Support for the AFS CW Contest was disappointing with the number of participants down by 20% on 2014. The number of teams and the number of Affiliated Societies taking part was also down, but not to the same degree. Apart from the usual handful of regulars there was very little support from non-UK stations until well into the last hour, and then mostly only for the leading contenders.

Were conditions contributory? Possibly! A number of stations commented on the high winds and possible antenna damage as a reason for some well-known regulars being absent. There were also reports of high noise and low signal levels, particularly at the start. But for DX the band would seem to have been working well. Gary, ZL2IFB, logged and spotted about 30 UK stations at his sunrise, around 1700hrs. Despite calling with 500W he was unable to raise a single station, so perhaps there were propagation issues after all.

The adjudication of the 2015 AFS CW contest resulted in a dispute with an international club over a few of their members being overly selective in their contacting of AFS CW entrants.  The Committee suspended the result pending the outcome of a wider review of contesting led by the President.    Thisreview considered the issue and recommended that the Committee in future deal with this specific issue under the "Spirit of the Contest" rule, as well as continuing to work closely with the club concerned to avoid future distortion of the contest result, which in terms of the individual ranking is very sensitive to a few QSOs.   In reviewing the results for this year, the adjudicator has re-calculated the contest scores disallowing only where there is evidence that a non-entrant has made contacts exclusively with members of their own club.  Consequently, all of the QSOs made with competitors by a total of four non-entering stations have been declared void.

And so we come to the results and awards. Congratulations to the Three As Contest Group A team who take first place, and the Edgware Trophy, by the narrowest of margins from the runners-up, the Three As Contest Group (East Anglia). Third place is taken by the De Montfort University ARS "A" team.

In the individual competition Andy Cook, G4PIQ, claims first place and the Marconi trophy by a similarly narrow lead over joint runners-up Bob Titterington, G3ORY and Ian Pritchard, G3WVG.

Mention is due also to Tracey Edwards, 2E0CEY and Peter Moss, M3OSP, the leading Intermediate and Foundation Class entrants respectively. Both are awarded certificates of merit in recognition of their achievement.

Steve Knowles G3UFY

g3ufy@rsgbcc.org