VHFNFD 7 - 8 July 2007

VHF National Field day, the premier portable VHF contest of the year, is traditionally where contest groups and clubs, large and small, take advantage of the summer weather to head for the hills and the fields with caravans, tents, trailers, masts, generators and the odd kitchen stove, to enjoy a weekend's contesting on 5 VHF/UHF bands with a station built on site from scratch. This year, fortunes were decided as much by the unseasonable wet weather as they were by propagation conditions - along with the usual list of minor mishaps which can befall even the best-planned effort. The analysis that follows tells the story of the weekend.

The weather. Many weather watchers throughout the UK will agree that the experiences of much of June did not bode at all well for the first full weekend in July. Much of the country had experienced 2 or 3 times its average rainfall for the month and the wettest for 40 years. This brought severe flooding to several areas. The worst rainfall hit the east and north east of England where they suffered the highest June precipitation levels since records began in 1914 !

As it turned out, on that key long-weekend, the weather proved to be kinder than many had dared to hope. Much of England, Wales, the island of Ireland and the west of Scotland enjoyed sunny spells. Some places were visited by winds somewhat brisker than many would have preferred. The lucky found it accompanied only by light showers or none at all. The unlucky experienced somewhat heavier rain. The really nasty weather seems to have been confined to the north of Scotland (unless you know better !). Moray Firth ARS, in IO87, commented that "it was foul and even more foul, with heavy rain and strong winds during set-up and throughout Saturday until about 0700 on Sunday when conditions improved to just strong winds" - strong enough to reduce their 11 element 2m yagi to just 5 elements - fortunately including the driven element. It even snowed on the Saturday evening ! Just to prove that lightning does strike twice, Rochdale & DARS, in IO83, were forced by a lightning storm to close down early. The same thing happened in 2006 but this year they were not to be the winners of the highest inundation prize. The weather could have been so much worse for everyone and by the time this piece is being read we will be remembering only too well how dreadful it did become.

On the sunnier side: West Bromwich Central RC, in IO92, found it "a good weekend". They said the same last year. Sutton Coldfield, in the same square, agreed wholehartedly. So, if in doubt, the English Midlands would seem an attractive way to head in 2008 for guaranteed good weather. Down in Cornwall, IO70, Newquay & DARS were also complimentary about the weather, but they did add the rider that that was the only good feature of the weekend - propagation and activity being something else ! The combination team of Bracknell ARC & Flight Refuelling ARS, to their east in IO80, agreed about the good weather and so did Fareham & DARS in IO91, but the latter watched the sky with trepidation as closedown approached.

Mid Cheshire ARS, in IO83, possibly sum up the mood of many in their comment "I don't suppose we'll be the only group to say that it wasn't the best of weekends for DX, but it could have rained a great deal more than it did and we did have a good time. Until a couple of days before the contest we didn't have a contest site at all so we're pretty lucky really !".

It is a great pleasure to be able to include here one of the sunniest stories of the weekend. This is drawn from the annals of Colchester Radio Amateurs and has nothing to do with the weather: Mike G0IBZ was absent from their team in 2006, having suffered a cerebral embolism. This almost terminated his contesting carerer. We are delighted to report that Mike is now fully recovered, was back in the fray this year and received the news at their field day site that he had become a grandfather at 0120 on the Sunday morning. Best wishes and congratulations to all.

Registrations and Entries.

The bad weather which preceded VHFNFD led to a number of groups being unable to access their regular sites. Some were able to carry out check surveys during the run-up. Others were to discover the worst at the eleventh hour when the axles of their vehicles sank below the level of the mud on the access roads. In all, 11 Registered groups did not manage to establish any station. Several others managed only a token presence and/or submitted check logs. The Contest Committee wishes to express its sympathy to all the folks who put in so much preparatory effort only for it to be thwarted for reasons not of their making. We must also say thank you to those who let us know that, despite registering, they would not be submitting an entry this year. It helped the adjudicators no end by not having to search for possibly-lost logs and covers. There is no guarantee that all those registering would have submitted an entry subsequently - but historical data shows that the vast majority do so. Therefore, it is reasonably safe to use Registration figures as a more realistic indication of the trend in the level of interest in VHFNFD, so these are reproduced below, along with those of the actual entries for this year and, for comparison, those for 2006. We look forward to a fuller book of contestants in 2008.

