This contest traditionally tests the stamina and resolve of entrants. This year was no exception with cold weather and one entrant operating from above the snowline. Conditions were regarded as flat to atrocious! Many stations commented on the lack of activity, particularly from the UK, and the reduced number of portable stations. On 432MHz the activity was exceptionally low with stations finding it difficult to make contacts. Some entrants operated in parallel in the ARRL SSB contest to increase their activity.
Some stations had spent their year of enforced inactivity during 2001 to build enhancements to their stations. Others suffered the usual crop of cable and amplifier related problems. One station discovered that plastic cable ties become brittle and fail in freezing conditions.
The event showed an increase in entries over the previous years and some entrants resorted to ingenious tactics to increase their scores such as claiming high numbers of multiplier contacts! Logging standards were generally high, however a number entrants lost significant points due to careless errors on callsigns and locators. It should be noted that entrants to the six-hour section must use the same 6-hour period on both bands.
Congratulations go to:
Roger Dixon, G4BVY G4BVY@rsgb.org.uk
Section M Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Call Loc Kms Power Ant Group 1 * G5B JO03CE 350 131911 DG3FK JN59OP 857 400 6*12 Five Bells 2 * GW6YB/P IO81KW 347 90508 GM0HTT IO89JC 797 400 2*10+1*10 Bristol Contest Group 3 G4Z JO03AE 126 42328 DG3FK JN59OP 868 400 2*12 4 G3YNN JO00EU 133 27426 DL0FS JO41GJ 573 100 12 Herstmonceux Megacycles 5 M0XXX/P IO81UN 110 15938 DJ2QV JO31PG 665 50 17 Yate Contest Group 6 G8SAD IO91WU 52 14052 DL0PVD JN49BO 633 50 9 Stevenage and District ARS 7 * G5UM IO92KP 30 5702 LX/PA1TK/PJO30BB 579 15 19 Leicester Radio Society Section SF Call Locator QSOs score ODX Call Loc Kms Power Ant 1 * G0XDI IO91RP 191 55047 DF0CI JO51CH 745 400 9 2 * G3MEH IO91QS 197 47019 DK0ES JN48TN 812 400 2*10 3 G8IZY IO91VC 64 21059 DK5TX JO41PU 661 250 9 4 * M1DUD JO02QC 46 12491 DL0PVD JN49BO 550 2 5 5 * G1TWS JO01HO 41 7075 F5SGT/P IN87KW 478 25 11 6 M0BPQ IO93HD 31 6389 LX/PA1TK/PJO30BB 621 100 9 7 G4MAD IO92FG 31 3613 F5SGT/P IN87KW 495 100 7 8 G4BRK IO91DP 14 3316 DL6YEH/PJO31QX 626 40 9 9 * 2E1GUA JO01FS 22 2773 DL0KM JO31BC 400 10 13 10 G4APJ IO83UP 14 2716 F8BRK/P IN98SW 538 25 9 Section 6S Calls Locator QSOs ascore ODX Call Loc Kms Power Ant 1 * G7ULL JO01AK 75 11700 GI6ATZ IO74AJ 519 150 15 2 * G8ZRE IO83NE 66 10016 F5SGT/P IN87KW 584 25 8 X/Y 3 * G0TPH IO92IO 39 9285 DK0HN JO31PP 595 25 9 4 G0TXL IO91WI 37 5543 DJ2QV JO31PG 515 20 9 5 M5W IO92BJ 21 3548 LX/PA1TK/PJO30BB 614 25 17 6 G3YJR IO93FJ 22 2115 ON1YW JO11LC 398 2.5 9 7 G4XPE IO92GU 8 1967 ON4BAX/PJO20MW 494 25 10 8 M0BAO IO80PT 9 1065 G3MEH IO91QS 179 25 8 Section 6O Call Locator QSOs score ODX Call Loc Kms Power Ant Group 1 * M0AFC/P IO84SA 69 16201 LX/PA1TK/PJO30BB 733 25 13 2 * GW8ASA/PIO81FP 63 13214 DJ2QV JO31PG 751 25 5 3 M1PIA IO91IN 54 10490 DL6YEH/PJO31QX 598 400 17 Harwell ARS 4 G3VQO/P IO91VG 6 282 G1TWS JO01HO 69 50 Whip
Section M Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant Group 1 * G5B JO03CE 102 36146 DL1SUZ JO53UN 763 400 8*28 Five Bells 2 * G4Z JO03AE 39 11857 DK9ZQ JO41RB 684 400 2*28 3 G6FBB/P IO81UN 32 3240 PE1RLF/P JO32BF 582 50 37 ele Yate Contest Group 4 G8SAD IO91WU 14 2032 F1FEM/P JN19BC 349 50 19 Stevenage and District ARS 5 * GW6YB/P IO81KW 16 1876 PA6NL JO21BX 497 10 21 Bristol Contest Group 6 * G2AA IO92KP 6 886 ON6ZT JO10SS 383 15 19 Leicester Radio Society 7 G3YNN JO00EU 3 48 G0MSA/M JO00CX 18 10 18 Herstmonceux Megacycles Section SF Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant Group 1 * G3MEH IO91QS 61 11292 DJ9KH/P JO42OX 681 250 2*23 2 * G4BRK IO91DP 21 7854 DF2VJ JN39LI 664 400 21 3 G0XDI IO91RP 31 6883 DF2VJ JN39LI 588 80 2*21 4 * G4APJ IO83UP 10 1621 G0XDI IO91RP 252 25 19 Section 6S Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1 * G6FQZ IO91JR 20 3055 ON7WR JO20ET 401 100 21 2 * G3YJR IO93FJ 14 1205 PA6NL JO21BX 413 10 19 3 * M5W IO92BJ 6 757 PA6NL JO21BX 412 25 21 4 G0TPH IO92IO 2 58 M5W IO92BJ 46 5 7 Section 6O Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant Group 1 * GW8ASA/PIO81FP 19 2502 PA6NL JO21BX 528 25 23 2 * M1PIA IO91IN 20 2298 PA6NL JO21BX 376 100 21 Harwell ARS 3 * M0AFC/P IO84SA 15 2094 PA6NL JO21BX 495 25 19
