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- Category: Featured News
- Roger Cooke By
Contest Chat October 16th
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Nooze from a village East of Norwich.
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Autumn Series 80m Contests:
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NARC are still just in the overall lead after the first four published results with a points difference of 998 points having had their previous lead of more than 4200 points reduced considerably by their nearest rival, the Three As CG.
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Second CW contest:
Monday 5th October was the 4th event out of 9 in the series.
Conditions were good with plenty of inter-G stations operational and also a few regulars from DL, PA, SM, LY and YL.
This time 3As CG have made a very strong challenge submitting 15 high scoring logs.
NARC made a fairly good effort entering 19 logs.
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The Three As CG have decisively won this CW event with a combination of skill and tactics in QRP and QRS operation.
They took the first positions in 3 of the 6 categories:
100W QRS G3TXF, 10W QRS G5Q (G3SVL), 10W QRP G4PIQ.
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CW Results:
Three As CG 12727 points.
Norfolk ARC 9441 points. (down by 3286 points)
De Montfort ARS 5987 points.
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Wednesday 14th October was a DATA contest once again.
Conditions at times were a bit of a struggle with many locals reporting better success on RTTY than on PSK63.
The foF2 critical frequency remained more or less on 3.5MHz for the whole event giving rise to some far from perfect operating conditions on 80m.
My antenna wasn't performing well at all with nearby contacts, it took at least 5 or 6 attempts to be heard by Malcolm G3PDH less than 10miles away and Jim G3YLA and Alan G8OO just could not obviously hear me at all in spite of numerous attempts at calling them. It was much the same for many other aborted G contacts, yet propagation seemed to be quite fair over longer distances to GI, GW, GM and PA.
We didn't have the benefit of Roger's usual high score this time since G3LDI had his Flex software setup scrambled due to an untimely Windows 10 update.
Entries have not closed yet so it is too early to predict any raw scores or positions, we just have to hope that we did our best.
Looking at the numbers of QSOs for each of the teams is it just possible that we may reclaim some of our lost points in the previous CW contest.
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Thursday 29th October is the next event and will be SSB and we shall really need as many logs as possible.
If we are to stand any chance of winning this series we must have as many contacts as possible for this event.
It really is "All hands to the pumps, chaps or we're going down in flames."
Please submit a log on behalf of NARC even for just a few contacts, every point counts towards the end result.
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The previously good 80m evening conditions with a high foF2 critical frequency have begun to show a downward trend as we move further into Autumn.
We could experience a sudden drop in inter-G propagation, even in mid contest, as October and November can be rather unpredictable on 80m. So, make a prompt start at 20:00 local time as propagation may worsen before the 21:30 finish.
You may check the foF2 critical frequency by visiting the Propquest website:
http://www.propquest.co.uk/graphs.php
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What's next?
The rest of the 80m Autumn Series dates:
Thursday 29th October SSB.
Monday 2nd November DATA.
Wednesday 11th November SSB.
Thursday 26th November CW.
Rules:
https://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2020/rautumn.shtml
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For those who really enjoy RTTY then this weekend is the JARTS WW RTTY contest.
Begins on Saturday 17th October at 00:00 utc and ends at 24:00utc on Sunday 18th.
Single operator on contest bands 80m through 10m, exchange RST and operators age (YLs may send 00 and club stations may send 99).
Rules below:
http://jarts.jp/rules2020.html
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For VHF enthusiasts this Sunday (18/10/20) 0900 to 1300utc it will be the RSGB 50MHz AFS contest which is part of the cumulative AFS Super League Series for 2020/2021 for affiliated club teams of 4 operators.
Take care to read the Special Rules for this contest:
https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/contest_rules.pl?year=2020&contest=2nd50MHz
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Also on Sunday 18th October it will be the 80m RSGB ROLO CW Contest from 1900 to 2030utc.
ROLO is ROtating LOcator contest using 100W maximum on 3520kHz to 3560kHz.
Send RST, then for the first contact entrants send your own six character QRA Locator, eg. JO02UN.
For each subsequent contact send RST plus the Locator exactly as received from the previous contact, even if received as IO02UN, which is in the Atlantic ocean.
Accuracy is the essence of this contest and points will be lost for not accurately logging and re-sending the previously received locator.
Stay alert and please do not send your own locator for every contact.
Points from this contest will contribute to individual scores for the Annual HF Championship for 2020.
Rules at:
https://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2020/rolo.shtml
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Other contests worldwide may be found on the website for the Contest Calendar by Bruce WA7BNM.
https://www.contestcalendar.com/weeklycont.php#9858
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The Friday evening Contest Net at 20:00 local time will continue at the usual time but will change frequency to 145.275MHz to make way for a new GB2CW Beginner's class which will be held on the usual 145.250MHz frequency at 20:00.
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Please help your club by operating in the Autumn Series contests on 80m.
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73 John G8VPE
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