Activity in the 2020 432MHz Activity Contests started off slightly down on last year's levels, with only 165 entries in January although things did improve over the next few months. But come April and the start of the national lockdown activity levels exploded and we received 284 logs which showed that 481 stations were active. One log alone contained over 250 QSOs. An astounding set of figures considering no portable stations were allowed to enter. Activity levels continued to be very high for the rest of the year, breaking all records for these events. Overall, 510 different stations submitted a log over the year representing 91 AFS clubs. For some perspective let's look back at the 2010 results, where record 368 stations took part....in the 144MHz UKAC!

Conditions in this year's events were mostly flat, with only the April and September events offering better conditions, especially across the UK mainland.

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.

Hereford ARS consolidated their stranglehold on the top spot in the Local Clubs section this year, with 25 club members contributing to their impressive overall score. The fight for second place was a very close match between Cray Valley RS, Northampton RC and Worksop ARS. Worksop were the early runners and were in second place until September when Northampton overtook them. But it was an amazing run by Cray Valley, who moved up from seventh in January, to third in September that eventually took second place. No doubt the lockdown rules had some effect on the scores over the year, but congratulation to all three clubs on such an epic battle.

In the General Cub section, 807 ARO were again the run-away winners, encouraging 49 stations to contribute to their final tally of points. The Northern Fells CG are in second place, up from fifth last year having won a tight battle with Wirral & DARC, who were in second spot for the first half of the year.

In the Open Section of the individual tables, Pete G4CLA had a poor start to the year, accumulating just 857 points in the first three months, but had a post lockdown recovery after the March event, winning in every month after that to eventually make the maximum 8000 points. Richard GD8EXI moved up from fourth in 2019 to second this year, having won 2 of the events. Richard also wins the award for the highest number of entries in the ODX column, with 293 entries, just ahead of Gordon GI6ATZ with 282 entries. Keith G4ODA is in third place this year, missing out on the runners-up place by only 32 points. Frank PE1EWR is the leading non-UK entry and Gabor M6YUG the leading Foundation Licensee.

This year's winner in the Restricted Section is John G3XDY, who has made a very successful move from the Open section in 2019. Ian GM3SEK has jumped up from 15th in 2019 to second this year, only just behind John after winning the final 3 events of the year. David G4ASR also improved on his 2019 score to take third place. Other certificate winners in this section are James 2E0OUT, the highest placed Intermediate Licensee and Philippe F1CBC the top-scoring non-UK entry.

You might expect the Low Power Section to be the one most affected by the lockdown rules, as this is the section that attracts many of the portable entries, yet remarkably the top three stations are the same as last year. A combination of using a well-sorted portable station at home and making the most of the events that did allow portable operation seems to be done the trick for Steve G1YBB in first place, Tony G8DMU in second and Dave G3TBK in third. Certificates also go to Andy 2E0XMB who is the leading Intermediate Licensee, Donna M7DON who is the highest placed Foundation Licensee and to Oscar M7OJA who is the leading young operator.

Thank you to everyone who took part in this year's 432MHz activity contests, I hope that all the new operators who joined in this year, as well as the old hands will be back again for more in 2021.

Pete G4CLA