Radio Society of Great Britain. Official HF Contest Results
Results. National Field Day 2009
Check logs are gratefully acknowledged from 2E0BFJ, A65BD, C4Z, G0WHO, G3GMM, G3HKO, G3LHJ, G3VQO, G3ZRJ, G4AIU, G4BVY, G4MEM/P, G4WGE, G5JJ, G5XV/P, G6CSY, G6OKU, G8LED/P, JA6DIJ, K3ZO, M5ALG, N7FF, OZ/G4DDL, PA3AAV, WB1FJH & YL3DX National Field Day 2009 INTRODUCTION The first weekend in June came around (as it does every year) and groups of radio amateurs from all over the UK armed with tents, caravans, masts, antennas, generators, power cables, radio equipment, cooking gear and a host of other paraphernalia headed for the great outdoors to participate in National Field Day 2009. So how was the weekend for them? The two factors that have the greatest influence on most participants’ memories of NFD in any year are the weather and the radio conditions. 2009 was not kind on either count. As for the weather, a single word sums it all up – rain. The precise details varied from location to location. Some found it wet for setting up, some for taking down and some found it almost continuously wet (often accompanied by thunderstorms). And of course the rain static and lightning crashes served to make operating more difficult. A few stations reported no rain, but found it cold and windy. Only 2 stations reported kind and sunny weather. At our Dartmoor site, the off duty operators invented a new game which involved betting on whether the pools of water on the domed roof of the tent would drain off to the left or the right. This, one has to admit, is pretty sad. The long hoped for upturn in the sunspot cycle didn’t materialise either. The total number of contacts made by UK entrants was 34550 – almost exactly the same as last year. However, because of the smaller number of entrants this resulted in a higher average number of contacts per entrant. Entrants’ comments on conditions seemed fairly evenly balanced, but the consensus was that the LF bands were a bit below par and plagued with static, whereas 10m was quite good. A more detailed band by band analysis follows later. The number of entrants for NFD 2009 was 48, with stations active from all parts of the UK except Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. This was somewhat down from 55 in 2008. The number of entrants in the Open section increased to 13, continuing the recent trend, and those in the Low Power section were almost static at 11. However, there was a significant reduction, from 33 to 24, in the Restricted section. The reasons why previous entrants decided not to take part in 2009 are various, but two are worthy of note. One club lost access to their site as it had been the scene of a crime two days before the event (the club in question deny any responsibility): the police had declared it off limits and it was not possible to find an alternative. Another suffered a generator failure but were able to tap into a mains feed at the farm. Despite the fact that this made them ineligible to enter the contest, they stayed on the air and submitted a check log. Although around 40% of the entries were from dedicated contest groups, the rest were from more traditional clubs for whom NFD appears to be a regular part of the calendar. 30 of this year’s entrants also participated last year, and a further 15 have taken part in two out of the last three years. It is sad to report that Pat G3MA (who must be the supreme example of continuity in NFD, having operated in every NFD that has taken place since 1934) was unable to do so this year following a stroke. We wish him all the best for a successful recovery. Conversely, eight entrants were either first timers or had not entered NFD for several years. Particular mention should be made of the QRS Badgers CG operating from the Hebrides, who were first time entrants and consist of a mother, son and his wife plus a friend. They say they enjoyed the event and promise to be back next year. LEADERS AND AWARDS Full results have been published elsewhere on this website, and will also be published in the forthcoming Radcom contest supplement, but the leaders are as follows: • In the Open section, the winner was the Manx Kippers GD0EMG/P (a non entrant last year) with what is believed to be the highest score ever achieved in NFD. The runner up was last year’s Open section runner up Orkney ARC GM3POI/P • In the Restricted section, the winner was the Flying Pigs CG G0IVZ/P (up from third in this section last year). The runner up for the second year running was the Three As CG G0AAA/P (operating from England for the first time in several years) • In the Low Power section, the winner was the Cray Valley RS G3RCV/P (operating in this section for the first time after several years as Restricted) with a number of QSOs almost double that of last year’s winner. The runner up, as last year, was the Reading & DARC G3ULT/P. Trophies are awarded as follows:
