Contest News – 21 December 2014

The UK Six Metre Group’s Winter Marathon began on the 1st and continues for two months. The Winter Marathon isn’t a contest in the traditional sense; it’s basically a way of promoting activity on 6m during the winter. There are no points for individual QSOs; just for working as many locator squares as possible. You can claim the squares worked in any 6m contest over the period, as well as non-contest QSOs. The exchange is simply signal report and locator.

For anyone wanting a good excuse to disappear into the shack on Boxing Day—and the three following days—the Christmas Cumulatives run for two hours on the 26th to the 29th. 6m, 4m, 2m and 70cm are in use each day, so band hopping is essential if you want to do well. Operations take place from 1400 to 1600UTC each day and the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.

The DARC Christmas Contest runs for 2½ hours on Boxing Day morning. There isn’t likely to be much propagation between the UK and Germany on 80m at this time of day, so 40m will carry most of the traffic for participating UK stations. Starting at 0830UTC the exchange is signal report and serial number, with DL stations sending DOK or NM.

Finally, the RAC Canada Winter Contest is on Saturday 27th from 0000 to 2359UTC. There are numerous entry categories and everyone can work everyone, but concentrate on working Canada because Canadian provinces and territories are where the multipliers are. Certificates are on offer to the winner of each category in each DXCC entity. You can use the 1.8 to 144MHz bands, either CW or phone. The exchange is signal report and serial number, with VE stations also sending their province code.

Category: GB2RS Contest News