Band/Station data for 2007 and 2006:

Section/Group data for 2007 and 2006:

Several sites were inspected during the contest. The Inspectors wish to express their appreciation of the warmness with which they were greeted. Nothing untoward was observed. It is, however, rumoured that one Inspector continues to roam the Sussex Downs searching for one group who notified a change of site but, seemingly, has so far not managed to get to either that or the original one.

This year saw the first overseas entry for VHFNFD. This was from the Wexford VHF Group, operating as EI9E/P. Pete G4CLA and Chris G0HFX made the trip over with their 4m gear to help out and experience contesting from the Irish Republic. They were very impressed with the amount of effort put in by the group. The station is built on a grand scale: the kit being loaded with the aid of a fork-lift truck, but the most impressive part of the total package is the catering ! The cookhouse is transported to site on a large trailer and is equipped with a full-size domestic cooker powered by bottled gas. This enables a "Full Irish" cooked breakfast to be served every morning, but is totally capped by a turkey roast, with all the trimmings, served just before contest start ! Radio operations are described as "not bad either". Examination of the tables for all five bands reveal how "not bad" they proved to be.

The Committee is very grateful for check logs submitted by: Allan Duncan GM4ZUK/P, Graeme Castleton G6CSY, Ken Punshon G4APJ, Stuart Lindsay G0KDS, Lee Volante G0MTN, Roger Piper G3MEH, Robert Reeves G8VOI/P, Dave Ackrill G0DJA and Bob Edgar G0KYS.

Technical hitches. Several groups who were forced by weather to secure an alternative site did not find that all their problems were over. Mid Cheshire ARS, in IO83, found themselves at a site lower than usual and thereby in proximity to a house with a TV which proved to be susceptible to RFI. Continuation of activity on 2m required a significant reduction in rf output power. Additionally, their generator failed twice so they decided to pack up early - if only to secure dry tents, but then to be severely rained on in the process.

Technical problems visited those too who did manage to access their normal site. Cockenzie & Port Seton ARC in IO84 "overcame a number of snags", but their 23cm pre-amplifier decided to terminate itself during set-up, so 23cm was a"bandoned" (sorry for that one). Surrey RCC CG had planned a move from 1296 MHz to 70 MHz this year, but the driver transceiver died irretrievably a week before kick off, necessitating a return to 23cm - only to find that the driver for that band had suffered a similar fate ! Fortunately, a replacement 23cm set-up was secured at short notice. If that was not enough, after about 2 hours operation, their 70cm station decided to relay, coherently, their 2m station's signals and at a higher level than the intended 70cm modulation. Helpful cooperation from distant and local stations saw them through two complete changes of equipment and a few hours delay but they were eventually back on the air with a clean signal, happy neighbours and a very relieved, but unamused, contest manager.

Logging. The adjudicators report that logging standards varied from very good to absolutely abysmal. Errors were the usual presence or absence of a /P (and, before you ask, some incorrect sending was indeed noted), transposed characters, incorrect serial numbers and some rather bizarre locators. The number of errors quite often bore no relationship to either the experience of the group nor the number of QSOs. The contest committee does understand that many clubs will wish to give some of their newer members a "go on the mic" and also that people return to contesting after a some years absence. Therefore, we do recommend that the General and VHFNFD-specific Rules are read in advance - before the contest starts and not afterwards, or not at all.

We were somewhat surprised by the group who, having operated on five bands throughout the contest, sought to have their best four results selected by the adjudicators as their entry in the Restricted section. The rest of us know that such a facility is confined to the Open section, of course !

