The 2018 70cms UK Activity Contest was another record breaker, with a total of 2409 logs received over the year. 385 different stations appeared in the logs in the October event, also a record .  In all 414 different individual entrants representing 81 Clubs appear in the results.

This year the bonus scheme was changed to a flat 500 points per new square worked.

Once again there are two club tables this year, one for Local Clubs where members all live or operate within a set distance of the club (virtual) meeting place and one for General Clubs whose members are more widely dispersed. This year the qualifying distance for Local Clubs was increased to 80km to encourage more clubs to enter this section.

A total of 29 clubs entered the Local Section. During 2017 Hereford ARS started to make a big effort in this Section climbing from seventh at the start of the year to an eventual second place. That improvement continued into 2018, which saw the club hold first place from the start. By the end of the year their 23 members had accumulated a very impressive score of over 93,000 points well ahead of a closely fought battle between Worksop ARS, the eventual runners-up and 93 Contest Group.

There are 52 entries in the General Club Section. Once again last year's winners, 807 ARO were in dominant form. Although their score is well down on last year the team are still well ahead of the field, helped by some particularly big scoring months in the early part of the year. The Drowned Rats RG jump up from fifth place last year to second this year, with Harwell ARS leapfrogging GMDX moving up one place to third.

Congratulations to all the leading clubs and especially all those clubs who managed to improve their score over last year. A number of clubs could have entered the Local Section this year now that the qualifying distance has increased to 80km, but didn't. If all your club members either live OR operate within 80km of a designated meeting place and you want to enter the Local Section next year, please emailafs@rsgbcc.org.

In the Open Section of the individual tables there was a close battle between Pete G4CLA and John G3XDY for top spot, both of them claiming a number of session wins, with Pete just winning out with a slightly higher score over his best 8 results.

The final scores at the top of the Restricted Section are even closer,  Anthony G7LRQ just winning out over Jacques, F1BHL/P, despite Jacques winning 5 of the sessions to Anthony's 3 wins.

The result of the Low Power Section are more clear-cut, here Steve G1YBB/P scored a maximum 8000 points giving him strong lead over Tony G8DMU/P who has jumped to second place from 21st last year.

A new certificate was instigated for the UKAC series this year for the station who provides the most stations with their best DX on each band across the year. The winner for 2018 on this band is Gordon GI6ATZ, who appeared in the ODX column no less than 259 times. Other certificate winners include Keith G4ODA, Bob G1ZJP (M1MHZ),  Andy M0GAV/P, Frank PE1EWR,  James 2E0OUT, John 2E0DXK/P and Mary M6KMB.

I hope you enjoyed this years 70cms UK activity contests and hopefully you will all be back for more starting in January 2019!

Pete G4CLA