whilst Steve, ZC4LI, is fourth.

UK residents seeking warmer climes take the next three places in the form of VP9/G3PJT (Bob), P3J (Alan, 5B4AHJ/G3PMR) and J88DR (Dave, G3TBK). Interestingly, there are no top-ten places for any station from the southern hemisphere - presumably the combination of conditions and distance from other centres of activity took their toll. In the competition for the Col Thomas Rose Bowl, awarded to the highest-placed UK station in this section, Andy, G4PIQ/P, came out ahead, and is in eighth place overall - he certainly delivered on last year’s comment of “must do better”! He was hotly pursued by Dave, G4BUO, and Don, G3BJ, who take the remaining top-ten places.

This year saw a very welcome increase of over 30% in the number of logs received for this section. Bob, VE3KZ, takes first place in the Restricted category and wins the Junior Rose Bowl. Barry, VK2BJ, makes the highest showing for a station from south of the equator, taking second place, ahead of 9M6BG, operated by Brett, VR2BG.

Three further stations from Ontario appear in the top ten - Yuri, VE3DZ, in fourth, Bert, VE3QAA in fifth, and Roger, VE3ZI, in seventh. Splitting them are two more southerners - Steve, VK6VZ, who is sixth, and Mike, ZL1MH, who comes eighth. The next four spots were hotly contested by UK stations, and coming out just in front is John, G3LZQ, who receives the Ross Carey Rose Bowl, ahead of Colin G4CWH.

HQ Stations

Seven HQ stations participated this year, representing all continents except Africa and South America. To dispel the notion that all HQ entrants are “super stations”, it is interesting to note that VU2UR was running only 35 watts to an inverted-vee antenna, with no computers for logging, and had to endure several power failures during the twenty-four hours. Well done to Arasu VU2UR, who was also using the contest to teach Lalit, VU2LB, how to compete - all-in-all, a perfect example of ham-spirit in action. However, the leading HQ station is GB5CC, operated by Fraser, G4BJM, who finished more than 3000 points ahead of his antipodean rival ZL6A, where ZL1AIH and ZL1BHQ shared the operating.

Commonwealth Medal

This year the Commonwealth Medal is awarded to Brian, ZL1AZE, for his commitment to the contest over a number of years as one of the chief operators of ZL6QH. Congratulations, Brian!

John Dunnington Trophy
There is a new trophy to be awarded this year in the shape of the John Dunnington Trophy for the highest-placed UK station using 100 watts or less to single element antennas. Stations in both Open and Restricted sections are eligible, but, sadly, many UK stations did not give enough details with their entry to decide whether they could be legitimately included. Such administrative details do nothing to detract from the fine performance by Peter, G3LET, who wins the trophy with his TenTec Omni VI+ and 200 ft Sloper plus BiggIR vertical. In second place is Mike, G3WPH, whilst another Mike, G3IAF, is third.

Hardly surprisingly, the top six stations were in the Open section, but three of the next four were competing within the constraints of the Restricted - a very creditable effort. Well done to Norman, GM4KGK, who led this bunch. An asterisk after the callsign in the results table denotes a station competing for this award.

Adjudication/logs.

Thankfully, a large proportion of the logs arrived in Cabrillo format, thus needing minimal intervention. There were, as always, several other, rather esoteric, formats submitted, but nearly all were successfully converted into a useable form for cross-checking. It is in everybody’s interest to submit in a standardised format; for the adjudicator there is less work, and for the entrant less chance of errors being accidentally introduced during the editing process. As a first-time adjudicator, I was surprised to realise just how many people work hard for twenty-four hours in a contest, but fail to spend a few extra minutes glancing through the final log before submission. A significant number sent logs that did not include the HQ part of the exchange, and there were some glaringly-obvious callsign errors left uncorrected, all of which led to large deductions in score. However, there were no penalties for logs that showed operation outside the bottom 30kHz of the band, or for errors in date (one entrant’s log showed the year as 1995!). My sincere thanks go to Steve G3UFY who did the often arduous task of converting paper logs into Cabrillo format for checking. Finally, thank you to 4S7NI, 5B4AGC, G3BPM, G3RWL, VA3DM, VE3NXB AND ZS1AJS for submission of checklogs. These are always extremely valuable additions to the adjudication process.

Important Comment

The committee would like to emphasize that the Commonwealth Contest is a single operator only contest (HQ stations apart) and this means no use of DX packet cluster spots or any other spotting assistance. From next year, the committee will be checking entries for patterns of DX Cluster use and will question any entrant who is suspected to have used spotting assistance.

Certificates and Publicity

Certificates for working 68 Band-Call Areas will be issued to those who qualified and requested the certificate in their entry.

An e mail advertising these results and this write up will be sent to all non-UK entrants for the last 3 years with an e mail address and by post otherwise. In addition a reminder will be sent out to a non-UK mailing list in February 2006. Information will be sent to the VE,VK and ZL contest managers for local publicity.

Next Year

The 69th Commonwealth Contest will take place on the 11/12th March 2006, starting at 1000UTC. Please take the opportunity to visit the HFCC website for the definitive rules.

You will need 69 band-call areas or more to qualify for a certificate, which must be requested in the comments field or summary sheet of your log entry or even by e mail to G3PJT.