We also took into account the eagerness of the logging software of some 50 MHz band entrants to elaborate a 4-digit locator to make up a 6-digit locator at the nearest corner or edge of the 4-digit square. In future, if your software does this, please see if you can turn this feature off. If you receive only 4 digits, log only 4. Under such circumstances, the Adjudicator will ensure a universally fair computation of points. It is worth a reminder that, on any band, your logging software will give you only an indicative value - OK for your claimed points entry - but it is the Contest Adjudication software which will determine the admitted points for each of your, and everyone else's, contacts.

Back to the main theme of logging accuracy: We recommend that before logs are submitted they are given a common-sense look-over to check whether what is written down, or keyed-in, is at least feasible - if not guaranteed to be correct. A locator map is helpful in getting the locator large square, the callsign prefix, the country and, indeed, the continent within the bounds of probability.

The treatment of "abandoned contacts" is also worth a mention:. It is not uncommon for a contact to be incomplete through being lost in QSB. You should log as much of the exchange as possible and enter the remark "Incomplete". Do not delete the entry and do not use the same serial number again. If it so happens that contact is re-established later and both parties agree then you can add the missing data against the original QSO. Alternatively, given that the adjudication software will detect and not penalise duplicate contacts, you run no risks yourself, nor to the other station, by establishing another complete contact with the "lost" station under a wholly fresh serial number.

Just a few words on the obverse of the logging coin: One group notified the Committee that they had sent an incorrect locator for much of their operation on one band and maybe part of another. They told us what was wrong, what they should have sent, and asked us not to dock all of the QSO points from stations who had logged the "incorrect" locator. They and other entrants can be assured that this was also detected by the adjudication software and appropriate adjustments were made.

Band Reports.

50 MHz. This can probably be described as the the "most exciting" of the five VHFNFD bands - offering Sporadic E-layer (Es) propagation out to 2000 or 3000 km and multi-hop Es out to 5000 to 7000 km. Normal and extended Tropospheric propagation provided shorter range contacts. Countries worked include: UK, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Hungary, Italy, Crete (in the shape of SV9CVY and SV9CJO - both in Rethymno), mainland Greece with SV1OH in Athens, eastern states of USA and Canada (including Prince Edward Island) and St Vincent & Grenadines (J8/W6JKV) in the Carribean - the latter's prefix not being all that common on any band. Cockenzie & Port Seton, in IO84, clearly enjoyed themselves - being spoilt for choice whether to turn the beam to Europe or to North America. Colchester Radio Amateurs found the action to be "enlivened somewhat" by the North American contacts. South Birmingham RS in IO82 did not manage to catch the transatlantic opening, but they did get their signals down into Crete and so did West Bromwich Central in IO92. Rusty Radios CG, in JO02, were suitably elated by the early capture of USA stations. Telford & DARS, in IO82, enjoyed the mix of European and American activity but described the last two hours as "rather quiet".

ODX was as follows: Open section: Windmill CG, in JO01, with N5BO (Florida) at 7184 km; Restricted section: Lothians ARS, in IO74, with K5XX (Texas) at 7261 km; Low Power section: Loch Fyne Kippers, in IO75, also with N5BO at 6648 km.

70 MHz. Few will quarrel with the suggestion that the most exciting event on this band was the Sporadic E-laver (Es) propagation which facilitated contacts with Portugal - a range of 1500 to 2000 km. Stations logged include CT1HZE in IM57 (the Algarve), CT1FFU in IM59 (Estremadura, otherwise known as the Lisbon Coast) and, less frequently, CT1BXT also in IM59 (65 km north of Lisbon). A combination of several of the following was necessary to bag one or more of these stations. The first is knowing that since Jan 2006, 70 MHz licences have been issued on a personal basis to Portuguese nationals for a limited period (until August 2007). Second is the ability to receive frequencies in their allocation: 70.607 MHz to 70.631 MHz. Third is to have no local UK emergency service transmitter active near these frequencies. Fourth is to listen carefully to who is calling what within our own allocated frequencies. Fifth is remembering how to get the transceiver to work split frequency tx/rx ! A useful further tool for any band is the transceiver handbook. Countries worked appear to be confined to the UK, Republic of Ireland and Portugal - but, again, you may know better.

