The third year of this event seems to have spurred participants to even greater efforts than before. Bristol Contest Group and Camb-Hams have been fighting it out for top place since the inception of the Super League, with Trowbridge knocking at the door not far behind.  In the end, Bristol managed to pull ahead by quite a small margin – well done!  Second and third placed clubs receive a Super League Certificate.

A new trophy is now available for the winners, kindly donated by the Hadley Wood Contest Group.  We're sorry to report that this trophy results from the demise of this group -- staunch supporters of the AFS contest series as well as other RSGB contests.  However, they decided to put some of the remaining members' funds to good use, in creating a parting gift for the winner of these hugely popular Affiliated Society contests

To get to the top of the table, clubs need to get their best operators out on five different bands in six contests.  Nine of the 113 clubs participating managed to do this, with four qualifying for a Certificate of Achievement for appearing in the top three-quarters of each of the six AFS contest tables.

It's interesting that some clubs show a definite HF or VHF bias, but it's also clear that there are plenty of clubs having a mixture of enthusiasts operating both above and below 30MHz.  With many HF rigs now covering 6m, 2m and 70cm, it is becoming easier to get onto bands where there was little off-the-shelf equipment available just a few years ago.  Of course, the fact that this is a winter series of contests means that setting up a VHF station for a few hours on top of a local hill is not always an attractive proposition in bad weather!

Congratulations to all societies who participated in the AFS contests -- we look forward to seeing even more of you joining in the 2013-14 series.

Ed Taylor, GW3SQX