It was good to welcome an old friend back to the contest calendar for 2002. After a year off due to the foot and mouth outbreak, the biggest portable VHF contest of the year was back.
VHF NFD is much more than just a contest. Sure - the big groups go all out to win their sections and bands, but this contest also offers a great opportunity for club members to get together for a social event in, hopefully, good weather at the height of the UK summer, and fit in some operating as well. As the Edgeware & District ARS said "Lousy conditions, but a great location for a BBQ". In 2000 the rules were changed to make 2 sections more attractive to smaller radio clubs by reducing the power levels in the Restricted section and the number of bands and operating time required in the Low Power section. We hope that this makes it easier for clubs to come on and make a competitive entry.
The groups who went out varied in size from around 15 people down to one?man band entries, with many of the smaller teams actually being very successful. Clive O'Hennessy, GM4VVX once again went portable from the North of Scotland to make only 30 QSOs, but used the event to introduce 13 year old Matthew, MM3MMB to contesting. As Clive said - "Entered in the true spirit of Amateur Radio"
At least this year the weather was generally co-operative, with few complaints of trouble from the elements, other than a high population of mosquitoes biting at contest sites. Conditions were less co-operative however, with almost universal complaints of poor conditions on all bands. There was some tropo in evidence to the south of France and Spain on the higher bands, but except for this, conditions were generally flat.
Cows appeared to cause a problem for some groups, with 2 teams having the animals attempt to knock over masts and tents and eat cables. One even had an antenna trampled before the start of the contest - it's worth making sure that your site is well protected against anyone you may be sharing the field with!
The CARSCOG Gearboxers used what little sunshine there was to help power their station from solar cells, but more importantly, harnessed the wind to provide additional power, with the wind generator only stopping for 5 minutes over the whole weekend - much more typical of a contest weekend. Unusually, they also used turnstile antennas on all 4 bands.
6m was re-introduced to VHF NFD in 2000 and is a very popular band amongst entrants. However, this year, conditions did not live up to hopes with almost no Sporadic-E - this was an almost universal complaint from entrants. The Blacksheep Contest Group. M0BAA/P said "The master plan failed totally! After doing so well in the 50MHz Trophy from Lizard we decided to do a primarily 6m single band entry with the other bands just taken along "for fun". Alas, the way of 6m prevailed - virtually no conditions other than a little meteor scatter and a short opening sporadic-E opening towards CT."
Conditions were very average on 4m, with only G5UM/P managing to work S51DI this year.
As usual, 2m was the most productive of the bands, with the tropo down to Northern Spain and Southern France giving most stations some excellent best DX. G0VHF/P was very happy with 7 QSOs over 1000km. As ever, propagation was interesting from GM4ZUK/P's excellent site on near Dundee. They heard the HB9HB beacon and worked some good tropo in the small hours of the morning, an also caught a small aurora on the Saturday evening.
Propagation on 70cm was similar in nature to 2m with a good number of groups making it down to the South of France or Northern Spain.
Support for 23cm seems to have been eroded by groups having the choice of what bands they want to enter in NFD, but nevertheless, the top stations made a good number of QSOs and caught some good DX.
The Open section was easily won by the Parallel Lines Contest Group from their site in Kent, giving them the Surrey Trophy. A small 4 man team from the Northern Lights at Ravenscar in North Yorkshire taking 2nd place with a 3 band entry. Lothians Radio Society take the Tartan Trophy as the leading resident Scottish group.
The Bristol Contest Group put together a hasty entry to win Martlesham Trophy in the Restricted section, leaving the 2000 Low Power winners, the South Birmingham RS in second place. They hadn't had the opportunity to check all the equipment working together before hand and encountered a bunch of problems, but nonetheless put in a very impressive score. The Cockenzie & Port Seton ARC were the leading Scottish group and win the Cockenzie Quaich.
The Low Power section was dominated by a pair of two man teams. The Warrington Contest Group, in the shape of Erik Gedvilas, G8XVJ and Mike Ryder, G0CDA, won the section taking the Arthur Watts Trophy, forcing Jim Martin, MM0BQI and David Dodds, GM4WLL into second place, but giving them the Scottish Trophy. Jim and David also staged an entry to the Restricted section on the 2 bands which they didn't enter in the Low Power section.
The Mix and Match section was the most closely fought, with the Telford & DARS narrowly beating the Chesham & District RS into second place and awarding them the G5BY Trophy.
