After the aurora excitement in 2002, conditions were rated as very average this year. QSB was evident and entrants struggled to complete long distance contacts. The best conditions were into France and a good number of DX contacts took place in that direction. Activity was poor and there were many comments about a lack of UK activity. This could have been due to the HF SSB FD contest which took place at the same time and allowed many former class B licensees to take part for the first time.
A number of groups were affected by equipment failures and there were some isolated reports of poor quality signals. Apparent faults with signals should be reported to the "offending" station. However, contests place high demands on receivers and the problem could lie in your receiving system.
Logging standards were generally high with the leading stations losing less than 3% of their claimed scores. However, a number of entrants lost over 15% of their scores by careless logging of callsigns and locators.
Congratulations go to:
· The Parallel Lines Contest Group who returned after a years break to win
the multi-operator section and reclaim the Mitchell-Milling Trophy.
· Allan GM4ZUK/P who repeated his win in the Single Operator (Others) section
· Andy G4PIQ, operating as M6T, for winning the Single Operator (Fixed) section
and hence the Thorogood Trophy
· Bryn G4DEZ who won the six hour single operator fixed section.
· The Forth Valley Contest Group, GM4V who overcame equipment problems to win
the six-hour others section.
· Mike Johnson, M5MUF who was the highest place low power fixed station.
· James Beatwell, 2E1GUA who was the leading intermediate class licensee.
· Mr Coyne, M3KGC who was the leading foundation class licensee.
These stations together with those marked * will receive certificates.
Roger Dixon, G4BVY
Section M Pos Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant Group 1* G8P JO01QD 821 316791 EA2DR/P IN83FE 959 400 8*17 Parallel Lines Contest Group 2* G4ZAP/P JO02QV 394 132869 HB9FAP JN46EW 830 400 4x12+2x12+4x9 A1 Contest Group 3 G0VHF/P JO01HW 415 127437 TM8MB JN35KV 812 400 4*9 +2*9 Colchester Contest Group 4 G5B JO03CE 249 95432 OL3Y JN69JJ 970 400 6*12 + 2*18 Five Bells 5 G8NJA/P IO80DQ 232 73547 TM8MB JN35KV 946 200 2*17 ele TORBAY A.R.S 6 GM3HAM/P IO85VV 121 46203 DF0OL JO40BP 900 400 17 Lothians Radio Society 7 G2XV/P JO02CE 183 45030 DL0GTH JO50JP 753 200 2*17 Cambridge & District ARC 8 M8Y IO93DV 132 15207 F8KTH/P JN18QI 710 25 9 Otley Amateur Radio Society 9 G4LPD/P IO93RA 50 12802 DF0OL JO40BP 651 100 9 East Notts Contest Group Section SO Pos Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* GM4ZUK/P IO86RW 224 90770 DF0OL JO40BP 988 400 4*13 ele 2* GW8ASA/P IO81FP 63 16077 DK0LT JO31KX 716 150 9 ele 3 M0COP IO92BK 42 8905 PI4FRG JO23WE 527 100 17 ele 4 G3UFY/P IO91XF 9 1246 PA6NL JO21BX 300 2.5 8 ele Section SF Pos Call Locator QSOs Score ODX ODX Kms Power Ant 1* M6T JO01MU 624 215355 DK0OG JN68GI 907 400 4*15+3*9 ele 2* G3MEH IO91QS 248 66089 TM8MB JN35KV 852 400 2*10 ele 3 M5FUN JO00DX 107 24387 TM1Y JN36BP 644 100 12 ele 4* M5MUF IO92JP 57 13871 DK0LT JO31KX 554 25 2 ele 5 M0ZZO JO01PW 52 13708 DL0BL JN48CO 615 50 8 ele 6 G0GJV IO91OK 50 13315 DK0BN JN39VX 625 100 9 ele 7 M1DUD JO02QC 49 11867 TM9R JN27UR 577 5 5 ele 8* 2E1GUA JO01FR 41 8013 DF0OL JO40BP 547 20 13 ele 9 G8HGN JO01FO 17 7279 TM8MB JN35KV 789 150 2*15 ele Section 6S Pos Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* G4DEZ JO03AE 102 31344 DK8SG JN48GT 768 400 2*12 2* G3YJR IO93FJ 46 8965 DF0CI JO51CH 830 25 9 ele 3* M3KGC IO93FJ 3 207 G4DEZ JO03AE 108 2.5 9 ele Section 6O Pos Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant Group 1* GM4V IO85RU 88 25725 DK0PU JO31JN 777 400 17 ele Forth Valley Contest Group 2* GW8ZRE/P IO83JA 84 18414 F6KSL JN28QJ 793 10 7 ele 3 G0MWT/P JO01GP 78 17707 DL0GTH JO50JP 723 100 11 ele 4 G4ADV/P IO70JH 52 15261 TM1Y JN36BP 928 400 2*9ele Newquay & DARS 5 GM4VVX/P IO78VB 45 14314 G4RRA IO80BS 811 300 9 ele 6 G1KHX/P IO81MH 50 9874 GM4ZUK/PIO86RW 626 150 9 ele 7 G1WAR/P IO92IO 33 6661 F6HPP/P JN19PG 490 2.5 9 ele 8 G6GVI/P IO81RJ 17 4064 GM4ZUK/PIO86RW 616 25 HB9CV 9 GM4IJE/P IO67WN 7 2858 G8SRC/P IO91CL 732 50 9 ele 10 F/G3VQO/P JO00SQ 7 771 ON4KHG JO10XO 171 20 Whip