CONTEST ADMINSTRATION All entrants’ logs were received electronically again this year, although a couple of check logs were received in paper form and were typed up by members of the Contest Committee. For the first time in NFD the robot was used for submission of logs. This appears to have been well received by entrants, and has simplified the task of the adjudicator by automatically flagging log problems to the submitter, who can generally deal with them at source. Logs were as usual exchanged with other Region 1 National Societies who hold their CW Field Days on the same weekend as NFD, in order to enhance the thoroughness of the checking process. The number of such logs grows each year, and it is particularly gratifying to notice the increased number of Russian portables appearing. This year a pool of 562 logs was available (including the UK entrants’ logs and 26 checklogs, for which the Contest Committee thanks those who submitted them). This meant that a high level of checking was possible: on the basis of one representative log, it was possible to check 68% of contacts, whereas with only UK logs a much smaller proportion of contacts (16%) could have been cross checked. As usual, all logs were rescored to a common standard, and all contacts run through the checking software. This resulted in a list of just under 3000 contacts which had to be individually checked, of which 47% resulted in loss of points. Error rates varied between a creditable 0.8% and 37.0%. The most common errors were misread callsigns, contacts not appearing in the other station’s log and incorrect serial numbers. Eight station inspections were carried out, and many thanks are due to the inspectors for their effort. All stations were found to be fully in order, and the inspectees welcoming. However the station who commented that the arrival of the inspector corresponded to the onset of the rain appears to over-rate the influence of the Contest Committee! INDIVIDUAL BAND REPORTS Activity on 160m built up rapidly from around 2045 UTC (all times in this report are in UTC), peaking between 2200 & 2300, then tailing away gradually with the last QSOs taking place at 0350 (with the exception of a few “mop ups” after daylight). Nearly all QSOs were with Europe and the European part of the former Soviet Union, but a single RA9 and a W3 appear in the logs. 80m followed a similar pattern but over a more extended period: activity ramped up from around 2015 and was fairly constant until around 0430, again with a few “tail enders” after daybreak. As for 160m, the majority of contacts were with Europe but a dozen East coast North American stations, together with single RX9 and ZL4 calls, also appear. 40m supported QSOs throughout the whole 24 hours of the contest and seems generally to have been used when the other bands were not at their best. This view is supported by the fact that there was a dip in activity between 2100 and 0400 when 160m and 80m were busy, and a peak between 0500 & 0600 after those bands had closed and before the daytime bands (in particular 20m) had opened. QSOs were mostly with Europe but over 70 North American calls, accounting for 230 QSOs, and a fair number of Asian stations, together with single VK2, VP8, VU and ZL2 calls, also appear. Overall, 20m carried the largest number of QSOs (11041) from UK stations, exceeding 40m by over 25%. It was also the band on which the largest number of countries were contacted by UK stations (66 as compared with 53 on 40m). It supported a high level of activity for the first 2 hours of the contest. Thereafter activity dropped by approximately one half (probably due to the fact that stations had moved to 15m & 10m) but contacts continued to be available until late in the evening. After 2045 the QSO rate had dropped substantially until by 2300 the bulk of UK activity was from Open section stations using beams. In particular, the single band entry from M0HWC/P was able to make contacts (mostly with North America) until 0100. Following a gap between 0100 and 0240 in which there was no activity, it was possible to make a few QSOs per hour until activity picked up again around 0515, a good QSO rate being maintainable thereafter until the end of the contest. Apart from the European QSOs (which were the majority) a fair sprinkling of Asian stations appear in the logs. There was also a strong North American presence, with around 150 calls appearing. DX worked included 9M6, 9V1, V5, VK2, VK3, VK6, VR and VP8. Contacts were available on 15m from the start of the contest, with activity rising to a peak between 1900 & 1915 and thereafter dropping off rapidly until the last QSO was made at 2009 (apart from a single contact with FS at 2212). Significant activity resumed at 0640, and contacts continued to be made until the end, with peaks between 0900 & 1000 and 1200 & 1300. Contacts were mostly with Europe with a sprinkling of Asian stations, and a few DX stations (mostly on North / South paths) in the form of V5, VP8, ZD8 and YV. 10m followed a broadly similar pattern to 15m, but at a lower level of traffic. There was activity from 1500 peaking between 1715 & 1730, then dying away by 2030. Contacts recommenced at 0645 and continued, with considerable short term rate fluctuations characteristic of sporadic E, until the close. QSOs were almost all with Europe, with a handful of Asian stations and single 5N, KP4 & ZD8 stations appearing in some logs. EQUIPMENT AND ANTENNAS Only just over half of entrants provided details this year, which is a shame. However, based on what is available, it appears that the long supremacy of the FT1000 series as an NFD rig has finally passed. The most