Section M 144MHz 432 MHz Total Call/Group 1 * 1000 1000 2000 Five Bells 2 * 686 52 738 Bristol Contest Group 3 321 327 648 G4Z 4 121 90 211 Yate Contest Group 5 208 1 209 Herstmonceux Megacycles 6 123 58 181 M0AFC/P 7 107 56 163 Stevenage and District ARS 8 43 25 68 Leicester Radio Society Section SF 144MHz 432 MHz Total Call/Group 1 * 854 1000 1854 G3MEH 2 * 1000 610 1610 G0XDI 3 60 696 756 G4BRK 4 383 0 383 G8IZY 5 227 0 227 M1DUD 6 49 144 193 G4APJ 7 129 0 129 G1TWS 8 116 0 116 M0BPQ 9 66 0 66 G4MAD 10 50 0 50 2E1GUA Section 6S 144MHz 432 MHz Total Call/Group 1= * 1000 0 1000 G7ULL 1= * 0 1000 1000 G6FQZ 3 856 0 856 G8ZRE 4 794 19 813 G0TPH 5 181 394 575 G3YJR 6 303 248 551 M5W 7 474 0 474 G0TXL 8 168 0 168 G4XPE 9 91 0 91 M1BAO Section 6O 144MHz 432 MHz Total Call/Group 1 * 816 1000 1816 GW8ASA/P 2 * 647 918 1565 Harwell 3 17 0 17 G3VQO/P
G8SAD Poor condx very little /P or UK activity - where did everyone go to? With such poor results for a lot of effort it's not likely we will enter next year. GW6YB/P We got up through the snow to 720m asl on Friday afternoon, it was cold, very cold! Despite the temperature everything worked, the only minor problem was that in the extreme cold our plastic cable ties became brittle and snapped when you tried tightening them! Band conditions were pretty flat, although there were short lived enhancements. There were a steady stream of stations during the day but the band was very quiet early Sunday morning, it took until about 8am until things really got going again, there was a distinct lack of F stations for a Sunday morning. We often wondered if we were the only contest station on the band, 43% of stations gave us serial number 001 ! Surely this must be a record? We almost caught up with G5B's number of QSOs but our points/qso is a bit on the low side, I think we could have done with a bit more gain towards europe. All in all great fun and a good test of the kit I've been building whilst being 'foot and mouth' restricted last year. 432MHz - A part time, non-serious effort, just giving away a couple of points now and then. G4Z OK but we had problems with sequencer, linear on 2m and cables to tower replaced with LDF5-50 at 01:00! G0TPH Poor propagation and low activity levels. I also 2 : operated in the ARRL SSB contest and the CZEBRIS QRP contest during the same period. Three contests at once what a nightmare! G0TXL Yet another fun weekend and we just about missed the gales. Well supported from the continent this year. Rather quiet from UK G5B Tough going. G4BRK 432 - condx very poor until Sunday mid-morning G4IZY Condx average to poor. Less activity than especially from France. M5W Enjoyed it. Part time during ARRL SSB. The YB crew had a fantastic signal. G4MAD Pretty Flat!!! G4XPE Flat conditions with QSB. Low activity. Worked all I could hear in the short time I was operating. M0XXX Cold, Warm, sunny, cold , cloudy, Cold M0AFC Poor conditions and low activity--BEAM NORTH !! 432- Dire !! poor conditions and/or little activity M1PIA Condx OK, no stations, esp /P. 432 - So very slow! G6FQZ A restful day! Thank goodness for the voice recorder. M1DUD Where were the 'G's? Plenty of ON, PA & DL's on the band. Some deep QSB at times, very little QRM as not many stations operating locally. Even the FM portion of the band was quiet. I had TX problems, due to moisture getting into the Microphone! G3YNN Conditions very bad, very heavy fading in JO00, though some moderate conditions came and disappeared before we could really work much. 432MHz was even worse than on 2m, if that was possible at times! M0BPQ This was only a half baked effort on my part. IN and out of the shack during the 24hours, so operated in bursts. Radio condx were terrible. On the bright side wkd LX and EI for new DXCCs and very happy that I didn't bother with 70cm ! G3VQO/P Well, I'm glad I had the capability to use 40 metres during the two hours I sat on Reigate Hill. I worked six stations on 144, and only heard another two who couldn't hear me. I tried 432 and heard nothing at all! I know that my mobile whip is not the best antenna for the job, but what incentive is there to improve my set-up when activity is so low? It's really a waste of time sending in such a small log, but I feel sorry for you guys running the event if the response is so poor! Back to HF for some QSOs!!! GW8ASA/P Spent last 20mins waiting for DJ6JJ to get to S8 then gas for gene runs out. G8ZRE Thought that there would be more stations portable QSB at times good to work F5SGT/P IN87 for best DX second year on the run. G4APJ Atrocious on Saturday, merely bad (or even perhaps as good as average) on Sunday. G1TWS Above average. 2E1GUA The contest was very bad for me this year. G3YJR 2m was quite a struggle with deep QSB. PD2DB and DK0LT appeared and disappeared before I could call them - ah, the ones that got away! F8BRK was quite consistent, but too long a stretch for my 2.5W. 70cms, some QSB. GI6ATZ not heard. GM4WLL/P sounding quite strange - multipath effects perhaps? A good signal from PA6NL.