21/28 MHz Contest 2014

Contacts were available on both 21MHz and 28MHz, CW and SSB, right from the start of the contest this year.  Later in the day many found the California QSO Party a rich source of contacts, again on both bands, plus there were good openings to VK/ZL and JA in the first few hours.  Mixed-mode dominated the Open section this year with the top five positions employing both modes, in first place is Mark Haynes M0DXR who also takes the Powditch Trophy for the highest 28MHz single operator score regardless of mode.  David Cree G3TBK in sixth place is the leading CW only single operator entrant and is awarded the T.E. Wilson G6VQ Trophy.  There was a close finish using SSB only with Gordon Gray MM0GOR just holding off the challenge of Terry Downing G3MXH.  However the Whitworth Trophy for the leading single operator using SSB only is awarded this year to the highest placed station in the UK Restricted Section, Nigel Brown G0GDA.  Nigel was second overall with Peter Hobbs G3LET in first place with a CW only entry.  Tim Raven G4ARI completes the certificate listings in the Restricted section as the leading station mixed-mode and third place overall.  There were three Multi-op mixed-mode entries in the Open section; Anton Koval MW0EDX operating MW5R takes the first place certificate.

Propagation to European Russia was consistently good throughout the contest on both bands and Alexei Skripalev UA3VVB took full advantage once again to achieve an unassailable score in the non-UK Open section.  Mikhail Bondarev R3BM using SSB only also made a similar number of contacts into the UK throughout the day but with fewer multipliers available could not manage the same points total.  Bob Patten N4BP found UK-Florida open from 10.54 onwards and is awarded a certficate for the leading Multi-op using CW only.  Vladimir Makarov UA3XAO is the leading CW only Single-op.

In the non-UK Restricted section Darren Collins G0TSM took advantage of a holiday in Kos and a QTH near the coast to operate part-time and still win by a considerable margin with mixed-mode.  He was rewarded with consistently good propagation to the UK, in particular 28MHz from around 1200 to 1400, but also throughout the afternoon until 17.35 on that band and 17.55 on 21MHz.  The first place CW only certificate is awarded to Dimitar Dimitrov LZ2FM and Vladimir Shchekotovich RA3DGH is the leading SSB only entrant.

Unfortunately the UK QRP section has never been well supported and there were just five entries this year.  QRP was more popular among non-UK entrants and first place certificates were awarded to Rumen Stefanov LZ2RS (mixed-mode) for the fifth consecutive year, Valery Bykov UA9FGJ (CW only) and Jarek Radziecki SP7VTQ (SSB only).

Submitted logs were generally a better standard than in previous years; the most common error was the choosing of the wrong section/category during log submission.

The 2015 contest takes place on Sunday 4th October and there are some significant changes in the rules.  See http://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2015/r2128.shtml

John Cockrill G4CZB