The VHF Contests Championship aims to provide an overall result for the year - based on a representative selection of contests. The contests that count towards the Championship are: March 2m/70cm (the overall 2 band normalised score), 432 MHz Trophy, 10GHz Trophy, May 144 MHz, 50 MHz Trophy, 144 MHz Low Power, 432 MHz Low Power, 144 MHz Trophy, 70 MHz Trophy, 1.3 GHz Trophy & 2.3 GHz Trophy.

All stations entering any of these 11 events are automatically included in the Championship. There is a Single Operator Fixed Station section (SF), a Single Operator Fixed Low Power section [less than 25W to a single antenna] (LP) an Open section [Groups and Portables] (O) and an AFS section which accumulates all the scores of individual club members in each contest and section to give an overall total for the club.

All entries have been reallocated and re-normalised from the original sections and points scores in each qualifying contest. The re-normalisation is against the best scoring station/group in each individual Championship section for each event. For sections other than the AFS section only the best seven normalised scores count to towards the final score.

All Single Operator Fixed stations are entered and tabulated into the SF section. Stations qualifying for the LP section are also entered and tabulated into the LP section.

These contests take place over various weekends during the year on bands from 50MHz to 10GHz, so to get anywhere near the top of the tables takes a lot of commitment and the ability to run a highly effective station across multiple bands and events. Unlike the short, sharp, weekday contests these events run for up to 24 hours, so patience and perseverance as well as plenty of coffee are usually required.

This year the winners of the AFS section are Chesham & DARS, pushing the previous champions, Hereford ARS, into second place. Congratulations to Chesham, who have been improving their AFS score each year and in so doing have kept moving up the table and have now reached the top spot. Sheffield & DWS have retained third place for the second year running.

The Racal Radio Cup, awarded to the winners of the Open Section, this year goes to Colchester RA. The club were last at the top of the table in 2022, In second place, up from third last year is Hereford ARS, swapping places with the Weekend CG who takes the third spot.

Once again the same callsigns appear in the top three places in the SF section, which has been the case since 2020, but this time the order is John G3XDY in first, who is awarded the John Pilags Memorial Trophy, Keith G4ODA in second and David G4ASR in third. Congratulations to all three entrants for such consistent results.

The award for the highest placed Intermediate Licensee goes to David, 2E0YDG and the highest placed Foundation Licensee is David, M7DQO. Ranking certificates can be downloaded for all Intermediate and Foundation licence entrants using the filter at the top of the callsign column.

Roger, MW0OMB has returned to the top of the table in the Low Power Section and is therefore awarded the Low Power VHF Championship Trophy. Graham G3YJR jumps up one place from 2023 to take second place. David M7QDO is the highest-placed Foundation licensee this year, and John 2E0JPO the highest-placed Intermediate Licensee.

Congratulations to all trophy and certificate winners.

Pete Lindsay, G4CLA.