70 MHz Trophy 2010

This year the Trophy moved to a new date in July. The level of activity was down on 2009 and the number of entrants fell slightly. Overall 140 stations in 9 countries (EA6, G, GD, GI, GM, GW, GU, I, IS0) were active in the event. Strangely there was no activity from the nearer European countries.

Conditions were rated as average with QSB causing problems. There were twenty tropospheric contacts over 600kMs. Finally Sporadic E propagation appeared in the last hour with 48 QSOs into EA6, I and IS0 taking place. The Es opening was available across the length and breath of the UK. Increases in urban electronic noise are affecting the band.

As usual over half the contacts took place in the first two hours with activity tailing off during the remainder of the event. A number of stations packed up early either due to domestic events or the reducing activity. As a result they missed out on the score boosting effects of the Sporadic E.

A number of stations suffered from heavy rain and strong winds while others commented on the nice weather!

The equipment in use on 70MHz is varied with a variety of makes of transceivers. transverters, amplifiers and antennas in use. Homebrew remains an important source of equipment. This variety of equipment did cause some problems with a number of comments about poor signals. The majority of these were amicably sorted out at the time of the reports.

Logging standards were variable with a number of entrants losing significant points. Interestingly the logging errors were equally split across callsigns, locators, RST and serial numbers.

Congratulations go to:

The Five Bells, GM4SIV/P, who returned to their winning ways to win the open section and are awarded the VHF Managers Trophy.
Phil, G0JBA, who won the single operator (fixed) section.
Erik, M0SDA/P, for winning the single operator (others) section and, as the highest scoring single operator entry, is awarded the Four Metre Cup.
The three sections runners up: G0VHF/P, G3NPI and GM4ZUK/P.
David, G8LZE as the highest placed fixed station running 25watts or less into a single antenna.

These stations will receive certificates.

Roger Dixon, G4BVY

Section O
Pos	Callsign	Locator	QSOs	Score	Multiplier	Total	ODX Call	ODX Kms	Power	Ant	Group
1 *	GM4SIV/P	IO75	69	27,393	58	1,588,794	EA6CA	1,879	160	2*11+ 4 ele	Five Bells Group
2 *	G0VHF/P	JO01	67	21,890	59	1,291,510	EA6XQ	1,401	160	2*7 + 11 ele	Colchester CG of Colchester RA
3	G4ZAP/P	JO02	67	19,365	59	1,142,535	IS0AWZ	1,574	160	6 ele	A1 Contest group
4	G4RFR	IO90	58	19,201	50	960,050	IS0AWZ	1,544	150	12 ele	Flight Refuelling ARS
5	G8ZHP	IO92	62	16,653	55	915,915	EA6XQ	1,516	160	6 + 6 ele	Five Bells
Section SF
Pos	Callsign	Locator	QSOs	Score	Multiplier	Total	ODX Call	ODX Kms	Power	Ant	Group
1 *	G0JBA	JO01	37	12,596	35	440,860	IW0FFK	1,366	100	7 ele
2 *	G3NPI	IO92	36	11,245	36	404,820	IS0AWZ	1,617	70	5 over 5 ele
3	GM4JR	IO85	35	11,624	33	383,592	EA6CA	1,803	150	6 ele
4	GW8ASD	IO83	39	10,458	34	355,572	EA6CA	1,582	80	7 ele
5	GU6EFB	IN89	23	10,643	24	255,432	IS0AWZ	1,459	160	5 ele
6	GW4RWR	IO83	31	6,947	35	243,145	GM4ZUK/P	421	160	5 ele
7	G4DEZ	JO03	30	7,140	34	242,760	MI0BOU	543	150	8 ele
8	G3LVP	IO81	27	6,457	31	200,167	GM4ZUK/P	562	160	6 ele
9	G4BRK	IO91	26	5,959	28	166,852	GM4ZUK/P	594	50	5 ele
10	GM4DIJ	IO85	16	5,014	17	85,238	EA6CA	1,891	80	6 ele
11 *	G8LZE	IO91	21	3,794	22	83,468	GM4SIV/P	540	20	5 ele
12	G4HHJ	IO91	13	3,967	13	51,571	EA6CA	1,393	20	Dipole
13	G4TSH	IO91	10	3,781	10	37,810	EA6CA	1,358	20	Dipole
14	G8HGN	JO01	9	3,653	9	32,877	EA6CA	1,364	10	HB9CV
15	G3YJR	IO93	9	1,952	9	17,568	GM4ZUK/P	399	5	2 ele
16	G6UBM	JO01	5	1,029	6	6,174	M0SDA/P	420	20	5 ele
17	G3ZOD	IO83	4	562	7	3,934	GM4SIV/P	316	10	Dpole
Section SO
Pos	Callsign	Locator	QSOs	Score	Multiplier	Total	ODX Call	ODX Kms	Power	Ant	Group
1 *	M0SDA/P	IO84	74	23,884	58	1,385,272	EA6XQ	1,752	160	8 + 5 ele	Warrington Contest Group
2 *	GM4ZUK/P	IO86	48	21,807	41	894,087	EA6CA	1,985	70	8 ele
3	G0EHV/P	IO84	41	9,698	41	397,618	G7RAU	457	160	5 ele
4	G0PQF/P	JO01	35	10,618	33	350,394	EA6XQ	1,427	25	4 ele
5	G8PNN/P	IO95	31	8,484	29	246,036	G7RAU	516	50	5 ele
6	G4VRC/P	IO90	24	5,662	25	141,550	GM4ZUK/P	677	10	5 ele
7	G0BWC/A	IO83	20	4,061	20	81,220	AO6VQ	1,604	40	Moxon	Bolton Wireless Club
8	G1ONE/P	IO83	15	2,914	17	49,538	G0JBA	359	25	5 ele	Bolton Wireless Club

