After the awful weather of 2003, this years warm and sunny wx was welcome by all. Even conditions were were generally thought to be above average and most contestants said they enjoyed the event. This year, in the Multi Operator section, the A1 CG, G4ZAP/P, moved away from the east coast back to their Pennine spot and with very good effect. The use of multiple modes and aerials combined with their central location enabled them to gather a very large number of multipliers and push the Five Bells Group G4SIV into second place. In the Single Operator Fixed Station section, Roger Piper, G3MEH, claims 1st place for the 3rd year in a row, from Peter Rackham G3IRQ in second place. Tim Stanley, G4DBL/P, managed to find a"great spot" near Torquay on the Devon coast which he used to claim first place in the Single Operator Others section. In the 6 hours Others section there was a very closely fought battle between the Warrington CG, G3CKR/P near Leek in Staffordshire and Dave Wood, G4CQR/P at Beachy Head on the South coast. Although the QSO numbers were almost identical, the actual logs were very different, with G4CQR/P having a much higher points per QSO and G3CKR/P working more multipliers. In the end it was the Warrington CG, with a slight more accurate log that took first place by a hairs breadth. 1st Place in the 6 hour single Operator section went to John Hall, G0ODQ. Congratulations to all other certificate winners, marked with a * in the results table.
Pete Lindsay, G4CLA
Section M
Pos Call Loc Qsos Mults Score Total Best DX Dist Power Ant Group 1* G4ZAP/P IO93EH 590 136 167,083 22,723,288 HB9FAP 1004 400 4x12+2x12+Col A1 Contest Group 2* G4SIV IO92WS 568 119 175,388 20,871,172 OK1KVK 929 400 6x12+2x18 Five Bells
3 G0VHF/P JO01HW 459 116 126,068 14,623,888 DG5CST 820 400 2x15+2x9 Colchester Contest Grp 4 G5LK/P IO90JO 439 108 127,933 13,816,764 DF0HF 903 400 2x18+10 Reigate Amateur Transmitting Society 5 G2BQY/P IO81TK 454 120 110,913 13,309,560 DF9IC 836 400 2x13+2x13 Trowbridge & DARC
6 G3XNO/P IO93DV 226 78 32,423 2,528,994 F5RMY/P 801 25 2x9 Otley ARS
7 G3YNN JO00EU 165 64 36,818 2,356,352 EI5FK 628 80 14 Herstmonceux Megacycles
8 MS0LIV/P IO85SS 114 74 28,057 2,076,218 PA0PVW 682 100 9
9 GB2ME IO92BK 41 35 7,108 248,780 DK5DQ 642 100 17
Section SF
Pos Call Loc Qsos Mults Score Total Best DX Dist Power Ant
1* G3MEH IO91QS 330 92 77,135 7,096,420 HB9FAP 844 400 2x9
2* G3IRQ JO02OD 219 69 56,136 3,873,384 DG5CST 782 400 2x9
3* M5ADF IO91TO 64 44 7,882 346,808 GI6ATZ 486 25 9
4 G3FIJ JO01KV 48 30 7,609 228,270 DK7BY 474 20 10
5* M3RCV JO01AL 68 36 6,256 225,216 G0KYS/P 293 10 9
6 G7RLH JO01LV 30 21 8,023 168,483 PA0PVW 619 180 9
7 2E1GUA JO01FR 36 27 4,233 114,291 G4RRA 320 20 13
8 MU0FAL IN89RL 14 13 2,520 32,760 G4ZAP/P 431 25 5
Section SO
Pos Call Loc Qsos Mults Score Total Best DX Dist Power Ant
1* G4DBL/P IO80FI 116 57 33,871 1,930,647 DK5DQ 767 100 11
