[UK-CONTEST] 432 UKAC 8/11/2011

[Peter Burden]

Interesting. The 432 MHz UKAC contests and the Radcom controversy
surrounding the UK
squares only prompted me to dig out equipment that hadn't been used for at
least 15 years
and try and get it going. It's still a bit restricted - a modest beam
(Tonna 21) at a modest
height (about 8m) and modest power (about 10W) - and a site with severe
take-off problems
to the east and south. It's tough in the AL section so I'm working on
improving things.

This month's effort started out dire but got better towards the end, a lot
of slooow deep QSB.
Heard both Ray and Eddie. Made 17 QSOs in 7 squares. Lots of weak stations.
Map at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://www.rsgbcc.org/vhf/kml_files/2011/CyYOmPG8yhS7UUWQYJBRa66zobgyer9

As to Rob's problem working IO83. First the demographics, based on those
entries in the 2011
call book that didn't withhold their particulars here's the number of
licences for each locator
square
      4 IN69
      6 IN79
      3 IO65
     12 IO66
     29 IO67
     31 IO68
   1205 IO70
    517 IO71
    229 IO72
    244 IO73
     63 IO74
    984 IO75
    122 IO76
    138 IO77
     13 IO78
   1445 IO80
   3762 IO81
   2624 IO82
   5955 IO83
    797 IO84
    939 IO85
    726 IO86
    361 IO87
     91 IO88
     20 IO89
   2813 IO90
   6840 IO91
   5862 IO92
   5557 IO93
   1721 IO94
    343 IO95
     30 IO97
      4 IO99
     33 IP90
    603 JO00
   4187 JO01
   2488 JO02
    226 JO03

IO83 is the second most populous square in the country. [The list excludes
Channel Islands and
Northern Ireland stations.] Of the 84 logs submitted for the October bash,
24 were from IO83 the highest
rankings being 10 and 14. I think there are lot of comparatively modest
stations in IO83 who would
not find it easy to cover the ~300km to Rob's location.

One of the really good things about the UKAC is the way it can encourage
people to upgrade their
stations and do better - the comments column in the results often show
this. This can only be good
for amateur radio, just keep on trying.

73 Peter G3UBX [IO82WN]