commonly appearing transceiver in 2009 was the Elecraft K2/3 series, with nine in use. Other rigs used by more than one station were the Yaesu FT1000 series (four in use), Icom 756 series (three), and Ten-Tec Orion (two). Other stations used a surprising variety of transceivers from the Yaesu / Kenwood / Icom ranges. NFD antennas seem to fairly standardised now, with Open section stations typically using tri-banders, supported by dipoles (sometimes at differing heights to optimise radiation angle) for the LF bands. For the Restricted and Low Power sections, doublets or inverted Vs of varying length (around 265ft being the most common) and fed with tuned feeder are favourite. Others appearing were verticals, Windoms, longwires, V beams and in one case a 3m whip on a car! A growing number of stations now appear to be using automatic ATUs. As for logging programs, SD, Wintest and N1MM were each used by a number of stations: a number of other commercial and homebrew programs were also in use. GM0ADX/P commented that they were operating from an ex-army tent with the date 1940 stencilled on it. And another station was using PA components from a wartime T1154 transmitter in some of its ATUs (and still managed to get one to cook up on 100W as a result of selecting the wrong taps....). Are there any other clubs using really old kit in their NFD stations? If so, please provide details in your comments next year. PROBLEMS The writer sometimes feels that the part of the NFD report that readers enjoy most is the listing of other folks’ woes. Sadly (or perhaps fortunately) 2009 provides fairly thin pickings – apart from the weather of course, which forced several stations to finish early. Many groups reported minor problems on site that were successfully resolved – but in one instance involving a visit to a garden centre, for canes, ties, etc. Computers seem to be causing fewer problems nowadays (although one group reported having trouble with port drivers). And only 2 groups reported generator problems – although one was serious enough to cause the group in question to abandon their entry & drop back to submission of a checklog. 2009’s main problem focus seemed to be on ATUs. Difficulties included trouble tuning up on all bands, RF getting back into the shack necessitating the use of reduced power, and radiation from an ATU PSU. But one real corker occurred after the event. Having survived the whole weekend, involving a 400 mile round trip and including a ride on a quad bike and trailer, the writer’s IC7800 was being unloaded at home when the transit case did a 180 degree flip and deposited the rig front panel down on the pavement, shattering the main dial and bending several other controls. In a classic case of shutting the stable door after the horse has gone, the case has been redesigned ready for next year. But I guess that’s what we take out insurance for...... BOOK NOW FOR NEXT YEAR.... Finally, a cautionary tale. We all understand the need to respect the countryside, and most groups take particular care to ensure that they haven’t left anything behind on site. However, the long grass and heavy rain while dismantling their station meant that the writer’s group didn’t “walk the site” as carefully as we should have done. As a result, we failed to find one of the guy sets lying in the grass. Unfortunately the grass cutting machine that was getting in the hay 3 months later found it for us. Although it took 40 minutes to untangle the resultant mess, fortunately no long term damage was done to either the farm machinery or the relationship with the farmer. But it does focus the mind somewhat – so please remember the old motto “leave nothing but your thanks”. Looking ahead to 2010, it is hoped that experience of the event itself will not deter existing entrants from doing so again, and that this report will not put off prospective new ones. NFD next year is on the weekend of 5/6 June. Please get this date in your diaries now, and encourage your club events secretary to put it on his list for 2010! Quin Collier, G3WRR SOAPBOX: G0AAA/P After the last eight NFDs operating around all the UK we decided to take our van to a seaside location in England for 2009. Our QTH was near Tillingham. Essex. Radio K3. Ant. c/f 160m dipole. Great fun as ever, even without a good 28MHz opening to EU! Please take a look at the website www.G0AAA.com for pictures. G0FBB/P Weather dry but cold - except when the inspector turned up at which point the heavens opened. Fortunately it had all dried up, including the tents, by the time we had to pack away. G0IVZ/P Good 10m Conditions made up for a rather mediocre performance on 160m this year. Many changes. All change in the computers, software and acilliary hardware. Only rig and antenna/ATU the same. Small change of location required some last minute improvising in the antenna support arrangements. Had to visit local garden centre and improvise a second support from bamboo canes and cable ties! G3AKF/P As usual, a very enjoyable contest with good support from RADARC club members. A damp Saturday but fortunately our club tent only had a few drips. Managed to sleep through a thunderstorm Sun 0500! G3BJ/P A return to NFD for G3BJ after 10 years. Not a good start - software problems with port drivers delayed us at the start. Incessant rain and gusting winds made it uncomfortable,and the antenna broke at 06.00. To crown it all , the generator failed 75 minutes before the end. But it was fun - and we will do better next year G3GHN/P I have had a computer from the BBC days i am against the use of computer for sending morse, they will not slow down or ignore slower morse being sent by new user or older members,software can decode morse then resend the callsign with serial number,pls return to the KEY G3IZD/P Decided to give the open section a try for a change but only change to the station was to put up a Butternut in addition to our usual doublet. 