2* G6HOU/P IO91QB 99 47 15,886 746,642 DK5DQ 552 50 17
Section 6O
Pos Call Loc Qsos Mults Score Total Best DX Dist Power Ant Group
1* G3CKR/P IO93AD 196 99 39,775 3,937,725 DJ2JS 671 80 17 Warrington CG
2* G4CQR/P JO00DR 197 84 46,864 3,936,576 GM3SBC/P 651 250 13 3 G0MWT/P JO01GP 166 57 38,981 2,221,917 DF0HF 786 100 11
4 GW8ZRE/P IO83JA 111 79 20,880 1,649,520 GM4AFF 424 10 7ZL
5 GM0CLN/P IO84AT 92 59 22,250 1,312,750 G4CQR/P 536 100 8
6 GM4VVX/P IO78UB 49 44 15,571 685,124 G5LK/P 853 300 17
7 G4ADV IO70LK 26 17 4,935 83,895 GM0CLN/P 492 25 13 Newquay & DARS
8 G6GVI/P IO84ME 11 12 2,739 32,868 G5LK/P 416 25 7
9 G3VQO/P JO01BB 14 11 1,771 19,481 G4ZAP/P 277 50 Vert
Section 6S
Pos Call Loc Qsos Mults Score Total Best DX Dist Power Ant
1* G0ODQ IO91NQ 97 65 16,561 1,076,465 GM4AFF 579 120 9
2* GW3ATZ IO83LE 31 28 3,930 110,040 G5LK/P 314 10 6
3 G1KHX IO81MI 29 25 4,165 104,125 G3IRQ 300 80 9
4 G4APJ IO83UP 24 23 3,855 88,665 G4CQR/P 369 25 9 -
5 G3YJR IO93FJ 8 8 1,308 10,464 G5LK/P 311 2.5 9
Checklog GU8FBO
Comments from the logs
G0MWT/P
Had really good fun on this contest. Plenty of activity on and some nice DX
about but nothing too special.
After the September 6O contest we changed rigs to a 706MKIIG and increased the
aerial from 20 feet to 30 feet. With also a bit
more experience we doubled our QSO rate. The weather was excellent, if anything
too hot. Our tent got really hot
G0VHF/P
Curious power glitch caused FT1000 combo to require off-site attention. FT-847 system used Saturday, the FT1000 during Sunday. Good activity from all irections. Outstanding effort from GM - only two GM Regions eluded us - GS and KW!
G2BQY/P
Excellent wx and reasonable propagation with some lifts into France
G3CKR/P
G/GM ACTIVITY,JUST DID UNDER 6 HOURS TO TEST EQUIPMENT OUT FOR VHFNFD
G3IRQ
CONDITIONS AVERAGE.NO REAL LIFT. CONTEST PARTICULARLY WELL SUPPORTED BY DUTCH AND GERMAN STATIONS
G3MEH
Above average conditions and activity made this an enjoyable contest. Thanks to all for their support. An intermittent mic lead and an unsuppressed lawnmower added to the fun!
G3VQO/P
simple plan - nice day, drive to hill, work everybody I can hear, drive home!!!
G3YNN
A really interesting contest. Murphy was with us as the linear decided that it would only give 80w from the start. Tried out the new beam, a bit narrow but great fun.
G3XNO/P
Settled high pressure. Band conditions above normal. We were called by SP?RPA but no contact was made. Lots of activity on the band made it very enjoyable.
G4APJ
Only managed to pop on and off between household jobs, but still did better than last year.
G4CQR/P
GOOD ACTIVITY LOVERLY WEATHER 6HRS ENOUGH FOR ME
G4DBL/P
I don't know what is average for this new /P site! Great spot - sea path into all of S coast of UK and all of N coast of France. Best QSO was with Simon, M3CVN, in E London, who wass runnning 0.5 Watt on his hand-held FT-817 with rubber-duck!
