DATE: MARCH 2015 |
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PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS: 2013 -- January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. 2014 -- January, February, March, April, April special, May, May special, June, July, August, September, October, October special, November, December, December upissue. |
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| Monday | 2nd March 2015 | 80m Club Championship Contest (data) | 2000 - 2130 UTC |
| Tuesday | 3rd March 2015 | 144MHz UK Activity Contest | 2000 - 2230 UTC |
| Saturday - Sunday | 7th - 8th March 2015 | March 144 / 432 MHz Contest | 1400 - 1400 UTC |
| Tuesday | 10th March 2015 | 432MHz UK Activity Contest | 2000 - 2230 UTC |
| Wednesday | 11th March 2015 | 80m Club Championship Contest (CW) | 2000 - 2130 UTC |
| Saturday - Sunday | 14th - 15th March 2015 | Commonwealth Contest (BERU) (3.5 /7 14 / 21 /21 MHz CW) | 1000 - 1000 UTC |
| Sunday | 15th March 2015 | 70MHz Cumulative Contest #2 | 1000 - 1200 UTC |
| Tuesday | 17th March 2015 | 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest | 2000 - 2230 UTC |
| Thursday | 19th March 2015 | 80m Club Championship Contest (SSB) | 2000 - 2130 UTC |
| Tuesday | 24th March 2015 | 50MHz UK Activity Contest | 2000 - 2230 UTC |
| Tuesday | 24th March 2015 | SHF UK Activity Contest | 2000 - 2230 UTC except 2.3GHz 2030 - 2230 UTC |
| Tuesday | 31st March 2015 | 70MHz UK Activity Contest | 2000 - 2230 UTC |
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| Sunday | 5th April 2015 | 1st 70MHz Contest | 0900 - 1200 UTC |
| Sunday | 5th April 2015 | ROPOCO Contest (SSB - 3.5MHz) | 1900 - 2030 UTC |
| Monday | 6th April 2015 | 80m Club Championship Contest (CW) | 1900 - 2030 UTC |
| Tuesday | 7th April 2015 | 144MHz UK Activity Contest | 1900 - 2130 UTC |
| Tuesday | 14th April 2015 | 432MHz UK Activity Contest | 1900 - 2130 UTC |
| Wednesday | 15th April 2015 | 80m Club Championship Contest (SSB) | 1900 - 2030 UTC |
| Tuesday | 21st April 2015 | 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest | 1900 - 2130 UTC |
| Sunday | 12th April 2015 | 1st 50MHz Contest | 0900 - 1200 UTC |
| Thursday | 23rd April 2015 | 80m Club Championship Contest (data) | 1900 - 2030 UTC |
| Tuesday | 28th April 2015 | 50MHz UK Activity Contest | 1900 - 2130 UTC |
| Tuesday | 28th April 2015 | SHF UK Activity Contest | 1900 - 2130 UTC except 2.3GHz 1930 - 2130 UTC |
The full 2015 RSGB contest calendars and rules for the above contests are available
here (HF)
and here (VHF).
OTHER UK VHF/UHF CONTESTS IN MARCH 2015 (by John G3XDY)
The UK Microwave Group 1.3/2.3/3.4 GHz Contest will take place on Sunday 8th March from 1000 - 1600 UTC. The rules are
available here.
OTHER EUROPEAN VHF/UHF CONTESTS IN MARCH 2015 (by John G3XDY)
A number of readers have commented on the recent absence of a link from the Newsletter to a coordinated IARU R1 VHF contest calendar
for 2015. In the current absence of such a calendar, the following links point to the individual organisations' calendars:
France
Germany
Netherlands
Belgium
Denmark
Czech Republic
Sweden
Switzerland
Spain
AGCW.
OTHER HF CONTESTS IN MARCH 2015 (by Quin G3WRR)
For more data on a wide range HF contests, the SM3CER website is a very useful source of information.
Another useful source of HF contest information is at http://www.hb9dhg.ch , which can be reached by clicking
here, and clicking on "Contest Calendar".
RECENT RESULTS (by Quin G3WRR & John G3XDY)
The following results have been published or updated since
the previous Newsletter:
50MHz UKAC
144MHz UKAC
432MHz UKAC
1.3GHz UKAC
SHF UKAC
Overall UKAC
80m Club Championship (SSB)
HF AFS (SSB)
AFRICAN DX CONTEST (by Quin G3WRR)
Some readers may have noticed that the SARL contest calendar shows the All Africa DX Competition as running from 1200 UTC on 14th March to 1200 UTC on 15th March. As this largely overlaps with BERU, their choice of timing is likely cause problems for both events. The matter has been raised with SARL.
ECLIPSE QSO PARTY (by Quin G3WRR)
Astronomically minded readers will have noticed that there is a partial solar eclipse on 20th March. In conjunction with the RSGB Propagation Studies Committee, who are keen to capture data on what impact a partial eclipse has on propagation, the Contest Committee is organising a QSO Party with the aim of stimulating activity around and during the eclipse period. Details are being worked up, but a dedicated web page showing the latest infomation has been set up, and is available via the CC website home page, or here.
CONTEST COMMITTEE SERVER (by Quin G3WRR)
A couple of server related points....
Firstly, the changeover to the new CC server took place successfully on 30th January. This changeover allows a number of new features to be made
available. The first of these (per log QSO rate comparison plots) has already made an appearance on the AFS SSB results, and has been commented
on favourably: at least one possible enhancement has already been suggested, and more are requested.
Following last month's item on server statistics for 2014, a few comments appeared on the UK contesting reflectors about the interpretation
of the statistics presented. I have now had a chance to drill down into a bit more detail and can give at least a partial answer. The main issue was whether
the quoted figure of 115k+ separate visitors for the whole year was accurate. The answer is that it wasn't - the data available does not include a true
figure for separate visitors for the entire year...the quoted figure for the whole year was in fact the sum of the individual monthly figures
(which are believed to be accurate)! On the principle that it is largely the same visitors who come back every month
and given that the figure for the busiest month (July) was 18535 individual visitors, it can be estimated that the total number of individual
visitors for the year was around 20k. A related question was whether the quoted figures included search engines - and the answer is that they do.
And there I think we should leave this topic - for this year at least!
PSK FREQUENCY ALLOCATION IN 80m CC DATA EVENTS (by Quin G3WRR)
A number of comments have been made on the UK HF contest reflector regarding congestion in the current frequency allocation for PSK stations in the 80m Club
Championship data events (largely due to the increased use of PSK63). The CC believes that the following change would alleviate the problem:
* PSK 3580 - 3590 kHz
* RTTY 3590 - 3625 kHz.
However, any change now to the 2015 rules would not be consistent with the Rules Change Process. Nevertheless , if there is significant feedback in favour
of the proposed change, the CC may be prepared to treat this as a special case and implement it as soon as practical for the remaining 2015 sessions.
Therefore if you have an opinion please e-mail to editor@rsgbcc.org to express your view.
AND FINALLY
That's all for this month - good contesting to you all!
73, Quin G3WRR
For RSGB Contest Committee