[UK-CONTEST] June Low Bands UK Activity Contest - Report

[Ray James]

Hi all,

A very busy evening indeed and a combination of enjoyment and frustration in equal measure. 

Conditions appeared to be enhanced in particular directions but not for extended distances and like last month, gaping gaps when it came to multipliers like IO82, 86, 93, 94, JO01 and 02.
Aircraft paths didn't help much by taking a very westerly path over England much of the time. Great for IO83, 81 and 91 but little else.
QSB was a big problem on most of my longer distance attempts and resulted in a frustrating number of incomplete contacts including G0RUZ, G3NNG and G3MWQ.  

ODX was a contact with Kjeld OZ1FF at 782Km. We had earlier established there was no tropo on the path so became dependent purely on aircraft of which there were very few. Like buses, two showed up together on the OZ path whilst I was trying to work G3XDY but hearing nothing of John and no aircraft near our particular mid-point, prudence dictated I do something I prefer not to do and that is break off an attempt early in order to work Kjeld.

Nick GM0HIK was a very good signal from the island of Islay (IO65UO) despite using 30m of feeder which he estimates gave him 6db loss. Three initials this month came with John GM8OTI/P on the Pentland Hills whose 400mW was 59+ with me. Andy GM4JR in Dumfries was another welcome new addition to the Scottish contingent on 23cm and finally Colin G3WKZ near Reading made it into the log for the first time.

Despite running only 2w, the change of feeder from RG213 to LDF5-50 by Richard G4HGI (IO83) helped him towards making a good contact on CW. 

The majority of my contacts were made from CQ calls and tuning around but I still missed a lot of the activity that was available due to lack of time and was still working stations up until the last minute. 13cm activation is not far off at this end but it does concern me that something will need to "give" when there is more than one band to concentrate on at the same time, in particular when I consider how long it sometimes takes to make a contact on 23cm. The longest duration last night was 10 minutes though when I was running 10w in the past that would have been about normal and the record was 45 minutes! Considering that 23cm activity has taken off the way it has, trying to do well on 13cm becomes questionable so perhaps this contest would benefit from a band split with 23cm on the 3rd Tuesday and 13cm on the 4th? The 4th Tuesday would clash with the 4m UKAC but advantages outweigh the disadvantage in my opinion.
A 4th Tuesday 13cm UKAC would coincide with the 13cm Nordic Activity Contest and give greater impetus to increasing activity on the band like we have experienced on 23cm. 

My contact map for this months contest can be viewed at http://www.rsgbcc.org/vhf/kml_files/2010/c4gIVCgidyptUkk7VtyLp1JA

73 Ray GM4CXM