Comments from the entrants F/G3VQO/P On the cliffs of France with England line-of-sight seemed to be very low activity. G0VHF/P Didn't quite deliver the numbers..... G1KHX/P Fairly good, but slow going. WX dry, sunny, but windy. G1WAR/P Nice propagation towards France, but we couldn't use the field we'd hoped to because the cows had been moved there as their water supply had dried up. This meant we were beaming through trees towards DL. We could hear them, but couldn't be heard ourselves. G2XV/P Had to go down to 100 W for most of the contest, we need a new linear, I have had enough of this one.Saturday hopeless, Sat night dead, only on early Sunday did conditions improve. Very low activity in UK it seemed, thanks to the backpackers they made Sunday more fun. We had a good club weekend though with plenty of hf operation. G3MEH Conditions here seemed quite good early in the contest but deteriorated later Saturday afternoon. Pretty average on Sunday but there were some shortlived openings to be had if you were in the right place at the right time. It was difficult to find and hold on to a CQ frequency - I lost count of the number of times I QSYed. I heard several reports of former class B licencees deserting this contest in favour of the SSB HF FD. Maybe the novelty will have worn off by next year? G3UFY/P My first venture onto VHF for over 20 years. Low power does not seem to carry as well as it used to - or perhaps condx were not good. G3YJR Some good conditions, with strong signals from GM in particular. IO81 & IO82 stations, please beam this way! G4DEZ Started well but then activity dramatically dropped. G4LPD/P WX good, Good DX achieved despite basic set up. We took part whilst entering HF SSB FD to give new young operators some contest experience. G4ZAP/P Conditions flat. A lot of work for only 395 QSOs. Really slow going. It seems like Norfolk is no longer a contest winning area. I guess we need to add to the QRM in Kent or Essex. G6GVI/P A fine, dry day, but with a blustery wind. I'd forgotten to take my earphones and so was sometimes struggling to hear the audio from the set above the wind noise, and the din from low-flying aircraft (I was under the flight path for Lulsgate airport!). G8HGN Conditions just above average. G8P Conditions about average with a slight enhancement to the south. Good activity especially from France. First contest for over 12 months so nice to get the cobwebs blown out of us and the gear. The gear doesn't seem to have lost any of it's go by having a year off, can't say the same about us! GM3HAM/P We tried a site using a sea path. We got variable propagation into Holland with an opening in the last hour into Holland and Germany. Otherwise activity seemed low. We got a lot of meteor pings and heard IQ5AE/5 in JN54JD for nearly a minute - we think a long m.s.burst. GM4IJE/P Operated for just over an hour from a stunning clifftop location on the Isle of Skye. Not many QSOs - as expected - but an opportunity not to be missed! GM4V Only able to do a 6hr entry this year due to clash with the GMDX AGM on Saturday afternoon. At least we were able to arrive on site well in advance of our start time, in order to set up the station. Gave away some points on Saturday night but soon discovered that there was an RX fault with the station, with the amplifier attenuating all signals (only audible signals were GB3ANG & GM4ZUK/P). A decision just to pack up at first light on Sunday morning was made, however, just out of curiosity, we tried PTT'ing the amp directly from the footswitch (rather than via the transceiver hard switching) and discovered the RX fault was no longer present. On with a 6 hr entry after all then. We started at 0730 (local) and the main observation from the contest as a whole, was the poor level of G activity. Even in poor conditions you can usually bank on a large volume of G QSO's to boost the score. Not this time, and going by the serial numbers given out by the 24hr "locals" (GM3HAM/P & GM4ZUK/P), GM4V were not the only station suffering from this. 7 continentals were worked in the six hours, suggesting that tropo conditions were not good (first time we've done a 2m contest and checked out the Hepburn Tropo Chart on the web beforehand). 