The return to portable activity produced an extremely well supported and enjoyable event. The level of entries was 20% higher than in 2000 and over 150 callsigns appeared in the logs with a welcome crop of new callsigns on the band. Activity was widespread across the UK and Eire, though there was no activity from the Channel Islands. One station was active from Cyprus although there was only single hop sporadic-E into Slovenia.
Conditions were variable across the country with the majority of comments rating the tropo conditions as average to very good with some deep QSB. In contrast Cornwall faired less well with poor conditions. As a bonus there was a one hour main period of sporadic-E into Slovenia and a couple of QSOs outside this period.
A number of comments were made regarding the high standard of operating. However, some entrants will notice that they have lost significant numbers of points. In the main this was due to careless logging which led to the loss of points and multipliers. The excitement of the sporadic-E led to a number of claimed QSOs which did not appear in the other station's log.
Across the majority of the England the weather was fine and dry. Cornwall, Cumbria and Scotland fared less well with torrential rain and high winds. A number of groups rated it as the wettest contest they had taken part in.
Congratulations go to The Northern Lights who retain the VHF Managers Trophy, Peter G4YPC who triumphed in the single operator open section and to Roger G3MEH who led the single operator fixed section. These stations together with those marked (*) will receive certifications.
Roger, G4BVY
Section M Pos Call Locator QSOs Score Mult Total ODX Loc Kms Power Ant Group 1 * GD0EMG IO74QD 88 28912 57 1647984 S54M JN86CL 1698 160 2*8 ele Northern Lights CG 2 * GM4SIV/P IO75DH 79 26179 52 1361308 S51UE JN76CI 1707 160 2*9 ele Five Bells Group 3 * EI/G3TCU/P IO63VE 66 25506 49 1249794 S54M JN86CL 1763 150 4*6 ele Kintyre Window Cleaners CG 4 G4ZAP/P IO70FD 63 21980 50 1099000 GM3CKR/P IO85RU 666 158.54 8 ele A1 Contest Group 5 GM3CKR/P IO85RU 69 21634 50 1081700 S51DI JN76VL 1641 150 2*8+8eleWarrington Contest Group 6 G0VHF/P JO01GN 66 13038 47 612786 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 587 150 8 ele Colchester Contest Group 7 G4SJH/P IO91QF 63 12464 49 610736 S54M JN86CL 1336 70 6 ele 8 G4ADV/P IO70JH 43 13180 34 448120 GM3CKR/P IO85RU 641 80 7 ele Newquay & District ARS Section SO Pos Call Locator QSOs Score Mult Total ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1 * G4YPC/P JO00EW 68 15522 49 760578 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 633 160 8 ele 2 * GM4CWH/P IO74WV 53 16540 37 611980 S51DI JN76VL 1677 130 5 over 5 ele 3 GM4WLL/P IO85NR 37 12046 29 349334 G4ZAP/P IO70FD 646 20 6 ele 4 GW8ASA/P IO81GN 48 7744 34 263296 GM3CKR/P IO85RU 481 50 3 ele 5 G3IZD/P IO84JC 35 6991 30 209730 G4ZAP/P IO70FD 468 20 2 ele 6 G0OVA/P IO91QI 34 5531 29 160399 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 554 10 3 ele 7 G0WJR/M IO81QJ 17 2776 17 47192 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 481 15 2 ele 8 G4WVD/P IO70NN 9 1187 8 9496 GD0EMG IO74QD 399 25 3 ele 9 G3VQO/P IO91MA 3 214 4 856 G4YPC/P JO00EW 94 10 whip Section SF Pos Call Locator QSOs Score Mult Total ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1 * G3MEH IO91QS 65 10479 50 523950 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 517 160 2*5 ele 2 * G3NAQ IO91HL 55 9071 39 353769 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 514 60 8 ele 3 G0ODQ IO91NQ 49 8741 40 349640 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 514 75 5 ele 4 G3IKR IO82XF 46 8081 37 298997 S51DI JN76VL 1436 140 4 ele 5 G3LVP IO81WV 47 7471 36 268956 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 447 150 4 ele 6 G0GCI JO01ED 36 7676 35 268660 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 615 100 7 ele 7 * S51DI JN76VL 13 16316 16 261056 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 1788 100 8 ele 8 G3BPM IO80OV 40 7989 32 255648 S51DI JN76VL 1445 50 8 ele 9 G4DEZ JO03AE 35 7458 31 231198 G4ZAP/P IO70FD 512 160 5 ele 10 G4NBS JO02AF 40 7063 32 226016 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 510 70 4 ele 11 G4OBK IO94OF 28 7015 28 196420 G4ZAP/P IO70FD 557 75 5 ele 12 G3NKS IO81XU 33 5649 32 180768 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 454 100 6 ele 13 G1KHX IO81MI 36 5426 25 135650 GM3CKR/P IO85RU 501 90 5 ele 14 GW5NF IO81KQ 26 5090 24 122160 S54M JN86CL 1517 80 5 ele 15 S54M JN86CL 11 16519 6 99114 EI1CR IO53WG 1888 25 2 ele 16 * G3JYP IO84SN 22 4088 20 81760 G4SJH/P IO91QF 391 10 10 ele colinear 17 G3FIJ JO01KV 17 3814 16 61024 EI/G3TCU/P IO63VE 500 10 4 ele 18 GM4DIJ IO85IW 13 2800 16 44800 G4ZAP/P IO70FD 661 70 4 ele 19 G4FEV IO92RG 13 2812 14 39368 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 479 20 GW4ALG IO81PP 12 1814 10 18140 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 453 5 5 ele 21 M0FAQ JO01GU 9 913 9 8217 GD0EMG IO74QD 429 8 indoor dipole 22 GM4VVX IO78TA 3 577 3 1731 GM4SIV/P IO75DH 312 10 6 ele 23 M0WYE JO01LE 5 141 4 564 G0VHF/P JO01GN 51 10 verticalComments from the logs:-
EI/G3TCU/P Tropo condx average or slightly better . The Es opening was a welcome bonus! Activity pretty good. Glad to be back out /P after last year. For once the Wx was good. We lost 15 mins early on due to a co-ax relay failure.
G0GCI The conditions very good, some real DX, a lot of activity and many new callsigns. However just after mid-day the local QRM started. There was S8 ignition noise even with the noise blanker in. After an hour I managed to put the source of the interference into a null on my beam and minimise the QRM. This meant that I was working in one direction only and weak signals were still difficult to copy. What started off as a very enjoyable contest finished up as a very frustrating afternoon.
G0OVA/P This was to be my first RSGB entry having spent ages home brewing a transverter from first principles - not a kit! In the event not too bad and not too good as I had lots of problems when I finally got the whole lot in the car! Basically the "fag lighter" socket wouldn't give much amps out and on speech peaks the volts kept falling to 9 to 10 volts. The RF sensing didn't like it (never again)!
G0VHF/P So disorganised it was amazing we got on the air!
G0WJR/M Weather was dry and sunny, with a little breeze. I was late starting, having been flying in the Bristol hot-air balloon Fiesta in the morning. Then, I found that there were no spaces in my favourite car park at Dundry, so I had to operate from a lay-by half way down the hill instead, which gave me a much more restricted take-off to the East and South. Surprisingly good propagation - these are the first GM's I've worked for a while, and the first EI for years!
G1KHX WX dry! Fairly good but deep QSB at times.
G3BPM Fair at start, improved later.
G3FIJ Some QSB but some excellent DX. Missed out on S51DI (again!)
G3IKR Better than expected. Sporadic E was a bonus. Standard of operating better than in NFD and signals cleaner.