Fareham & DARS, in IO91, found the band to be quieter than usual. To them, conditions appeared reasonable but there was no-one about. Rusty Radios CG in JO02 found things somewhat different - with conditions described as "quite poor with lots of noise !". Telford & DARS, in IO82, admitted to being rather challenged, but very successful, in working 3 CT stations with a single VFO: a case of "QRX while I QSY to RX". Clifton ARS, in JO01, already in the Low Power section on this band, lost their PA after qso number 2 and were very pleased indeed that the opening to CT saved their score. Deserving special mention: Verulam ARC, in IO91, celebrated their first venture on 4m - running a Meon transverter (they claim 1W, but I reckon 350 mW is closer) and a 2 element quad - netting 8 qsos. Well done.

ODX was as follows: Open section : Cockenzie & Port Seton ARC, in IO84, with CT1HZE (the Algarve) at 1983 km; Restricted section: Lothians ARS, in IO74, with CT1HZE at 1989 km; Low Power section: Loch Fyne Kippers, in IO75, topping the lot, with CT1HZE at 2080km.

144 MHz: For the most part, unexceptional Troposheric propagation reigned, with just the occasional exhancement. Most logs contained contacts with the UK, Republic of Ireland and most of mainland Europe within a range of 500 km from Dover. Of course, it is two or three times that distance when worked from much of Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, QSOs with Portugal and Spain cannot be described as commonplace daily happenings, so, from a sea of ordinariness, this was quite a bonus. Portugal appeared in many logs, in the shape of CT1HZE, again - but also CT1EUB (near Faro) and Spain with EA7TL (near Cadiz) - which was probably the most southerly station worked, EA1BFZ/P (near Valladolid) and EA2BFM/P (near Bilbao).

Fareham & DARS, in IO91, described conditions as "not too bad really" , but they were disappointed by a perceived lack of activity. Telford & DARS, in IO82, expressed a belief that activity was well down on that of previous years. Clifton ARS, in JO01, found conditions generally poor to the east but their spirits were lifted by Es to the south towards the end of the contest. Newquay, in IO70, found "nothing to shout about" and expressed a plea for antennas to be turned towards Cornwall more frequently in future.

ODX was as follows: Open section: Lincoln SWC, in IO93, with CT1HZE at 1903 km; Restricted section: North Bedfordshire Gentlemen's, in IO92, with CT1HZE at 1795 km; Low Power section: Lagan Valley ARS, in IO74, topping the lot with CT1HZE at 1965 km.

432 MHz. Conditions were flat with contacts restricted to the UK, Republic of Ireland and nearby European countries. Propagation favoured a north-south direction and east-west was somewhat below expectation. As time wore on, hope of anything better faded too. Fareham & DARS, in IO91, wondered where everyone was. Surrey RCC CG, also in IO91, commented: "it was like the rf just fell out of the end of the antenna and hit the ground about a metre away". Adding: "It was silent to the east. PA and DL are in our backyard, but they just weren't there this year". Mexbrough & DARS, in IO92, agreed that conditions were flat. They also had the rain to darken their lightness ! Telford & DARS, in IO82, went a little further, describing conditions as: "terrible to the east and hard work". The 70cm scene seems best summed-up by a piece of glorious British understatement from Colchester Radio Amateurs, in JO01: "Occasionally, I went outside to ensure the tower had not fallen down". Yes. Me too !

ODX was as follows: Open section: Colchester Radio Amateurs, in JO01, with DM7A at 829 km.; Restricted section: De Montfort University ARS, in JO02, with DK7T at 741 km; Low Power section: Two Counties CG, in IO92, with DR9A at 778 km. It is worth a comparison here with ODX in 2006, which itself was not a brilliant year: ODX then was 1518 km by Telford & DARS in the Restricted section. Colchester RA, in the Open section, then reported their top 10 qsos - each exceeding 800 km.

