[UK-CONTEST] VHF NFD etc.

[Ken Eastty]

This weekend may not be the best choice for a contest at least for anyone
operating from a fixed station who might (!) have EMC problems what with
Wimbledon tennis finals and the BGP on Sunday.

Finding enough Cheltenham club members with sufficient interenst to enter a
portable contest was difficult for HF NFD but to enter a major event like
VHF NFD just one month later is virtually impossible. How did we ever find
ourselves in this situation? I think that holding VHF NFD in September was
much better especially as the weather in September often gives rise to
better tropo conditions than are found in July. The best I might manage this
weekend and weather permitting is a few hours /P on Sunday morning on 4m.

With regard to the 'ownership' of frequencies some the worst offenders are
the SSTV mob on 80m, how dare anyone use 'their' frequency? It's very
noticeable that if during AFS SSB anyone comes near the SSTV 'centre of
activity' frequency SSTV signals which weren't there before suddenly appear
however this anti-social activity is not just restricted  to when there's a
contest taking place.

On the topic of 'active' stations I doubt that the DXcluster is a very
useful indicator. I see that I was 'spotted' a few times last year but all
of these spots were for VHF activity, mainly on 4m although I was active for
part of the time in various HF contests. This year's activity during CW &
SSB AFS on 80 and some activity in BERU unsurprisingly didn't get a single
spot. G3's might be an endangered spices but not (yet) close enough to
extinction to warrant spots on the Cluster! Even 800 QSO's by G5BK/P in HF
NFD didn't generate a single spot.
I don't know how the database used in 'RufzXP' was compiled but this seems
to contain many 'G' callsigns that I recognise as being 'active' on the DX
bands as opposed to the general run of the mill 'rag-chewer's'

73....

Ken

G3LVP



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