[UK-CONTEST] UK-Contest Digest, Vol 97, Issue 7

Wed Jan 5 15:45:44 PST 2011

On 05/01/2011 20:00, uk-contest-request at contesting.com wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
>     1. Re: 144MHz UKAC last night (Roger Thawley)
>     2. Re: 144MHz UKAC last night (Ray James)
>     3. Re: 3rd Jan 80m CC [CW] (Ian Pritchard)
>     4. Re: 144MHz UKAC last night (Jonathan G0DVJ)
>     5. Re: 3rd Jan 80m CC [CW] (Jonathan G0DVJ)
>     6. Re: 144MHz UKAC last night (Mike Goodey)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 15:04:57 -0000
> From: Roger Thawley<roger.thawley at sky.com>
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 144MHz UKAC last night
> To: "'Dave Sergeant'"<dave at davesergeant.com>,	"'UK Contest List'"
> 	<uk-contest at contesting.com>
> Message-ID:<07E3B6B2CD9A42C7A8679F7ED148EC0B at radio>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="US-ASCII"
>
> Dave, Thanks, I've passed this on to the contest partner I was with to check
> if he's up to date.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Roger
>
>
> v1.5.2, the latest, issued on December 30th, cures various things to do
> with the logging time.  If you have found a different bug then please
> report it on the Minos reflector.
>
> 73 Dave G3YMC
>
>   <http://www.davesergeant.com>  http://www.davesergeant.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 17:06:57 +0000 (GMT)
> From: Ray James<gm4cxm at yahoo.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 144MHz UKAC last night
> To: uk-contest at contesting.com
> Message-ID:<12818.37045.qm at web24101.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> --- On Wed, 5/1/11, g6nhu at me.com<g6nhu at me.com>  wrote:
>
>> I wonder how people found the first
>> 144MHz UKAC last night under the new multiplier rules?
> Very poor conditions up here plus an antenna problem was found that limited my own participation
> What was certainly apparent was a substantial increase in the number and geographical spread of "GM" activity which is an area I expect to see grow even further this year.
> There was limited "DX entry" participantion which came as no surprise as it is mainly the remoter areas of the UK with no chance of a high position who need resources like KST/DXC to be able to have some fun with a smaller number of total contacts in relation to what can be achieved in populous areas.
>
> We may see some element of regular "top spot" position changes each month. The contest has more feel of being a competitive event than ever before with a greater need to be tactical. Scores are going to be a lot closer so every contact counts and elusive squares have to be searched for rather than running for 2.5 hours.? ? ?
>
>> it was quite a shock to be told that we were someone's first QSO
>> into JO01 square almost an hour in.
> Worked 2 in JO02, nobody in JO01.
> Well done for flying the JO01 flag Keith.
> Obviously some in JO01 have thrown their rattle out of the pram and prematurely in my opinion. We're only in the first day of claimed scores being submitted and already have more stations with contact numbers in excess of 100 than the final scores for any month in the whole of 2010.
>
>
> Jonathan G0DVJ wrote
>
>> It was a pity not to work many of the regulars but I can totally see>their point. I hope it doesn't dis-suade the continentals to come on too.
>> We are planning to do the first few months and review if its worth it>after that. Would be a pity if the rule change caused less UK activity!
> Initial results appear to show the opposite Jon.
>
>> We spent time looking for extra UK mults and didn't find any.? Did>finally manage to work Ray (CXM) and a station tagging along with him,>but neither were mults as we already had (only) that square in GM.?>Worked token GI and GU mults gratefully, but no GD or GJ last night.?>East coast stations still need to answer calls from EU to get any>distance QSOs (the trip through the hills of the north of England just>doesn't cut it) even though now we don't care if all the DLs are in the>same square.
> Tactics Jonathan!
> You were a very good signal on the one occasion I heard you here in Bearsden (pronounced Bears Den, not Beersdone as appears common south of the border!) and no reason contacts into IO85, IO86 and IO97 would not have forthcoming had you either looked or called this way more often or kept an eye on the DXC. Under M2, it was commonplace up here to mainly hear stations make a flitting search this way and become readable for a short time before beaming elsewhere the rest of the time. This will not work in your favour under M5.
