TEAM entries – watch for the deadline!!!

Team member entries must be sent to:

commonwealth.contest@rsgbcc.org

no later that seven days before the contest.

73

John G4CZB

Call for UK&CD Headquarter Operators

The RSGB Commonwealth Contest takes place over the weekend of March 11-12. We are looking for operators to activate the area based UK&CD Headquarter stations which this year will be based on G(*)5WS following on from the success of the Transatlantic Tests event. For historical reasons GB5CC will again be available to be activated in any UK&CD area. The list is:-

• G5WS
• GD5WS
• GI5WS
• GJ5WS
• GM5WS
• GU5WS
• GW5WS
• GB5CC

To be fair for all Commonwealth stations seeking out these callsigns we are looking for operators capable of putting out a good signal on all bands 80-10m (all likely to be open at some point this year to different parts of the Commonwealth) and able to operate for the whole 24 hours. HQ stations are also classed as Multi-Op.

In the case of multiple suitable offers (eg for G5WS and GB5CC) we will give preference to anyone who hasn’t operated these calls in the previous couple of years.

Thanks!

73, Stew GW0ETF (obo HFCC)

Long path propagation SOTA event over BERU weekend

Mike, 2E0YYY, Andrew, VK1DA and Ed, DD5LP are planning another long path propagation SOTA Summit to Summit event for 11 March starting at 0630 UTC.

Activity will be SSB or CW on 20 metres and going by the last action in October 2016, over 30 summits are expected to be active concurrently over Europe, Australia, New Zealand and possibly Japan.

Check reflector.sota.org.uk for details.

Quake Contesters Commonwealth Medal

Hi Bob

Just a quick note to say thanks for all your efforts in arranging the Commonwealth Medal to be presented to Phil Holliday at the CDXC event.
He got quite a shock when he was called up and it really made his day.
73
Mark ZL3AB

-- 
Member ZL3X The Quake Contesters

M7T

I did a fun entry total of 4 hours and thirty minutes in blocks of time over Saturday afternoon/evening.

QSO total was 114 by S&P no running. No Qs on 10m. GB5CC only heard and worked on 80 and 40m.

Notable Qs:
80m VK6, VO1, VY2, VP9.

40m was a good band with AT1HQ, J34G, VE1,2,3,9, VK2,3,4,6,7, VO, VP9, ZB2, ZL, 9V, even C4Z. Last Q was difficult with a VE3 as he was sending too fast for the multi-path auroral propagation was blurring his CW – a case of less haste more speed.

20m Worked C6ANM on same QRG as a stronger VK on the long path. Took a couple of NR? to get C6 NR but probably I am in the VK log twice as I had worked him earlier.

15m Nice to work 9J2BO as I normally do in BERU.

Only worked one on 4 bands VO1LET, but a number on 3: 40/20/15: CJ3T, J34G,VE3EJ, VE3FU, VE3UTT, VE9ML, VY2ZM; 80/40/20 VK6LW,VO1HP.

Did not hear anyone call CQ CC. CQ BERU is a more distinctive sound. Let’s forget the politically correct stuff and go for what the democratic majority actually want and do.

73 David G3YYD

C4Z

That certainly was a challenge, it is little consolation to know that we were all batting on the same wicket The deep fade outs
were a problem and from here it was UK which was most affected, I had few problems with the dx. I had to abandon more contacts then ever before, sorry guys if you were one but you just faded away and did not return.

Without an 80m ant I had decided to do a 12 hr but in the event when it was sleep time I had less than 2 hrs remaining and I wanted to catch the dawn LP to Oceania on 20m, plus some dx on the higher bands later (that didn’t really happen) so I did around 14hrs in total.  LP didn’t happen on 40 or 15 but it was my  best ever numbers of ZL and a lot of VK’s in this event. By the time it was UK dawn some two hours later I wasn’t hearing them, cndx had changed.

40m SP Saturday evening was also best ever for ZL and worst ever for VK, no west dx on that band beyond VE3 although I did hear VA7RAC  at my dawn but couldn’t raise him. No VK on 80m nor ZL on 10/15/80.

I was pleased to work all of the UK travelers on at least two bands but how miserable were the cndx to the Carribean – on 20m, a band we can always rely on.  I couldn’t find any of them there on Saturday evening unless I left it too late. the band closes here a couple of hours ahead of UK. Bob J34G was the star with four bands 10 thru 40, he found me most, if not all, times. Alan at 5X & Mike at VP9 were great signals when I worked them. Peter at VO1  had a good score when I last heard him but seemed to have hearing problems on 20m, Sat evening he was loud but cq’ing in my face when I called him to no avail,same again same band this morning.

I did miss Dave, G4BUO and imagined that he must have broken both his arms since I doubt he has ever failed to turn out for Beru since he was a teenager!

Scores on the door.

24hr Open

10M – q’s 78    Bonus 15.
15M – Q’s 173   ”    40
20M – Q’s 293   ”    64
40M – Q’s 152   ”    38
80M – Q’s   5   ”     5

Total Q’s 699- less 5 dupes.   Total Bonus 162

Total Points  –  6718.

My score won’t survive checking. Having needed so many difficult fills my UBN is going to look ugly!, but despite all it was the usual fun and favourite event.

73  Brian C4Z / 5B4AIZ.

VO1LET

Yes, apologies for that Brian! I think due to the dry weather, there was
cycling static that affected all bands. It would gradually rise in level
for several minutes and then discharge in a huge burst to leave a quiet
life for maybe half a minute before accumulating again. Didn’t spot it
when I did my noise survey earlier in the week . . .

Life was tough on the HF bands up here, not a sniff on 10 and very little
on 15. Even 20 was quite dead from dusk until a 15 minute opening right at
the end for a few remaining G’s. So most of my meagre score was on 40 and
80, despite the noise issue.

QSO/bonus totals were

80m – 153/26
40m – 226/56
20m – 181/24 !
15m – 33/20

Total score just 5485

Couldn’t raise Brian BO and the only African was V51YJ. Nothing heard at
all from 5X1XA. Probably the highlight was one of the few DX CQ replies,
from ZL/G3SGX, which took an age to complete as a result of the pulsed
noise issue. Sorry folks to those I just couldn’t hear (in addition to
Brian!)

Great fun though as always – meeting up with old buddies is what it’s all
about!
And yes, a certain Midlands station WAS calling CQ CC and stood out like
the sore proverbial . . .

73, Peter VO1LET

G3PSM

Well I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

I started 5 hours into the contest and found 10 dead and made just 3
QSOs on 15 before the band apparently closed.

That said I did work everything I could hear apart from James 9V1YC and
ZL4PW. Oh and the VUs who I guess have very high noise levels.
Certainly AT1HQ didn’t seem to be hearing very much at all but I’ve
never worked so many VKs on 40 in one session.

So 9 hours after starting I called it a day with 85 Q’s in the log for
my 100 Watt, restricted, unassisted session. Not sure about N1MM+
scoring but it says 1,940.

Must do better where possible.

73

Colin, G3PSM

J79XF

The first QTH was so noisy (same place that John G3LZQ stayed at several years ago
At 19z on Saturday I took the antennas down, packed up the station and moved to a 
different location about 200yds down the road! At the second location I only put u
p antennas for 40 and 80, but the location was so much quieter than the first. 
Finish with 753 QSOs. Log already uploaded.

73 - Nigel J79XF

GB5CC ready to go!

Folks

An update: today, I received the NoV for GB5CC. 
So everything should be OK for the contest...

73 Graham G4FNL