Comments from the logs

G0BWC/A

Wet and windy. Surprisingly little local activity on SSB, but quite a few on FM. A late burst of Es livened up the last hour!

G0EHV/P

Conditions not so good plus the usual QSB. I thought activity down a bit also. Missed Es at end due to packing up early - very high winds and zero QSO rate for an hour!

G0JBA

Last two hours I was losing the will to live, then thankfully the E's appeared. I had stopped for an hour and had some lunch when I came back into the shack there was an EA6 on my QRG! Excellent. Thanks to all for the points.

G0PQF/P

Good WX but activity down on previous years. Nice to get the Es in the last hour. Nothing heard from ON or DL.

G0VHF/P

Started out as Standard 4M traffic...

G3LVP

Unable to operate for the whole duration of the contest as expected visitors arrived at 1145. The QRM levels across the band from various local electronic devices make working weak signals on many frequencies impossible (& it's getting worse by the day). 1100 BST start is at least an hour too late.

G3NPI

Good with some Es in last hour.

G3YJR

A struggle on a noisy band.

G4BRK

Visitors stopped play in the second half, so missed the Es.

G4DEZ

Good activity but had to QRT after 2 hours. Major power failure. Still can't complain not at bottom of pile!

G4HHJ

Just trying out re-worked transverter at home. Temporary antenna on roach pole in garden, prior to installing Yagi on house. Only managed about 1.5 hours of operation, due to family commitments. Mainly G stations, with brief opening to Spain late on.

G4RFR

Perhaps the contest duration could be considered by VHFCC.

G4TSH

Good timing I was able to get home in time to put station on air and hand out the TW multiplier.

G4VRC/P

WX overcast and windy changing to hot and sunny later. A good spread of contacts across UK from the South Downs. Called but could not make it with

GI4SNA

. Only 5 QSO from 12.00 to 14.30 so packed up missing any later sporadic-E.

G4ZAP/P

The activity was not as good as hoped for and we'd given up all hope of Es when it woke us up in the last hour.

G8HGN

Open to EA6 at end. Strangely heard many UK stations not audible earlier.

G8LZE

Usual friendly affair had to QRT before E's.

G8ZHP

Low levels of activity, many usuals missing - nothing on FM other than SDA who were worked on SSB. When going gets slow it allows poor operators to catch up on QSO numbers and make a much better score if they have a "capable" station. Band very crowded with big contest stations.

GM4DIJ

Fairly flat, slow going , some SpE near end

GM4JR

Fairly busy until 1400 - died a death thereafter. Conditions fair. A few stations could do with checking their TX audio / bandwidth etc. Not alone telling a few people! Nice to hear GM4SIV/P taking my advice about beaming north - but I think he went too far ha ha!

GM4SIV/P

As far as the contest is concerned the change of date brought fewer Es than the last 2 years and there was a distinct reduction in activity.

GM4ZUK/P

WX dreadful on arrival driving rain and strong winds. Improved later. Nice Es opening in last hour. Tropo condx perhaps very slightly

GU6EFB

Started very slowly managed to cook lunch and mow the lawn

GW8ASD

Strange conditions! Lots of GMs, few from IO83, a quiet spell and a nice surprise at the end. :-)

M0SDA/P

Very wet very windy cold. Despite low number QSO this year good time had with the es. Had to winkle weak station out of the noise.