Nights are getting longer, days are getting shorter, it's time for the shack!
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.All the contest news is in-bound from the coastal region and comes from our static statistician with loads of stately statistics.
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NewZZzzzzz from the old Filby Amateur Radio Transmitter Society
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Autumn Series 80m contests update:
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Propagation conditions on the evening of last Thursday 31st October on 80m for SSB were difficult for inter-G contesting to say the least.
Long skip was very evident with many foreign language QSOs including Italian, Spanish, French, German were heard and a few unidentified tongues from perhaps the Baltic area or Russian/Ukrainian or even from the Balkan countries of the former Yugoslav Republic, but alas they were not interested in our contest.
Inter-G propagation was difficult and quite weak with much co-channel and adjacent signal QRM.
Some UK stations managed to work some respectable scores but others found conditions very hard going with much lower than average scores. GM and distant contest stations were particularly easy to work with very strong signals.
The NARC team battled on through the difficult propagation and submitted 12 logs.
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The RAW result predictions stacked up fairly well against the adjudicated final results:
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De Montfort University ARS had 4961 RAW points from 9 logs - Final score 5014 points.
Norfolk ARC had 4261 RAW points from 12 logs - Final score 4851, a further deficit of 163 points.
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A loud signal down here from GM6XX provided more than a few bonus points, claiming 171 QSOs.
Coincidentally 171 logs were submitted - does that mean that he contacted all competitors, I wonder !
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NARC finished in a very comfortable 2nd place in the SSB contest ahead of fair results from Bristol CG(3rd) and 3As CG(4th) and we therefore stay in second place overall, which with a bit of sustained effort we should hold onto for the rest of the series.
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The last three dates are in November for the Autumn Series:
Monday 11th November 2019 DATA. (PSK63 and RTTY only).
Wednesday 20th November 2019 SSB. (club meeting now informal)
Thursday 28th November 2019 CW. (Last Gasp!)
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Further to discussion on last Friday's Club Contest Net (1st November) regarding yearly average numbers of logs submitted for the 80mCCs and together with final scores and average scores per log, unearthing the numbers is still ongoing and may be presented soon.
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The rest of November's contest selection:
Monday 4th Nov: The FT4 contest on 80m proved to be popular with a few club members, some trying it out for the first time.
A Norfolk station (G6ZRV) was operating G6XX for giving out the bonus contacts. That was the last one for this year, but due to its popularity nine more similar FT4 contests are expected next year from February, maybe with further refinement of the rules as the contesters and the RSGB Contest Committee learn more about a rapidly evolving mode.
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Saturday 9th Nov. RSGB Club Calls contest (1.8MHz AFS) on 160m, CW and/or SSB at 2000 to 2300utc, remember, 32W maximum. NOTE: 1870kHz to 1890kHz for CW, 1892kHz to 1990kHz for LSB.
The contest exchange is slightly different where participants in addition to RS(T) and Serial Number, also state HQ station or Club Member or Non Member and Affiliated Society members also send a 4-letter club identifier (NORF in our case).
Read the rules thoroughly before Saturday evening.
N1MM+ users have a separate module for this contest RSGBCLUB , enter H,C or N when logging (see rules).
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Saturday 16th Nov. RSGB 2nd 1.8MHz contest 1900 to 2300utc , CW only, full power 1810kHz to 1850kHz.
Exchange is RST and Serial Number plus a District Code which for us is NK (not NR as some might expect).
Study the rules for yourself.
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Both above contest scores contribute to the overall HF Championship.
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23/24th Nov. CQ WW DX CW contest, 48 hours - lots of special calls and a few sought after DXCC entities may be worked in the mayhem.
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VHF/UHF:
5th Nov. A trio of stations from NARC have so far uploaded their logs for the 2m UKAC, log entries are still open so no scores until the fat lady sins.
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12th Nov 70cm UKAC
14th Nov 6m UKAC
19th Nov 23cm UKAC - try out the club's new IC9700
21st Nov 4m UKAC
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2nd/3rd Nov 144MHz CW Marconi contest 1400 to 1400utc . No entries from NARC have been seen but log entry on the robot is still open.
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It usually quietens down a bit during December but the UKACs are still on-going and the usual mini VHF contests post Christmas Day beginning on the 26th December for four afternoons, especially for those who need to get away into the shack for a couple of hours away from the family and the turkey or just for those Bah Humbug merchants like me who just spend too long in the shack.
For the others it will soon kick-off again in January with the three RSGB 80m-40m AFS Contests, beginning on Saturday 4th January 2020 with CW AFS.
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73 John G8VPE
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