G3IZD/P Hard work with QRP and 2 ele ant forgot paddle so no CW QSOs. Bad Wx in Cumbria
G3JYP About average
G3NAQ Very enjoyable contest, no pressure, time for a brief chat with old friends not worked for some time, names exchanged etc. Many stations seemed to go QRT for lunch 1200 - 1300, so did I!
G3VQO/P Just a quick stop-off at a convenient hill after work. Chicken and egg - would do better with better antenna but is 4m activity worth the investment?
G4ADV/P Very enjoyable contest.
G4DEZ Took 3.5 hour break to babysit Grandchildren!
G4NBS Heard S54M and AN Other calling GD/GM stations but never managed to have the beam round in time, otherwise flat but good activity, some QSB (so this is where everyone went !)
G4OBK Excellent Condx and great fun even though time was limited.
G4YPC/P Quite good. Heard one S51 weakly on northerly beam heading but by the time I had turned the beam east he had gone and no real DX worked at all. Super weather!
G4ZAP/P Very poor, Deep QSB, several stations called never to be heard again. Heard several stations we didn't work including EI's. Understand others worked S51 but no sign of Es in IO70. Wx Wet and windy on Sunday AM, a little better in the afternoon. Managed to forget half the driven element for second yagi so 3dB down on antennas. All in all I think conditions (tropo and Es) were very much against us.
GM3CKR/P Had problems with amp for first half-hour, it fell. Why do so the southern G's not want to work some GM?.
GM4CWH/P Water water everywhere. Wellies overflowing. Soaked to the skin before the off. Computer wet - SD subdirectory got deleted!! Shame no Single Op Trophy.
GM4DIJ Sporadic E opening too short to be of any use up here. Tropo condx quite good.G4ZAP/P consistent signal.
GM4SIV/P We have been blown, bitten & generally abused by the Scottish weather, but NEVER been this WET before!! Having bellied the Land Rover at the top of the hill to a point whereby it was impossible to extracate it by using 4WD & Diff lock, we waited for quite a while for the farmer to drag it out (Sat. aft.). Whilst waiting we handballed the heavy kit excluding the generator,but including PSU and TOWER (!!!!) to a more firm footing some tens of feet below the hill top. SHATTERING EXPERIENCE. Such is the depth of the hospitality of the Scots that this service came all in the price for the hill top - so long as we promised NOT to do it again next year!!
GM4VVX Decided to give the 70mhz equipment an airing this year....Rx the tvtr a few years ago from father Xmas, but due to space on the mast and then a move of qth I never got to use the freq. Condx: wx was cloudy with bright periods and some sunny hours. No beacons on this freq audible at all. Tvtr never been powered up till today, very quiet and thought it will be the same as other vhf contests, with no activity in the far north. Then heard GM4SIV/p calling CQ and was suprised to get a reply from him straight away, for my 1st QSO on this freq. Followed by GM3CKR/p for No.2. The only other station heard was G4ZAP/p. We exchanged reports for a qso, but not full info for scoring qso, which is better tropo distance than I have got on 144mhz with 400w and 10 ele yagi ! Hope this is the winning entry Hi Hi. But it shows there is life in the far north of Scotland.
GM4WLL/P Activity was reasonable, as were conditions. Minimal Es, though I managed half a QSO with S51DI! QSO count wasn't helped by lack of amplifiers: one of my phased pair of A200s gave up the ghost the night before and I wimped out of repairing it or re-wiring the connections for the other one to use it solo. I must be getting old!!!
GW4ALG It was nice to hear 4m sounding so lively. Conditions were well above normal, and the well sited stations seemed to have plenty of stations to work.
GW8ASA/P nice to have short E's to S54.
M0FAQ Nothing to compare - first contest entry. Didn't expect many QSOs with indoor dipole but happy to add to the activity.
M0WYE First attempt at contesting ! Finding out how it all works. Could hear GD0EMG but not surprisingly, they couldn't hear me.
S51DI Not many stations heard, although activity was good - regarding to contest numbers received. See you in next contest.