1296 MHZ. Conditions were again reported as flat, with contacts confined to the UK, R of I and even nearer european countries. A bright spot in the gloom was the operation from Luxembourg signing LX/PA5DD. Colchester Radio Amateurs, in JO01, opined that "23cm was 23cm - you just have to grind out a score bit by bit". Simon De Montfort University, in JO02, considered conditions to be "awful". Newbury & DARS, in IO91, were less than impressed too. South Birmingham, in IO82, believed activity to be down compared with the last couple of years.

ODX was as follows: Open: G0VHF/P in JO01 with DK0GG at 767 km; Restricted G3OHM/P in IO82 with DR9A at 843 km; Low Power: G3CKR/P in IO93 with DL0GTH at 917 km. ODX is very comparable with that on 432 MHz. This suggests that conditions were somewhat better on 1296 MHz, but there were insufficient stations about to take advantage of them. Again, a reference back to 2006 shows ODX of 1439km to Warrington CG in the Low Power section, but others recorded ODX around 8 to 900 km - reinforcing the view that conditions were not all that bad this year.

Overall Results and Awards.

Open section. As the tables amply demonstrate, the Open section is headed, arithmetically, by Wexford VHF Group - all of their Team being individual members of the RSGB. However, VHFNFD Rule 4 states that " Any RSGB member or group of members may enter. Only groups operating from the British Isles (excluding the Irish Republic) will be eligible for awards, although a certificate for the leading overseas entry will be awarded.” Recognising this, the Contest Committee determined that all scores for each Band and Section should be normalised against the highest scoring UK-operating station - the latter being normalised to 1000 points.

Thus, on 50 MHz and 70 MHz, the Wexford VHF Group's normalised scores total 1785 and 1185, respectively and a very-creditable best 4 bands out of 5 score of 3786 points. The contests committee is delighted to award Certficates to the Wexford VHF Group, to recognise their achievement. We hope they will favour us again with an entry next year.

Accordingly, first place is awarded to Colchester Radio Amateurs with a overall score of 3755 points and achieving top band-scores on 144, 432 and 1296 MHz. They hold the top spot for the 4^th year running and retain the Surrey Trophy. They are congratulated for what constitutes a considerable achievement. Runner-up is Windmill CG, regaining the 2^nd place which they secured in 2005 (3^rd in 2006). In third place is Cockenzie & Port Seton ARC (5^th in 2006) who gain the Tartan Trophy as highest-placed Scottish entry in the section.

Restricted section. First place is retained by South Birmingham RS and they are again awarded the Martlesham Trophy. Leaping into the runner-up slot is Lothians ARS (10^th in 2006) who are also awarded the Cockenzie Quaich as the highest-placed Scottish entry in the section. In third place lies Newbury & DARS (2^nd in 2006).

Low Power section. The winner of this section by a substantial margin and with maximum band-scores on all three of their nominated bands is Warringtom CG (2^nd in 2006). They are awarded the Arhur Watts Trophy. In second place lie Loch Fyne Kippers (5^th - using different nomenclature in 2006). They retain the Scottish trophy as the highest-placed Scottish entry in this section. Third place is taken by Lagan Valley ARS who this year decided to test the challenges of the LP section (4^th in Restricted in 2006).

Mix and Match section. We find quite a few changes here this year. First place is taken by De Montfort University ARS, who are awarded the G5BY Trophy. Perhaps they should also receive a prize for the group demonstrating over a 5 year period the greatest level of success, combined with mobility ! (They were 1^st in the LP section in 2006 and 1^st in Restricted in 2003, 4 and 5). Now they have done it in M & M. In second place lies Telford & DARS (1^st in 2006 and every year since the M & M section was created - except the first year). Climbing substantially up the table is Clifton ARS in 3^rd (8^th in 2006) but only 12 points ahead of Surrey RCC CG who find themselves in 4^th place this year (2^nd in 2006).

Certificates will be awarded to winners and runners up in all sections and additionally to Wexford VHF Group as the leading overseas entry. Congratulations to these and all participants on behalf of:

Band and Overall Adjudicators: Peter Bowyer G4MJS, Pete Lindsay G4CLA, Roger Dixon G4BVY, Bob Edgar G0KYS, Ian Pawson G0FCT. Commentary: John Simkins G8IYS.