The first major event of the year has always tested the resolve, stamina and equipment of operators. Unfortunately there has been a growing trend over the last few years of a reduction in the numbers willing to go out portable this early in the year. This event saw a near collapse in the level of portable activity together with a general reduction in the levels of activity and numbers of entrants. Conditions were rated as "mediocre" and "poor" and several stations suffered from high static levels.
While the weather was gentle in the south, there was rain and thunder in the North and impassable tracks to portable sites in Scotland
Even the big groups suffer from equipment problems! G5B had problems with a new EHT supply which had not been soak tested. GD0EMG had a total failure of their 70cms amplifier before the event and lost their 144MHz amplifier early in the event which caused them to enter the six-hour event instead.
The majority of logs were received in electronic form easing the load on the adjudicator. While standards were generally high, the poor conditions caused a number of logging errors on weak long distance contacts.
Congratulations go to:
Many thanks for a useful check log from the Mudhoppers Contest Group, G4ZDA.
Roger Dixon G4BVY
144 MHz Section M Group Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* G5B IO92WS 342 121213 DK0ES JN48TN 830 400 6 * 12 ele 2* G3YNN JO00EU 115 30710 DF0CI JO51CH 688 100 12 ele 3* G1ORC/P IO83WN 10 750 GM1XOI IO85AT 277 2.5 9 ele Section SF Group Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* G3MEH IO91QS 175 39385 DJ2IE JN48FT 724 400 2 * 10 ele 2* M0ZZO JO01PW 36 9102 DL0PVD JN49BO 546 50 8 ele 3 G8HGN JO01FO 17 8043 DK0ES JN48TN 736 50 2 * 15 ele 4 G3YDY JO01FQ 11 2984 DK0BN JN39VX 549 50 9 ele 5* 2E1GUA JO01FR 15 1562 DK0VH JO31HB 434 10 13 ele Section 6S Group Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* G4DEZ JO03AE 139 49699 F5MKD JN38UP 737 400 2 * 12 ele 2* G4ZTR JO01KW 112 31535 DK0ES JN48TN 726 400 12 ele 3* G0TXL IO91WI 38 8220 DK0BN JN39VX 578 20 9 ele 4* G8ZRE IO83NE 56 8039 F5KEU/P JN19BT 510 25 8 ele XY 5 G8VYK JO01FO 36 6686 DJ0QZ JN49LM 643 25 17 ele 6 M0COP IO92BK 17 1976 ON4WY JO11LC 364 100 8/8 ele 7 G3YJR IO93FJ 15 1644 F6FLB JO00WX 356 2 5 ele 8 G4APJ IO83UP 6 1351 F6FLB JO00WX 410 5 9 ele 9 G3JJZ JO01AJ 6 614 G4PBP IO82WO 200 25 8 ele Section 6O Group Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* GD0EMG IO74QD 54 18126 F1CXX JN18AT 751 400 8 *9 ele 2* M0BPQ/P JO01DH 53 12434 DA0SAX JN48MW 677 180 9 ele 3 GM4VVX/P IO78WA 30 10079 G4RRA IO80BS 806 300 17 ele 4 G0WJR/P IO81PH 10 1601 ON4WY JO11LC 395 40 HB9CV 5 G3VQO/P JO01BB 5 182 F6FLB JO00WX 123 50 whip 432 MHz Section M Group Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* G5B IO92WS 120 39336 DK6AS JO52JJ 738 400 8 * 28 ele 2* G3YNN JO00EU 6 591 M0DDT IO91JR 147 25 25 ele 3* G1ORC/P IO83WN 4 39 G0CDA IO83SJ 29 2.5 15 ele Section SF Group Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* G3MEH IO91QS 54 5838 PA1TK JO22IJ 371 250 2 * 23 ele 2* 2E1GUA JO01FR 9 1499 PA6C JO33FB 433 10 19ele 3 G8HGN JO01FO 3 1194 DL0PVD JN49BO 585 50 2 * 21 ele 4 G3YDY JO01FQ 6 749 PA6NL JO21BX 254 50 19 ele Section 6S Group Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* G3XDY JO02OB 24 9604 DL0GTH/P JO50RK 735 250 28 ele 2* M0DDT IO91JR 30 3588 PA6NL JO21BX 367 100 21 ele 3* G4APJ IO83UP 6 1397 PA6NL JO21BX 469 25 19 ele 4 G4DEZ JO03AE 5 981 PA1TK JO22IJ 326 400 2 * 28 ele 5* G8VYK JO01FO 12 830 PA6NL JO21BX 256 25 ?? 