Radio Society of Great Britain – Contest Committee


RSGB - Contest Committee

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    Radio Society of Great Britain. Official HF. Contest Results.

    Results. SSB Field Day 2000.

    Open Section
    Pos Group Call QSOs Mults
    FinalScore
    1 Bristol CG G6YB/P 1646 233
    1,297,344
    2 Lichfield ARS G3WAS/P 1347 232
    1,067,432
    3 Port Talbot ARC MW0AGE/P 1155 173
    709,473
    4 Moray Firth ARC GM3TKV/P 994 179
    679,305
    5 East of Scotland CG MM0BQI/P 1186 156
    636,168
    6 South Nots ARC G8DD/P 1093 154
    579,810
    7 Mimram CG M0ABC/P 937 133
    456,855
    8 Ipswitch RC G4IRC/P 755 146
    422,378
    9 Melton Mowbary ARS G4FOX/P 811 128
    377,088
    10 Horsham ARC G4HRS/P 659 133
    344,071
    11 N.Wakefield RC G4NOK/P 676 131
    342,041
    12 Clifton ARS G3GHN/P 720 125
    329,625
    13 Hornsea ARC G4EKT/P 649 120
    206,960
    14 Banff | DARS GM0PYC/P 619 114
    263,910
    15 Edgeware | DARS G3ASR/P 597 105
    244,860
    16 Surrey RCC M0RCA/P 384 91
    141,050
    Resricted Section.
    1 Windmill CG G3GRS/P 656 166
    431,766
    2 Stratford upon Avon G0SOA/P 673 134
    266,222
    3 Granta CC M0CAM/P 636 137
    361,543
    4 Cumbrian CC G3IZD/P 663 127
    336,169
    5 Wisbech AR | EC M5ARC/P 701 118
    322,140
    6 Stockport RS G6UQ/P 590 122
    285,236
    7 Queen Mary CG G6QM/P 521 105
    225,435
    8 Gloucester AR | ES G4AYM/P 560 81
    178,281
    9 RAFARS G8FC/P 437 96
    173,472
    10 Echelford ARS G3UES/P 455 86
    161,250
    11 Itchen Valley ARC G0IVR/P 431 91
    156,520
    12 Hereford ARS G3YDD/P 357 100
    149,700
    13 Havering | DARC G4HRC/P 423 80
    137,120
    14 South Downs G3WQK/P 317 86
    112,574
    15 Reading | DARC M0EEE/P 341 61
    89,731
    16 Stevenage | DARS G3SAD/P 285 65
    82,810
    17 Horndean | DARC G4FBS/P 301 56
    74,200
    18 WestofScotland ARS GM4AGG/P 305 58
    69,136
    19 Grimsby ARS G3CNX/P 290 58
    68,556
    20 North Norfolk ARG G0NWT/P 240 65
    62,595
    21 WiganDouglasValley G3BPK/P 173 52
    40,976
    22 Lowestoft ARC G3JRM/P 89 19
    6,251
    SSB Field Day 2000.

    Many of today’s experienced DX chasers and contesters gained their initial knowledge taking part in a Field Day with their local radio club. The shared experiences of setting up a station, designing antenna systems suitable for the contact range required and organising and maintaining logging arrangements are all useful skills to develop to progress within the hobby. It is therefore most reassuring to see a continued increase in the number of participants in this years SSB Field Day. Equally, it is pleasing to note a good cross-section of newly-licensed operators listed on the entry forms.

    Band conditions followed much the same trend as recent years with good long distance propagation on 20m and 15m. The All-Asian contest provides some interesting DX contacts, whilst good operating skills come in handy when trying to convince non-Asian stations not taking part in Field Day that you need a contact for the multiplier. It is important to spend some time on 40m to work the G and European portables. For the Open section, a low dipole, say around 30-30ft, is useful for this, with maybe a quarter wave vertical or sloper to pick up the DX multipliers. Most groups manage at least 150 contacts, though some seem to struggle, possibly sue to the reduced band of just 60kHz. The only way to combat this is to get on the band at other times of the year and particularly during busy contest sessions. 80M is again useful for G and European portable contacts but mainly during the night.

    The Leaders.
    Bristol Contest Group, G6YB/P, toped the Open section list yet again. They commented: ‘The excellent site take-off was our greatest asset. We are sure 20m was closed at some of the time for most stations, but we were able to work into North America all night. To quote one W7 ‘You’re 10db over s9 and we can only hear one other G who’s running around s3’’. In the Restricted section, Windmill Contest Group, G3GRS/P, were also winners yet again. With just 37 contacts separating the top four stations, the deciding factor became multipliers. Knowing where and when to look is the key and these guys certainly know how.

    Rule Changes.
    From 2001, there is a minor change to the rules for the Open section, clarifying the use of a second receiver. It will now be permissible to use two radios as long as the transmitter section and any second receivers are disabled for the duration of the contest. This will increase interest, as other operators can now be involved in searching for multipliers. In reality, it just conforms what some groups have been doing already.

     

    The Future.
    With this contest now maintaining a steady interest, and National Field Day, the long established CW event, showing a steady decline, maybe the time has come to consider merging the two events. There are several very positive outcomes that this could produce. Many groups look forward to participating in one of the events but find it difficult to compete in both. Coupled with this, those of us who have a long-standing commitment to NFD are convinced of the benefits of CW and this would be an ideal way to demonstrate this to newer operators. Two good examples of mixed-mode events are the RSGB IOTA contest in July and the ARRL 10m contest in December. It is certainly worth some discussion!

    Chris Burbanks, G3SJJ.