3 PA's, 1 F, 1 ON, and 2 DL's, including our best DX - DK0PU in JO31JN @ 777Km. This was our first contest for a long time using what could be described as a long boom yagi and the main lesson learned was that it was probably not the most suitable antenna as continual changes to the beam heading were required to bring in stations in the nulls. How many stations were missed as a result of this heaven only knows. Was nice to pick up GD6IA in IO74QD for a new country, as Alex was only using a vertical antenna at the time. Also fortunate to nab OR3A in JO10UU @ 693K with only 2 minutes of our 6 hour session to spare. GM4V now closes it 144mhz activity for the winter, and hopes to appear in 2004 with a 4 x 10 ele stack. Watch this space. GM4VVX/P On Sat. 6th nothing heard at all from my qth at start of contest. Hung on hoping for Aurora which might give me some activity. No hint at all of Au, so at 20:oo utc packed my station for /p in the morning to try to get an entry in the 6hr section. One of the best mornings ! On Sunday, no wind and a clear sky. The first frost of the Autumn in the hollows in the fields and crystal clear visability. I only took one of my smaller ant' as io78VB was a new location to work and I did not know if it would be possible to get the big 17ele off the ground. At the old site io78WA I used a fence line to prop the mast against whilst guying. IO78VB proved easy to get to but no fences or anything else to assist in erection. A good site with heigth and a good drop off to the South. Half a dozen or so stations audibal as soon as I turned on ! While getting the log out and tuning up heard a GM working a F station so Whay Hay Good Propagation !!! Sods law ! it was the last F station heard all day. During contest on Sunday I could hear G and Southerly GMs working into PA, F and at least one DL. It seems I was a little too far North for the propagation. With activity from the continent it was difficult to get ops to turn to the North. A good contest as lots of activity even if I could not work it. The big beam going with me next time Hi Hi... Weather was perfect, and even some local GMs active, and nice to get a few MM3s. GM4ZUK/P Tropo condx dreadful on Saturday - activity (especially from G) also dreadful. Condx improved a little on Sunday to allow a few DX QSO's. Worst score in Trophy contest in many years. GW6ASA/P A very bad Day, everything that could go wrong did. Using a 9el Tonna for the 1st time with no Balun, RF in PSU causing it to close down. So gave up after 3.5 hours. GW8ZRE/P Good conditions Orkney to France. M0MWT/P Really nice weekend. Got a bit nippy in the evening, we were very lucky being only 2 miles from very heavy rain. Some fantastic DX into Germany and South of France. The time went by very quickly, thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. M0ZZO Too many big stations around me and condx quite poor. M1DUD Some surprising results with lots of ON, PA DL stations active. Deep QSB prevented me from working much from the UK. M5MUF Rather flat, with heavy QSB, but continental stations rising to S9 just long enough to get callsigns, but not long enough to complete QSOs, hence highest ever rate of uncompleted QSOs. That was very frustrating, as with a larger antenna these would have been easily worked! Lost at least 10 different DL stations that way. LX/PA1TK/p was heard but couldn't grab his attention. GM4ZUK/p was a good strong signal throughout the event, S9+ for hours on end. North is not normally a good direction from here. Worst moments - thunderstorm started exactly same time as contest; on Sunday morning, roosting starlings had turned the driven element of my antenna into an inverted-V, and I didn't notice for a couple of hours - which explains the weak signals and strange non-directional propagation I was experiencing!! Luckily the mast comes down in 5 minutes for quick repairs. Seemed like Saturday evening had best conditions, but the early morning condition of the antenna means I can't be sure... Despite conditions I was pleased with the 29 squares and 7 countries worked, not bad for a 2 ele antenna and 25W. M6T Conditions started average on Saturday but dropped down as front passed over. Noticeable how much time rate was better beaming at France than into DL. However some good DX around as usual. Lost PA 4 hours in so had to revert to a standby. M8Y We found the conditions to be just above average and as the contest progressed the band went quite flat. 2E1GUA It would be nice to be on the right antenna at the start - but I found out in the end! The contest was not good on the Saturday but Sunday was great with lots of European stations.