Contest News – 27 December 2015

The Marathon from the UK Six Metre Group ends on 31 January. There is no contest exchange, however the normal QSO data must be recorded. The scoring is one point per unique four digit locator worked. Logs are submitted via the UKSMG website in ADIF format.

The Christmas Cumulatives end on Tuesday, the 29th. Activity is on all bands between 50 and 432MHz each day from 1400 to 1600UTC and the trick to doing well is to be agile, turning beams regularly and band hopping as necessary. The exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.

The first few days of the New Year are really busy for contests. The IRTS 80m Counties Contest takes place on New Year’s Day. Only QSOs with EI and GI count for points.

The ARRL RTTY Roundup takes place for 30 hours over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd. Send a signal report and serial number, but expect to receive a signal report plus a state code from US stations and a province code from Canadians. Multipliers count just once, not once per band, and entrants are limited to a maximum operating time of 24 hours.

Next come the two sessions of the European 160m CW Party. The first is on the evening of the 2nd between 20000 and 2300UTC and the second is in the early hours of the 3rd between 0400 and 0700UTC. What you send your QSO partners depends on whether you are a member of a club that’s affiliated to the Association. In the UK that means FOC, FISTS, G-QRP and the Essex CW Club. If you are, send RST + name + club abbreviation + membership number; otherwise send RST + name + ‘NM’ for non member. You can work the same station in each session.

The UKEICC 80m series resumes after its month off, with SSB on the 6th. Exchange the first four characters of your locator (e.g. IO94). Upload your log within one hour of the contest end and expect provisional results to be posted within minutes of the entry deadline.

On the 5th the 144MHz UKAC runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator.

Finally, on Sunday the 10th the CW AFS takes place from 1400 to 1800UTC. Using the 3.5 and 7MHz bands the exchange is signal report and serial number.

Category: GB2RS Contest News