AFFLIIATED SOCIETIES (AFS) SSB CONTEST, 2005.

Overall, propagation was good. True to form, the South and Midlands were favoured initially, but later conditions improved to the North and West. From about 1600, the lengthening skip tended to favour all but the South and East, where continental QRM became a problem. The Scots had their usual hard time of it, particularly in the North.

Support was tremendous, with over 230 stations submitting logs (an increase of 19% over the 2004 event) and many others were active just ‘giving away points’. This, coupled with the excellent conditions, gave the event every chance of being a record-breaker and there were some massive scores made. Close on 29,000 QSOs were logged in the four hours. No wonder GM3JKS described it as "a cacophony"!

Of course, there has to be a downside and, with so much QRM, it is little wonder that accuracy should suffer. Error rates were higher than usual across the board, with some of the less-experienced operators losing a substantial number of points, mostly through miscopied callsigns.

There were a few complaints of poor-quality and over-loud signals, although no names were named. But it is not necessarily the transmitter which is at fault. When the band is crowded, with a signal pretty much every kHz and every one over S9, even the best of receivers can struggle to remain clean - the FT1000MP at G3UFY ran for the whole event with the 18db attenuator in and it still wasn't really enough. Some of the smaller general-purpose radios are just not able to cope with this level of front-end overload. Nor is it right to assume that the strongest signals are using too much power. Of the top 20 individual entries, four (G4TSH/P [7th], G6UW [10th], G8VHI [13th] and G4PIQ[16th]) were using only 100W to a dipole (at 35, 30, 40 and 80 feet respectively). Power helps, it’s true, but it’s an efficient antenna which gives you a really loud signal.

Congratulations to the Cray Valley RS for achieving what was long thought impossible - taking first place away from the Lichfield ARS. They receive the Flight Refuelling ARS Trophy. Lichfield were a very close second, with De Montfort University ARS in third place.

In the individual competition, G4BUO and G4BWP will have to share the RSGB Lichfield Trophy, as even a re-check could not separate them. The certificate for third place is awarded to G4STV. The certificates for the leading Intermediate and Foundation class entrants are go to 2E0ATY (46th) and MJ3JBQ (157th) respectively.

Last, but not least, thanks to G0KYS, G3GUL, G3YSX, GD0EMG and GM0DHZ for their check logs.

Steve Knowles G3UFY

SOAPBOX :

2E0ATY Good contest when I could keep a frequency.

2E0FUH First AFS. Looking forward to the next one.

2E0MJD GOOD CONTEST BUT HAD TO MISS TWO LOTS OF 30 MINUTES DURING CONTEST!

2M0AYZ My first ever contest. I got a bit fed up as the 1/2 size G5RV doesn't work too well on 80M.

G0EYO Conditions difficult, heavy QRM

G0EYR A good afternoon!

G0GDU Did not start too well - lost about 25 mins - stuck to S&P for 2 hours. Managed to find and hold call frequency for rest of contest

G0IOR QRM very strong from high power stns

G0KDS Lost 20 mins near the start when the log format changed and the main window moved off the screen!! Started a new log. Pretty hard going till I sandwiched myself between 2 big stations for the last half hour, and although QRM was hard managed a few contacts.

G0KYS Activity very high and the band just isn't big enough! Difficult to find a clear frequency even in daylight and after dark it was a case of having to put up with QRM of 20db over 9! Let's hope for worse conditions next time!

G0MRH Band very busy so S & P all the time. Worked over 60 per hour for a while.

G0MTN Lucky to find and hold bottom frequency. First time ever held frequency for the whole contest. Really big scores this year - pleased to see many new entrants.

G0OKF Plenty of activity, though there are too many "kilowatters"

G0RXA A good contest to kick off the year. There were some very big scores out there although I did feel that conditions were a little tough with QSB a problem.

G0TPH Lots and lots of activity and a more diverse collection of DX in the log too.

G0VDZ Why is it that the computer goes awol 2 minutes before a contest. Some day I will catch the big boys

G0VQR Great fun! I was pleased I could get some points for the club.

G0WHO With a four hour duration everyone should be able to participate. You might consider changing the format to the SPRINT arrangement.

G1BHR Had problems with high SWR, so score not as good as I hoped for.

G2BKZ "Search and pounce" only this year. Missed an hour and couldn't find a place.

G3EAO MADHOUSE-Give me CW any day!

G3KKQ REALLY HARD GOING DIFFICULT TO KEEP A CHANNEL.

G3LHJ Very hard going contest from down here in the SW. I think the activity was way up on last year. I enjoyed it even though it was frustrating at times.

G3LIK A real struggle with so many stations on high power giving so much splatter. Conditions changed and Europe was evident which made contacting G stations very difficult when calling. Not my best mode.

G3NAS A fair start but a dreadful last hour

G3NKS Prefer CW! Hard going with s7 local noise.

G3NLY A good first two hours but then a long period in which a french speaking op
deliberately caused QRM by consistently calling, 'QSY, QSY' ad nausaem. I suggest that a 1300z start would go some way towards reducing the friction which occurs every ssb AFS.

G3OOK MY FIRST ENTRY IN THE AFS SSB SECTION AND HAD LIMITED OPERATING TIME.

G3ORY Good to see such a high level of activity due I suspect to lots of G8/G6/G7/G1 licencees and the M3s. The level of IMD in my receiver was far too high and I was unable to insert enough attenuation at the antenna. This meant I missed some weak callers.

G3RCV Excellent Conditions lots of stations to be worked. Some nice pile ups for the first 2 and a half hours then lost freq!

G3SET GOOD SIGNALS THROUGHOUT. CONGESTED AS EXPECTED. SOME DELIBERATE QRM - EG MODULATED CARRIERS

G3SVD The band was very busy and condx around the Uk were excellent.

G3SWC Wall to wall noise as usual but good fun!

G3TBK Must be a record number of entrants, as many stations up to 350 plus. Very heavy QRM and QRN most of the time.

G3TRF Great effort by our M3's who never worked contests before. Lots of fun - can't wait for next year. Can we go to Sundays pse? Saturdays are for football.

G3VLX Good to support the contest. Conditions seemed good as there were some big scores around. AFS is certainly the contest best suppported by British Isles operators - massive activity.

G3VYE Not very effective aerial and high level of QRN wrecked any chance of a decent score but even so enjoyed it.