> Not once did I hear anyone in G control a pile-up, they just took every s9 signal first and worked there way through others calling. I and other GM's gave up working quite a few working this way. Competitors should keep a map of UK squares to hand and cross off the ones worked and include calls within CQ's like "looking for IO84 and 95", "any GM, GD or GI", and if a pile-up results from a CQ......a quick "was there a GM or GI calling?". Silence would allow you to work those calling, if no silence then you'll likely be bagging a nice UK DX multiplier in your log rather than someone in a local square you can work any time.
> ? ???
>
>> I gather that some EU administrations have now organised additional>contests to co-incide with the UKACs in 2011 which is rather ironic given>that they are worth less to us now.
> Phew, perfect timing then.
> Under M2, that would have turned the UKAC's into a weekly version of the May/October VHF/UHF IARU contests and we're all aware how unpopular they are UK wide. That would have been a recipe of disasterous consequences for UK wide activity. M5 does nothing to disuade non-UK contacts and the claimed scores thus far show non-UK contacts predominently as ODX. What M5 does do is encourage greater participation within the UK and in making this long called for change, the RSGB Contest Committee are fulfilling a need to put UK VHF+ amateur radio needs first.
>
>
>> I still think the best way to focus these events on UK would be to have>left the square mults alone and added postcode mults too, as is the case>for some other RSGB VHF contests.? ? ?
> Jonathan, I did propose that as well as "Only UK Squares" a low power section to encourage foundationers or those who prefer low power, access to KST/DXC under an assisted (DX) category but as Mick Jagger sang, "You don't always get what you want"!
> What we have been provided by Ed and his team is a recipe for success for VHF+ contesting in the UK and I now look forward with more confidence that we will see activity go from strength to strength nationwide.
>
> Though it doesn't effect me personally, one change that does appear worth consideration is within the Club aspect. I think they would benefit by amendment to "teams" within a club rather than a total club team. The smaller the team number (5?) would allow clubs that can only muster a handful more opportunity to compete rather than being dwarfed.
>
> A Happy New Year to one and all.
>
> 73 Ray GM4CXM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 18:02:38 +0000 (GMT)
> From: Ian Pritchard<g3wvg at btinternet.com>
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 3rd Jan 80m CC [CW]
> To: UK contest list<uk-contest at contesting.com>
> Message-ID:<509943.98854.qm at web86402.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Hello All
>
> Interesting conditions throughout the 80m CC.? I had expected the band to be pretty poor for inter UK QSOs throughout the contest but for me (in Surrey ) it improved dramatically in the last 45 mins or so.?? Today I did a search on the "reverse beacon network comparison tool"? comparing signal strengths of various? high scoring stations (posted on logs received) as received throughout the 90 minutes at various reception points around Europe.? Fascinating stuff.? It would be very interesting to see what antennas everyone was using. ? Most of the stations had comparable patterns of signal strengths but? there were some anomalous results. with a very small number of stations exhibiting as much as a 10db advantage over others.
>
> Check it out at ?? http://www.reversebeacon.net/analysis/
>
> 73 Ian G3WVG
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 18:08:13 +0000
> From: Jonathan G0DVJ<g0dvj at amsat.org>
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 144MHz UKAC last night
> To: UK contest list<uk-contest at contesting.com>
> Message-ID:<F71F5198-8EB1-48DC-B81D-DCA5F4299B2D at amsat.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
> Hi Ray et al.
>
> (Ray if you need to reply again to my points I suggest u do it direct rather than via the list - so we don't make this an endless thread of CXM/DVJ :) )
>
> On 5 Jan 2011, at 17:06, Ray James wrote:
>
>> What was certainly apparent was a substantial increase in the number and geographical spread of "GM" activity which is an area I expect to see grow even further this year.
> Was does substantial mean?  3, 5 10, 20 more GM stations?   How much geog spread?  2, 4, 6 more GM squares?
>
> It might be interesting for the possible squares that were active to be published after the contest adjudication so that we can all see how many we missed.
>
>> Scores are going to be a lot closer so every contact counts and elusive squares have to be searched for rather than running for 2.5 hours.
> We searched as well as calling ... that's how RRA and us found each other (for IO80/JO02)
>
>> Worked 2 in JO02, nobody in JO01.
> Probably PYE/P and us from 02 square.  Amazing that you didn't work JO01 ... maybe more threw out rattles (as you put it) than I thought.