10m/15m disappointing as usual. We really need to find out why we can never find much to work there! G3JRM/P Lots of support through the weekend from club members although once again only two cw operators available. The weather was kind to us and all concerned had a great weekend. The first 2 hours was slow going but picked up for the remainder of the contest G3KTZ/P Due to rain and conditions of access road we decided to quit early. Field Day is always great fun whether you win it or just take part. G3LHJ I felt for the guys under canvas with the terrible WX on the Saterday, good to give them some points & good to hear all 6 bands open G3RCV/P One of our ops said before the contest that he would have to leave at midnight and another had a back problem and was therefore not able to spend long in the chair, so we switched to the Low Power section. We looked at last year's winning QSO total which seemed achievable, so we set an aggressive target of 500 Qs with 100 of those on topband. We got to 500 Qs in a little under 10 hours, and were very pleased indeed with a final figure of 61.8 QSOs per watt. We caught good conditions at the start with loud signals and were able to run from time to time. It was nice to get some sleep overnight though one of the operators was woken by water coming into the tent from the torrential downpour outside. New item on the equipment list next year will be a bilge pump. Thanks to G8ITB, G4JED, G3RGS, M0KSJ, 2E0LAG, 2E0RCV for help setting up and tearing down the station and to Kelvin at the Ship pub. G3TBK/P AWFUL WX, thunderstorm lasted for hours & caused low score on 160m. During Sunday afternoon only the low 40m dipole could be used, static levels too high on other antennas. Suspect we missed a 10m opening on Sat evening. Seemed lower proportion of /P stations this year from EU, but above average numbers from UK. Rig FT1000. Antennas TH7, Dipoles for 160-80-40 at max height, 40m dipole at 33 feet. logged with N1MM. G3UES/P We did our traditional Field Day at our traditional location on an island in the Thames between Weybridge and Walton and we had our traditional set of problems. A brand new K3 was put on the air for the first time and it worked well with networked WinTest and two pico-ATX PCs plus a laptop. Our attempt to use a newly designed remotely switched antenna tuner for our 2x40m doublet became a grand fiasco and we ended up using the club's trusted old manually switched tuner which in turn resulted in traditional RF in the shack and we lost in all 3 hours and had to operate with reduced power. We seem to have missed most 10m openings if there were any but we ended up with close to 900 qsos which probably is an all-time record for the club. It rained when we set up, it poured down during the night and it rained again when we took down but it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Great fun as usual, many lessons re-learned as usual - we hope to get another opportunity to learn the lessons again next year. G3ZRJ Glad to give some points to the poor souls out in the pouring rain. G4AIU SD-1426 worked without any problems. Had to stay indoors for this NFD G4ALE/P Wx good for setup but 2 terrible bouts of rain with associated rain static. Conditions seemed a bit up on recent years - but I think we missed the best of 10m. SD / Winkey worked well as usual. G4AYM/P Rig IC718, Antenna 270ft centre fed in inverted V centre at 11m, ATU Heath, Autokeyer homebrew, Logging Software homebrew, Power source 12V battery float charged by Honda generator. Conditions good, scoring rate eteady throughout on quiet spells. Everything worked perfectly. Minor hitch with computer power supply overheating we think. But re-booted and it continued working. Weather - rain, rain and more rain! Thanks for organising an enjoyable weekend. Finally, sorry to say this is the first NFD that Pat G3MA has not participated in. We missed him. Pat sufferred a stroke earlier this year and is still recovering. G4EKT/P First NFD the club has taken part in for a few years we will be back for another go next year. It was enjoyed by all. Used Super Duper with Radio control and Winkey for the first time. It didn't stop all the errors but we're working on it! Oh yes the sun shone! G4FNL/P With just two Ops it's a bit of a struggle to stay awake throughout. 