144MHz CW MARCONI CONTEST, 2nd/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2024

After a rather downbeat report on last year's 144MHz CW Marconi Contest it is excellent to report that this year both conditions and entries were considerably up - the latter being a result of the former of course... This year there were 46 entries (including eleven from outside the UK) plus three check logs. This was 16 (56%) up on 2023. 23 of the entries were in section 6S, 13 in section SF, five in section 6O and five in section O - a similar distribution between sections to that of 2023. In addition to the three check logs received direct by the RSGB, a further 773 were received from IARU R1, allowing a high level of checking of entrants' contacts. A total of 18 DXCCs were worked by UK entrants (in DL, F, G, GM, GU, GW, HA, HB9, OE, OK, OM, ON, OZ, PA, S5, SM, SP, and YO) with a further six (9A, E7, I, LX, LZ and YU) worked by non-UK entrants.

A total of 349 stations were active from 96 big squares (18 within the UK and 78 outside). The best DX worked was between G4ZTR in JO01 square and YR5C in KN16 at 1681km, and 34 of the entrants (74%) had best DXs of over 1000km.

Entrants' comments make interesting reading (in a good way)  It is tempting to create a 'Thesaurus Of Favourable Terms Describing Radio Conditions ', with UK entrants alone using at least fourteen different words (liberally supported by exclamation marks) to express their pleasure about the excellent tropo encountered, particularly on the Sunday. And there were no doubt more words expressed in French, German, Italian and Croatian - but as it is now 57 years since I learnt any languages and the inputs no doubt express similar views, this has not been investigated any further (despite picking up the fact that the French for 'log' appears to be 'log'!). Although they all make interesting reading, particular comments included:

'first CW contest ever' (two entrants)

'my first participation in this contest'

'been doing this contest since 1983, rarely do we get condx as good as this, one to remember. Sadly very little UK support these days'.

Let's hope for good conditions again in 2025 - and that the possibility of meeting them again will promote activity!

Congratulations to the certificate winners as listed below.

73, Quin G3WRR

g3wrr@rsgbcc.org