50MHz Trophy contest 2011

High winds made life difficult for some stations but the usual spells of sporadic E propagation brought plenty of European activity for most, with northern stations having better conditions than in previous years. Those in the south and west benefited from an opening to North America in the last few hours, with those contacts contributing a large percentage of some overall scores. For the 6 hour sections, those who chose Saturday for their session generally fared better.

Logging standards varied enormously. In particular, JN, JO, KN, KO were widely mixed up in any permutation. A couple of logs suffered heavily from what appeared to be typing rather than logging problems. Elsewhere, there were signs of fatigue with one leading station putting their own locator in the `received' box for a couple of nice dx contacts, and another where the operator swapped between personal and club callsigns. The overall error rate was just over 5%

Top position in section 6S was fairly close, elsewhere the section leaders had a clear margin. 2^nd place in section O was very close; for much of the checking process two multipliers (which could come from just one QSO) would have swapped positions. In the end, GW4Z edged out G8T by dint of losing fewer multipliers even though they had more logging errors.

Congratulations to Bristol CG who claim the Telford Trophy and G4DEZ who retains the Six Metre Cup.

Certificates go to:

GJ6YB/P, GW4Z (section O)

G4DEZ, MM0GPZ (section SF)

GM4ZUK/P, G8NEY/P (section 6O)

G0HVQ, G0APB (section 6S)

G4HGI (leading low power/single aerial station)

TM1W (leading overseas log)

Thanks to 2E0SMP G0KYS G3RWL M1JJK and SM0NJO for their checklogs.

Steve Thompson G8GSQ

Extracts from the soapbox:

2E0BMO

Couldn't make Saturday and probably missed out on the best 'E' but still enjoyable.

2E0SMP

More testing really for vhf nfd. Some big signals . Sat best day sun bit quiet in s/w

2E0VXX/P

Only on hill for 3 Hours , Got told to move by a local and not to return. This was Broadway Tower!

F/M5AEF

Magic conditions. Thankfully lots of stations active above 50.200

G0CDA

I could only spend a few hours QRV on Saturday but nice E's opening and good fun on low power.

G0HVQ

Some really nice Es think I picked two good

slots for operating Es still going strong at the end

of my 6hrs. Didn't hear or work that many UK stations though.

G0VHF/P

Low key affair with some entertainment with the wind on Friday night.

G3VKW

Poor condx,

G3VYI

Very good activity/ big E opening even on a dipole!

limited time here

G3YJR

Some nice sporadic E on Sat & some on Sun too.

G3YNN

Much better conditions on Saturday than Sunday. Heard VE but unable to work them. Big wheels worked fantastic, helped take the fading out with the ES. Great fun as usual.

G4HGI

Missed the best bits on saturday

in out in out over the 24 hrs

G4NDM

Pity E's dried up in the afternoon, up to then some good contacts. Thanks for the points.

G5B

Some Es but not as much as others :(

A little overnight activity but need more!

G7TWC

Great on Sat, not so good on Sunday

G8APB

Good sporadic E to eastern europe, great time S+P

G8CQA/P

Conditions OK near start, but nothing really exciting, virtually no activity for my last 3 hours.

G8CUL

Conditions best for a long time.

Shame we didn't work across the pond

G8HGN

Picked the wrong times to operate. 1st few hours was best with ES

G8LZE

Should have done more time on the first day - Es died here at around 10:30 UTC Sunday

G8N

Windy wet and sunny.

G8NEY/P

Heavy rain the the morning cleared and were able to set up with only a few showers.

Testing new pump up masts and HB GS35B amp

Es was awsome, we all had a brilliant time!

G8ONK

Great conditions, hard to get heard on 25 W

G8T

Non-stop rain and wind for almost the entire event. Spent all day Friday in the clouds and soaked through and 20-50Mph wind did not make for putting antennas up easily. Wasn't able to put 100ft Versatower up to full height until 10am on Sunday morning whe

n winds finally dropped!

Conditions started reasonably with good Es but this faded out after 2 hours and most QSOs were on tropo or weak patchy Es.

QSO rate much lower than usual and after 45 min of no QSOs decided to shut down over night.

Good opening to north America in last 2 hours on Sunday provided useful improvement in score. Video of Matt working W's available on YouTube.

G8ZRE

Excellent conditions heard USA nut did not manage a QSO.Sent serial number 046 twice by mistake SORRY!.

GJ6YB/P

High winds and driving drain made setup difficult. Es very sproadic but great opeing to NA on Sunday !

GM4JR

Excellent conditions on Saturday. Lost 2 hours on Saturday during

high point of ES - had to go and rescue wife/ recover her car after

she rolled it three times during heavy rain! She's OK - car is a

write off! Lots of new locators and some new DXCC too!

GM4VVX

Patchy spE - On fringe of spE to NA - My best contest for a long time.

GM4ZUK/P

Great Es. Wish I had the time to be QRV

for whole 24 hour contest.

GW2OP/P

Our first outing as a new team with old & new friends in Pembrokeshire. Wkd YV & 9Y, hrd PY, Sat evening, then nice condx to VE/W Sunday

GW3ATZ

Last 6 hrs on Sunday. Phantom force

sucked all the RF away from this QTH..!!

GW3JXN

Very enjoyable test. No EI or GI ?? Good NA

opening and good tropo in UK.Sporadic sporadic E !!!

Getting too old for this lark!

GW4Z

Es not as good as 2009 and 2010.

Missed the W opening on Saturday but made up for it on Sunday.

Wasted a lot of time puting up a pair of yagis only to find a terrible SWR so reverted back to 1.

Had a lot of Electrical QRM to the SE so apologies to those who called us in vain.

GW8ASD

Not sure I picked the best period and messed up anyway so only 5.5hrs!

M0BAO/P

Only active for 2 hours,but good conditions.

M0MCV

Saturday pm was good but the Es died too quickly!

Sunday was pretty dire!

M1EYP/P

Wind and rain. Just three stations heard. Two worked, but the GJ couldn't hear my calls.

MM0GPZ

FB conditions on Sat but Sunday was a struggle all day. Great fun and

looking forward to next year.

MM0TOB

Heavy QSB throughout causing loss of contacts at times. Very little short skip to work inter G. Happy with 28 countries though.