6 G3YJR IO93FJ 7 800 PA6NL JO21BX 413 10 19 ele 7 G3JJZ JO01AJ 5 768 PA6NL JO21BX 289 10 19 ele Section 6O Group Call Locator QSOs Score ODX Loc Kms Power Ant 1* GD0EMG IO74QD 7 1277 G4RRA IO80BS 379 10 4 * 26 ele 2* G0WJR/P IO81PH 8 1067 PA6NL JO21BX 477 5 7 ele 3 M0BPQ/P JO01DH 10 865 PA6NL JO21BX 275 60 21 ele Overall Results Section M Pos 144 MHz 432MHz Total Call/Group 1* 1000 1000 2000 G5B The Five Bells 2* 253 15 268 G3YNN Herstmonceux Megacycles 3 6 1 7 G1ORC/P Oldham Radio Club Section SF Pos 144 MHz 432MHz Total Call/Group 1* 1000 1000 2000 G3MEH 2* 204 205 409 G8HGN 3 40 257 296 2E1GUA 4 231 0 231 M0ZZO 5 76 128 204 G3YDY Section 6S Pos 144 MHz 432MHz Total Call/Group 1* 1000 102 1102 G4DEZ 2* 0 1000 1000 G3XDY 3 635 0 635 G4ZTR 4 0 374 374 M0DDT 5 135 86 221 G8VYK 6 27 145 173 G4APJ 7 165 0 165 G0TXL 8 162 0 162 G8ZRE 9 33 83 116 G3YJR 10 12 80 92 G3JJZ 11 40 0 40 M0COP Section 6O Pos 144 MHz 432MHz Total Call/Group 1* 1000 1000 2000 GD0EMG The Northern Lights 2* 686 677 1363 M0BPQ/P 3 88 836 924 G0WJR/P 4 556 0 556 GM4VVX/P 5 10 0 10 G3VQO/P Comments from the entrants 144MHz G0WJR A lovely spring morning, mild and sunny, with little breeze - shirt-sleeve order on the hilltop. Surprisingly quiet on 2m, compared with the flurry of activity on 70cm. G1ORC/P Very quiet on the bands, heavy rain and thunder in the afternoon on Saturday. G3JJZ Mediocre. G3MEH Hard going with relatively poor conditions. G3VQO/P Just a brief sortie to a convenient hill-top. Seems a better site but conditions and/or activity even more disappointing than usual on VHF/UHF G3YJR Some distance workable on 2m, but not too much activity - competition with HF contest? G3YNN What conditions? heavy static and very little G and F activity except towards the end. G4APJ Dramatic QSB on 70cm (where I am 'concentrating'). Worked almost everything I heard on 70cm. On 2M I heard more, but very low power (and high SWR) stopped them from hearing me! However, good to get my first 2M contacts of the year, including F & GM. G4DEZ No real DX but plenty of activity on 2m. G4ZDA Lost 1 hour due to birth and roundup of 7 babtam chicks! Conditions on radio were interesting as well! G5B One man, One tower & Generator down so we decided to run contest from home. The comfort of central heating, a bed and "facilities" also helps a great deal to ease into the first contest of the season. Problems dogged us with both drive PAs being replaced. On 2m we had some problems which delayed the start for us for almost an hour. Having made the first contact we then had to stop and change the EHT supply as it was "popping" away merrily and we feared that it might not make the contest through! (it was a new build and had not had the time to soak test it). Conditions were rather poor - much QSB, deep & rapid BUT there was a small quantity of DX about. Thank heavens there was a european contest on - "G" activity was poor. G8HGN Noticable lack of G's. Some good DX if prepared to tune around. Not enough time to do full or 6 hour stint, so just looking around. G8VYK Conditions improved greatly in the evening. Activity on the whole was low especially in NW which is usually quite good for me. G8ZRE Worked all I could hear no activity from GM. QSB made it hard going at times scanning the band not one station could be heard. GD0EMG Transformer in the 8877 psu failed @ 15:45. GM4VVX I have entered the 6hr Other Section, using only 144MHz. The weather on Sunday morning was heavy rain, so I left the 432 gear for another day Hi Hi. I listened on Saturday 1st at my home qth, on 144MHz hoping for an Aurora. By 18.00uct I had only copied a single station GM1OXI ( gave him a few points ) and no trace of an Auroral opening, so decided to go out /P in the morning. So packed the station in the car. Left when