'Murphy' struck with our ATU on 80m and we lost 18mins sorting it out. Very noisy during the night - with heavy rain clattering on the roof of our caravan. Great to hear some strong sigs on 10m G4FRS/P Contest great, but 28 mhz poorer this year. ( paper logged in 'test') 'SD' excellent, but am still having problems with my 'post-logging'..! G5JJ SD good as gold pityabt the dreadful WX! G5YC/P Couldn't commit for a whole weekend, as I was on family duty at a party on Sunday. I managed to get out of the party set up duties and I strung up an antenna in a field behind my in-laws house and had some fun for four dry hours with my K2. Although I tested the set up on Saturday with a few Qs, the laptop refused to play on Sunday, so I was back to a hand key with pen and paper so the log frequencies are therefore arbitrary and the serial numbers a bit of a mess. Balancing a key on my knee led to some dodgy sending as well. Conditions seemed Ok - a spot of Es on 10, but 15 was flat so 20m took the brunt of the work. Can't comment on the other bands. Club: Imperial College Amateur Radio Society. K2 and V beam 40m per leg, 120 degree apex at 10m agl. G6CSY Please find checklog below. Two bands/mode slots filled, and an all time new worked: EK0W/P on 20m. G6YB/P Field Day wouldn't be the same if everything went smoothly, but this year was as close as it gets. The weather was kind to us for during set up after a dire forecast. Just one wee problem with the remote ATU power supply radiating all over 160m and 80m, which was easy to solve, and we were away. Heavy static rain came in overnight and caused about 3 hours of misery on the LF bands, but otherwise the generator, equipment and antenna worked well throughout. Even a little activity on 15m and 10m this year. G8FC/P Everything was going very well until the thunderstorm arrived at 1120 which forced us to go QRT and we never managed to re-start. Station dismantled in pouring rain. G8LED/P After losing our site for NFD this year at just two days notice, didn't want to miss the fun, so this was plan B! GD0EMG/P Condx on 10m seemed ok, from quite an elevated site in GD. LF was very noisy overnight, lots of summer QRN. An enjoyable contest, but with a very small team this year. Our thanks to Robert, GD4GNH, as always for providing the local logistics; including the loan of a FB generator GM0ADX/P A bitterly cold north-easterly wind blew all weekend and reminded us why camping isn't too popular on high hills in south west Scotland. The sun shone and that's what probably kept us alive! We had a long absence from NFD for a number of years until 2008 - and that was a disaster. 2009 was much better in spite of the arctic conditions. We were in our old 1940 ex-army tent. The date is stenciled on the outside and is still perfectly readable. Is this the oldest NFD accommodation still in active use? Only two operators - Steve GM4OSS and Barry GM3YEH - taking 4 hour shifts. Other club members helped with setup and take down. We started at a good pace on HF, mainly 20m with jumps to 10m and 15m to pick up openings there. The pheasants were making so much noise that we had to use headphones all the time. We moved over to LF in the evening and had to change bands frequently to try and keep up the Q rate. Early afternoon on Sunday was slow but a couple of hours before the end conditions picked up again and we were going well again. No serious DX worked but some VE/W contacts on 40m and 80m. We were extremely pleased with our final score and will be back next year...hopefully with some extra operators. GM0ELP/P K2, 10w, GP Very windy on Sat, cold on Sun morning. Lots of DLs. 10m seemed to be open during daylight. Could only get the antenna to tune on 10 and 40m but that provided lots of fun. Thanks to all who worked me. GM3BSQ/P Weather pretty chilly but mostly dry. RF in tent made gremlins appear in Winkey rig control. Band conditions good on higher frequency bands. Antenna up with Catapult at first shot!! More flexibility on wire antennas for restricted stns GM3POI/P Conditions better this year on 10m but could be better. PI4OSS/P Gave lower Serials later in the Contest,suspect they start per band GM4FYH/P Operating from Mull. 200Ah AGM Batteries for FT2K and laptop. The DMV Pro antenna was unexpectedly musical in the Hebridean winds. We suspect other campers thought we'd erected a very large wind chime! Very much finding our feet this time. GM4GRC/P Two QSO's on 7mhz rest on 14mhz, conditions bad, rain & cold wind. New generator failed to start, had to resort to smaller one. Good practice for next year! No overnight working and early finish due to work commitments. GM4RGC/P 15m and 10m bands open. Short skip on 20m. 80m noisy and tough. Nice WX & mostly dry but very cold overnight. K2 and SD worked well - operator skill is biggest restriction. Feel that 12 hours is far too short - 16 or 18 hours would be much better but Station on same site as GM3BSQ/P (Aberdeen ARS A) so had always to be on a different band from them which was a big restriction when 10m and 160m were open and the obvious band to be on. M0SCC/P Terrible weather towards the end of setting up the station and then the antennas were not working right so had to leave them as we were all wet thru, came back Saturday to more rain, in the end had to compromise with the 40m antenna as the rotary dipole refused to act like an antenna, we then had trouble with both 40 and 80m , but even after all these problems we still had loads of fun and for out first /P outing we did not do too bad. |
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