>
>> Tactics Jonathan!
> Well our tactics already included everything you said except the DXC which we don't have there in the club shack - hard enuf to get a cell phone signal where we are.
>
>> You were a very good signal on the one occasion I heard you here and no reason contacts into IO85, IO86 and IO97 would not have forthcoming had you either looked or called this way more often or kept an eye on the DXC.
> You either love cluster or hate it.  Those that prefer to work what *they* find rather than what someone else finds during the contest are obviously going to be penalised.  Those who talk about level playing fields might consider this.  I called and called many times for many minutes solid for GM.   I even included "CQ CXM country" a couple of times during those efforts, as I hoped you'd be on!!
>
>> Under M2, it was commonplace up here to mainly hear stations make a flitting search this way and become readable for a short time before beaming elsewhere the rest of the time. This will not work in your favour under M5.
> I really don't know how to say this for the Nth time ... We did/do not spend a short time looking for GM before beaming elsewhere.
>
>> Not once did I hear anyone in G control a pile-up, they just took every s9 signal first and worked there way through others calling.
> I generally take the weakest first in this situation - not guilty guv!
>
>> Competitors should keep a map of UK squares to hand and cross off the ones worked
> We do this!
>
>> and include calls within CQ's like "looking for IO84 and 95",
> I did this!
>
>> "any GM, GD or GI",
> I did this!!!
>
>> and if a pile-up results from a CQ......a quick "was there a GM or GI calling?".
> When in the relevant direction I do this too!!
>
>> A Happy New Year to one and all.
> Likewise Ray et al.  Hope to work you next month.
>
> 73
> Jonathan G0DVJ
> --
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 18:27:09 +0000
> From: Jonathan G0DVJ<g0dvj at amsat.org>
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 3rd Jan 80m CC [CW]
> To: UK contest list<uk-contest at contesting.com>
> Message-ID:<24FCD32E-F8C1-4421-9919-8D5C38E4C684 at amsat.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
> On 5 Jan 2011, at 18:02, Ian Pritchard wrote:
>
>> Today I did a search on the "reverse beacon network comparison tool"  comparing signal strengths of various  high scoring stations (posted on logs received) as received throughout the 90 minutes at various reception points around Europe.  Fascinating stuff.
> Hi Ian,
>
> I did that analysis too ... (actually I think we missed each other this time in the contest).  But my headache that evening was too bad to do much SO2V at all !
>
> Interesting to see the differences if you for example compare SNRs for you, me, Andy PIQ and Chris WOJ as heard at EI6IZ.   My trace almost mirrors yours but shifted in time until halfway through!   Andy (near me) shows a similar shape curve but shifted in SNR while Chris being much further north shows rather a different shape altogether!
>
> I would like to see in the table who was doing in-band SO2R, SO2V or neither as well as antenna details.
>
> 73
> Jonathan G0DVJ
> --
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:40:35 -0000
> From: Mike Goodey<mike at g0gjv.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 144MHz UKAC last night
> To: UK-Contest at contesting.com
> Message-ID:<VA.00000788.0c517e63 at goodey.org.uk>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
>> Unfortunately, the latest version of Minos seems to have a bug, which
> causes
>> it to fail to log the date and time for any contacts occurring within the
>> same minute as a previous contact - some fiddling around with the log
>> required to fix all of this and upload the results again. Must check the
>> Minos site today to see if this has been fixed!
> If it hasn't, let me know!
>
> And if you had subscribed to
>
> G0GJVList at yahoogroups.com
>
> you would have seen a long exchange about it, and the announcement of 1.5.2
>
> 1.5.2 should allow you to "recover" any contacts that were logged without a
> date/time - I have enough information available to guess what is probably the
> correct time.
>
> The bug should (I think) only have struck when the contact was logged when
> the seconds part of the time was :00
>
> Mike G0GJV
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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>
> End of UK-Contest Digest, Vol 97, Issue 7
> *****************************************
>
>
> -----
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>
Yes Mike I did just the same and found the comparisons quite interesting.
Some stateside skimmers were copying a few UK stations who were head and 
shoulders above the rest of
us mortals "-)
must be some pretty good antennas around.
I am doing some more tests after AFS CW this Sunday which should be 
enlightening.
73 de Vic
G4BYG