[UK-CONTEST] Why do UK stations not beam to OZ in UKAC ?

[Peter Burden]

On 7 August 2012 07:56, Allan Moller <allan.moller at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello All
>
>
>
> I wonder why the UK stations not are beaming to OZ in the UKAC on 144MHz ?
>

The obvious answer is that the UKAC rules mean that non-UK QSOs only
contribute
to the points score and not to the multiplier. Only UK locator squares
contribute to the
multiplier. This rule introduced about 2 years ago has contributed to a
considerable growth
in intra-UK activity, so UK stations are more likely to be pursuing extra
multipliers from the
more remote parts of the UK. Having said that, most UK operators would be
happy to get the
extra points from an OZ QSO.

However there are other reasons too. Looking at Allan's map his club
station is at the centre
of a circle about 600 km in radius, this radius corresponds, more or less,
to the capability
of a high performance station such as Allan's. The nearest UK stations that
Allan
could work seem to be about 500 km away and would have to be fairly high
performance
stations. There are comparatively few such stations in the UK, licence
conditions only
allow a maximum of 400W (not 1KW), local planning constraints generally
make it
difficult to set up high performance aerial systems, the problems of local
interference (both
from the amateur to others and from other domestic electronic equipment)
are a further
deterrent to establishing high performance VHF stations by the
predominantly urban UK
population. Away from the coast and East Anglia the UK is quite hilly
(unlike Denmark)
and topography imposes further constraints on the performance of many UK
VHF/UHF
stations. Allan's map suggests similar constraints on the number of QSOs
into northern France.

Another way to see this, is to draw a circle on the map centred on OZ1ALS
and just touching the
coast of East Anglia. How many Swedish, Belgian, German and Polish stations
are included
within the circle? What sort of stations are they?

Further, UK stations that OZ1ALS might work would have to be beaming across
the North Sea, an
area in which workable VHF stations are, to say the least, rare. This lack
of intermediate range
activity is a deterrent to beaming in the direction in question.

Allan may find it interesting to look at the list of entrants in the recent
(July) 144 MHz UKAC
at http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/claim.pl?Contest=144MHz%20UKAC&year=2012 -
this includes
details of aerials, power levels etc., and attempt to identify stations
that he could have worked
but didn't.

>
>
>
> I think we would be able to work many more UK stations in NAC (from
> 18z-22z),
>

Remember the UKAC runs from 2000-2230 UK time.


>
> if more were beaming to us.
>
> We do work into io82 every time, and some in JO02 with 59.
>
>
>
> We at OZ1ALS are qrv with 2 times 8x4 + 4x6 elements and 1KW.
>
> We have 8x4 beaming to JO01 all evening
>
> You will find us on 144.307 most of the time.
>


>
>
>
> To see what we did work in June : http://oz7z.dk/index.php?page=contest
>
>
>
> 73 Allan, oz7z from OZ1ALS
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