The majority of entrants rated conditions this year as above average to very good. The number of contacts made, the total scores and the best contact distances were significantly above those made in 1998. While entrants were enthusiastic about the level of activity from Europe, a number bemoaned the poor activity levels within the UK. The weather conditions were rated as perfect across the majority of the country with only sea fog on parts of the East Coast and dull, cold and wet weather in Northern Scotland providing exceptions.
A number of stations suffered equipment problems with failed linears and mast head preamplifiers. The prize must go to G4IVH/P who operated from a bunker fifteen feet below ground level and claimed to have a bombproof receiver!
Logging standards were generally high, but some entrants lost significant points failing to correctly log the callsigns of portable stations and exceptionally optimistic locators which bore no relevance to the country identified by the callsign prefix.
A close contest at the top of the open section resulted in The Northern Lights reversing the top two positions from 1998 to relegate the Parallel Lines into the runners up position. M1A, operated by G4BAH, led the single operator section by a huge margin from GM4ZUK who repeated his runner up performance. G4AEQ triumphed in section SS for the third year in succession. Congratulations and certificates go to these stations and to those identified by (*) in the tables.
Roger Dixon, G4BVY.
Multi operator (O) Call Score QSOs Locator Power Antenna Best DX Loc km Group 1* M0V 408257 933 IO94RJ 400 4*15+4*10 DL4MDQ JN58SP 1050 The Northern Lights 2* G8P 398304 1028 JO01QD 400 8*17+2*13 LA9CY JO59HN 1101 Parallel Lines CG 3 G5B 312305 895 JO03AD 400 8*12+8*11 SM7WSJ JO67WI 991 Five Bells CG 4 G8L 184912 565 IO90JO 400 4*19 F8NSC JN12EK 948 Victory CG 5 G0VHF/P 178224 515 JO01PU 400 4*9+2*15 OL2O JN79IO 976 Villa CG 6* DL2KK 177886 675 JO30FQ 400 2*10 GM4JJJ IO86GB 887 Reigate ATS 7 G3ZBI/P 119834 512 IO93BA 400 18 SK7MW JO65MJ 1003 Nunsfield House ARG 8 G3WRS/P 105938 326 IO94MJ 400 4*17 DF9ZP/P JN49PU 862 Wakefield &DARC 9 G2XV/P 71847 327 JO02CD 200 4*17 SK7MW JO65MJ 916 Cambridge &DARC 10 GX4NOK 69181 246 IO93FR 400 10 SK6HD JO68SD 1057 North Wakefield 11 G8SRC/P 67431 303 IO91CL 150 2*17 DF0TAU JO40XL 829 Swindon &DARC 12 G7RIH 61218 276 IO91RR 160 17 OZ1BEF JO46OE 807 Dacorum AR&TS 13 G0DLR 36899 209 JO01EI 400 15 GM4VHU IO87FH 709 Culverstone CG 14 G6YDD/P 24968 149 IO82OC 100 10 F1DBE/P JO09TD 830 Hereford ARS 15 GM0FRC/P 24617 102 IO76UA 100 2*15 TM1H JN09TT 796 Falkirk RC 16 M1BWT 22247 161 IO91PR 100 2*11 DK0BN JN39VX 627 Single operator (S) Call Score QSOs Locator Power Antenna Best DX Loc km 1* M1A 350331 902 JO02OD 400 2*2*17 OE5D JN68PC 970 2* GM4ZUK/P137202 329 IO86RW 400 4*13 TM6P JN19PG 936 3 G4IVH/P 63264 251 IO92WN 400 13 DK0ES/P JN48TN 819 4 GM4WLL/P 55553 185 IO85NR DL2KK JO30FQ 836 5 G4HLX/P 49487 238 IO91FN 100 13 DF9ZP/P JN49PU 785 6* G4HGI 32544 154 IO83PL 20 11 DL2KK JO30FQ 698 7 G0IBZ 31001 138 JO02KA 280 2*14 SK7MW JO65MJ 883 8 PE1EWR 26752 101 JO11SL 25 10 SM7LXV/7JN65TM 803 9 GW8ZRE/P 18287 85 IO83JF 10 DL2KK JO30FQ 719 10 G1TWS 15211 75 JO01HO 25 11 F5MSL/P JN36BP 666 11 GW4HBK 5108 21 IO81KP 60 9 GM4ZUK/PIO86RW 589 12 2U0ARE 1947 14 IN89RL 10 Discone G5B JO03AD 445 13 GM1BKF/M 326 8 IO85JV 5 r duck GM0PSQ/PIO86NL 78 Six hour single operator fixed (SS) Call Score QSOs Locator Power Antenna Best DX Loc km 1* G4AEQ 42259 132 IO93PE 200 2*9 SK7MW JO65MJ 924 2* G3MEH 26648 118 IO91QS 180 2*9 DK0BN JN39VX 623 3 G4DEZ 19273 100 JO01IN 250 2*13 GI6ATZ IO74AJ 545 4* G4XPE 7552 34 IO92GU 10 10 TM6P JN19PG 518 5 G7NBE 5930 28 IO92GS 80 9 GM4ZUK/PIO86RW 470 Six hour open (OS) Call Score QSOs Locator Power Antenna Best DX Loc km 1* G4ADV/P 10351 44 IO70MM 400 2*8 GM4ZUK/P IO86RW 731 Newquay &DARS