Pos Group Name Locator 50 70 144 432 1296 Total 1 Parallel Lines CG JO01QD 0 788 1000 1000 1000 3788 2 The Northern Lights IO94RJ 1000 1000 600 0 0 2600 3 De Montfort University ARS JO02TG 793 0 492 373 597 2254 4 Colchester CG JO01PU 460 0 603 463 592 2118 5 Windmill CG JO01LD 428 0 402 845 253 1928 6 Crawley & Reigate ARCs J O01OC 0 387 662 542 284 1875 7 The Blacksheep Contest & DX G IN79JX 462 503 547 125 0 1636 8 Flight Refuelling ARS IO80UU 311 516 453 266 0 1546 9 Lothians RS IO74WV 255 736 302 156 0 1448 10 Guildford & DRS IO91TF 427 528 40 0 0 995 11 Stevenage & DARS IO91TW 328 374 123 0 56 881 12 Harlow & DARS JO01BS 270 327 206 0 0 803 13 MIDCARS IO83PF 201 362 93 0 0 656 14 Aberdeen VHF Group IO86RW 0 0 494 0 90 584 15 Clifton ARS JO01DH 181 224 105 0 0 510 16 Swindon & DARC IO91CL 43 0 286 46 94 469 17 Edgeware & DARS IO91VO 55 237 91 0 0 383 18 Newquay & DARS IO70LK 102 0 71 0 0 173 19 GM4VVX IO78RE 0 0 24 0 0 24
Pos Group Name Locator 50 70 144 432 1296 Total 1 Bristol CG IO81KW 1000 663 1000 1000 0 3663 2 South Birmingham RS IO82XJ 585 566 0 919 1000 3071 3 Lagan Valley ARS CG IO74AI 286 1000 603 243 0 2132 4 Cockenzie & Port Seton ARC IO85RU 271 724 405 207 0 1607 5 Basingstoke ARC IO91KG 150 0 534 866 0 1550 6 Salop ARS IO82LN 476 517 532 0 0 1525 7 CARSCOG Gearboxers IO92HE 457 363 137 210 0 1167 8 Goole R&ES IO93PW 0 432 338 305 0 1076 9 GM3TAL & G3SHK IO75IU 0 431 95 0 0 527 10 West Bromwich Central RC IO93XF 0 167 203 55 0 425 11 Mexborough & DARS + S.York ARS IO93HO 0 0 160 149 0 309 12 MM0BQI/GM4WLL IO85NR 0 0 64 0 207 271 13 John Baxter IO93XF 0 167 0 55 0 222 14 South West Herts UHF Group IO91QT 0 0 0 219 0 219 15 North Bristol ARG IO81TL 0 0 180 0 0 180
Pos Group Name Locator 50 70 144 432 1296 Total 1 Warrington Contest Group IO93AD 0 0 1000 1000 1000 3000 2 GM4WLL / MM0BQI IO85NR 1000 1000 0 75 0 2075 3 Shefford & DARS IO92XA 0 0 414 573 678 1666 4 Hitchin Contest Group IO92XA 850 528 0 0 0 1377 5 Leicester RS IO92IO 488 568 180 0 0 1235 6 Mid Sussex ARC IO90WV 438 0 366 319 0 1122 7 Cambridge & DARC JO02CE 0 351 430 0 165 946 8 Andover RAC IO91FH 0 268 343 147 0 757 9 Sutton Coldfield RS IO92FM 331 0 319 0 0 650 10 South Bristol ARC IO81QJ 0 0 312 0 0 312 11 Newbury & DARS IO91GI 0 0 243 0 0 243 12 Sierra Yankee ARCG IO81PU 0 0 77 0 0 77 13 Thomas Cannon IO91NK 0 0 67 0 0 67
Pos Group Name Locator 50 70 144 432 1296 Total 1 Telford & DARS IO82NN 434 643 272 0 896 2244 2 Chesham & DARS IO91QS 433 517 572 690 0 2212 3 North Beds Gentlemen CG IO92TI 0 440 282 676 511 1910 4 Bracknell ARC IO80ST 395 820 415 214 0 1844 5 Darenth Valley RS&Cray Valley RSJO01BI 871 336 343 0 0 1549 6 Surrey Radio Contact Club IO91XH 212 0 695 121 410 1439 7 Two Counties CG IO92LJ 136 287 341 640 0 1405 8 Rochdale & DARS IO83VP 232 738 275 0 0 1246 9 Wythall Radio Club IO92BJ 151 344 347 256 0 1097