still dark to drive to Rogart. About an hours drive up into the hills, but the heavy rain made the track to the top of the hill impassable. So selected a layby at 750' asl. Bad weather and change of site made me an hour late qrv, so only got 5hr activity. Heard nothing at all when checking for a clear freq. Even GB3NGI beacon normally s9+ from this site was down to s3 qsb. So began to wonder if I should have stayed in bed, when a MM3 from near Inverness answered my calls, sat on his loo with a hand held, 2.5w and 6" rubber ant. Hi Hi. After that a good signal from GW, and a slow but steady qso rate. The last hour very slow, and most other signals that occasionally beamed North had disappeared. I heard no other /P station in GM calling CQ Contest. The only portable station heard calling contest was MW3YYY/P. Any other /P that I copied or worked, were out for a fun time in the now good weather, and not active in the contest. I Hope I did not miss an Auroral opening by packing up my station as a weak "A" on Sunday night. qso'ed with SM5CUI who said he had worked GM1XOI the Sat. evening.....GM1XOI was not qrv on Sunday, so maybe he took the 6hr operating on the Sat. ? M0BPQ/P Conditions seemed very flat, and spent a lot of time being rather bored so gave up after 4 hours and came home. Little activity from G, no big portables in evidence and the DLs were weak with me. I will be very surprised if my log is accurate. DA0SAX took about 5 minutes of repeats to convince me that we had completed the QSO and even now I am not sure all the details are correct..... Will be out in May and hope conditions are a bit better ! M0ZZO Found it very tough going and did not work many UK. 2E1GUA The March contest is a good one for me on 2m. 432 MHz G0WJR A wonderful spring morning, with lots of blue sky and sun. A light breeze blew up around noon, but before that, it was shirt-sleeve order! I was also giving away some points on 2m, and was pleasantly surprised to find that there was around 80% as much activity on 70cm, and how much of it I could work with such low power! G1ORC/P Bands very quiet all through contest G3JJZ Mediocre. Pleased to have a go with a recently acquired 'ancient' TR9500. Just shows I don't always need the 'big' 25W rig!! G3MEH Poor conditions with a little fragile DX to be had if you were in the right place at the right time. I missed out on a German at over 600km who seemed to have gone to breakfast leaving his voice keyer in charge until signals faded. Just 3 x GW's, 3 x F's and 2 x PA's alongside 46 x G's says it all. G3YJR Quite a few stations about. Heard GW3LER (beamed away I think) and DF0MMO (deaf? or maybe just too much of a stretch for my 10W). G3YNN Not a serious entry, just gave the kit an airing! G4DEZ 70cm very quiet. G5B Late start - several problems to be solved on both stations! Drive PA changed resolving final problem. Conditions were generally poor with low activity - but is is still winter - isn't it? Band was in poor shape - DX was only average. G8HGN At first thought there was no contest due to lack of activity, but then found a few. GD0EMG Our 70cm amplifier failed prior to the contest. Once the 2m PA failed we called it a day. If it could go wrong, it went wrong. M0BPQ What a waste of time. Found only 2 or 3 CQers and CQing myself led to barely any QSO's. This meant I spent a lot of time tuning, or on 144 and asking folk to QSY. Felt much better when I worked G5B and they only had 24 QSOs and their station is probably 10db better than mine ! M0DDT Slow going as usual. 2E1GUA The contest on 70cms I like very much so it was good to work JO33FB on 70cms. I enjoy the contests.