G4SIV
Very nice Wx. Conditions Average, but some good activity from the continent, especially since it was not a co-ordinated event. Nice contact on Sunday when OK1KVK popped up on the same frequency as we had been using all contest! The club station appeared from the noise floor for around 10-15mins and were one. Some good UK activity too - good to work all those multipliers. We had a few minor problems with the second array, but cured all when at the second attempt we changed over all connections from the main feeder to the antennas including the splitter - problem solved. Also nice test for G4ODA's new HV PSU - compact, lighter weight one - for his trip to TF etc. - Oh and it survived. Not that we expected anything less!
G4ZAP/P
Good, Strong signals but not much activity from EU
G5LK/P
Very warm, very quiet overnight and very high band noise after about 10.30 am Sunday morning
G6GVI/P
On holiday in Grange-over-Sands, I took the opportunity to do some operating before breakfast from the nearby fells. Weather was excellent: warm and sunny, with tremendous views across Morecambe Bay and South Lakeland.
GB2ME
Operating from a special event station in a valley Enjoyed the weekend and did better in the contest than we did last year
GM0CLN/P
I only expected to be QRV for 2 or 3 hours and decided on a 'just for fun' entry,
while looking after my 8 year old son. As it turned out I was QRV for 4 hours
50 minutes in total. I was set up by 07:55UTC with chairs set out in the sun
at the rear of the car and the radio in the car boot. Conditions seemed good
with the GB3VHF beacon in Kent audible at reasonable strength. It seemed to
stay that way throughout although some QSB was noted occasionally. Activity
levels were higher than expected with a steady stream of contacts available.
As my operating period progressed beyond the half way mark I saw the power output
slowly dropping off and eventually the radio cut-out due to a low battery voltage.
I changed to the car battery and pressed on. Sadly there were no stations in
Continental Europe either heard or worked. Although some time was lost keeping
my son amused (I'm glad we took his bike and a football!), I thoroughly enjoyed
the contest. It was my first 144MHz event since the PW QRP Contest of June 2003
and it was good to catch up with some stations I haven't heard or worked for
a few ears! The weather was very kind and meant that T-shirts were the clothing
of choice, resulting in sun tans all round! Thanks to everyone for the QSOs.
GM4VVX/P
Much better contest this year ! Worked almost double the qso's and many more mutipliers. Forecast for breezy but dry on Sunday for the 6hr section. Woke up to very low cloud and drizzle. No wind at all. Got to site and still drizzle and cloud is down to the ground at 170mtr asl. Everything soaked by the time was set up. Beacon in GI (gb3ngi) not audibal. A really bad sign ! Started to check plugs and connections when found the Angus beacon right down in the noise. Big sigh of relief, but condx must be awful. Not a squeak to be heard when I started working. Worked a couple of locals who were looking for me, when got called by G4SIV (io92) so not so bad. Drizzle eased off and cloud broke in first couple of hours. Became very warm but wind got up. Trying to hold the armstrong rotator in one direction and the mike, pen & log on my lap with the other, led to long delays in answering calls as I semed to be always groping around on the floor, with one hand clamped on the mast, when someone called Hi Hi. At least I got one arm sunburnt Hi Hi... Very windy by the time had to drop the ant.. Proved an "interesting lowering, but luckely no serious damage.
GU8FBO
WORKED EVERYONE I COULD HEAR EXCEPT MS0LIV/P WHO WAS ABOVE NOISE FOR ONLY SECONDS. OPERATED FOR JUST OVER 6 HOURS IN TOTAL OVER THE 2 DAYS
GW3ATX
very poor from low level!! Nothing heard outside uk Rig now really showing its age.
GW8ZRE/P
MAIN EMTRY IN BACKPACKERS ENJOYABLE CONTEST HOT N SUNNY.
M3RCV
1st fairly serious 2m contest NOTE FOR CTTEE: Simon M3CVN went out /P to JO01AK but the program won't allow points for the QSO
M5ADF
IC746 Reduced power to 25 Watts - DWG Hook Wide variety of contacts from all over the UK
MS0LIV/P
Warm Weekend - Great Fun
MU0FAL
part time as a bit of fun expecting low local activit but who woke up all the GU stations a small lift here but nothing major