[UK-CONTEST] GO2HQ 2012

[Chris Tran GM3WOJ]

Tuesday 21st August 2012

Hello UK-contesters

Firstly, thanks to everyone who was involved with GO2HQ 2012 and to everyone
who worked GO2HQ in the IARU HF Championship on July 14/15th.

The IARU HF Championship is an unusual contest - it is in mid-'summer', when
many contesters are on holiday or otherwise unavailable and propagation can
be less than ideal - it covers 160m to 10m, both SSB and CW and Multipliers
are ITU Zones rather than the better known CQ Zones.

Each year the UK HQ team participates - originally as GB5HQ, then GB7HQ,
then GR2HQ and this year we had the privilege of being the first to use the
GO prefix. We estimate that the new prefix added just over 2000 QSOs to our
total, so changing the callsign periodically is a worthwhile exercise. The
operators this year were : G3LZQ,GM3POI,G0DVJ,G4PIQ,G4FKA,G3ZVW,
G6PZ,G5KC,2E0WKZ,G6MC,G7TWC,G4MEM,G4RCD,M0LMH,G4BYG,
G3VMW,G3SJJ,GM3WOJ,G3WGN,GJ4CBQ.M0KLO,GM4YXI,G4FNL,
MI0LLL,EI3JZ,G4CLA,G4XUM,G3BJ,G3WPH,G4IRN,G0RPM,G4IUF
Support ops and other team members : M0VKY,G3MZV,MW1LCR,GM4FAM,
M0OXO,GW0ETF,G4UJS. (Apologies if I've missed anyone)

For the second year in a row, propagation did not favour the UK - Auroral
conditions impacted on many of the bands, but this was balanced out partly
by Sporadic-E enabling our 28MHz stations to work 1680 QSOs, compared to
only a few hundred last year. Our claimed score has us lying in 5th place at
present, but we hope to be placed 4th after the log-checking by the ARRL is
completed. Each year we try to make improvements.

GO2HQ is undoubtedly the most complex amateur radio activity in the UK each
year - this year we had nearly 40 operators (including support ops) in 15
locations, with 26 logging PCs running WinTest 4.9.1 linked via a central
server run by Pete G4CLA. The hardware and antennas at many of the stations
take many months to prepare and test.

Our UK HQ station is not a 'secret society' - each year we have advertised,
both on this reflector and in RadCom, inviting those who are interested to
come forward. Each time we get about 6 responses. We need operators with
some sort of HF contesting track record and enthusiasm for contesting -
unfortunately the successful RSGB CC and AFS contests do not involve
Multipliers, so are not necessarily an ideal training ground for the IARU
contest. However we welcome anyone who is interested in joining us next
year - please e-mail  team at gr2hq.com with some brief background information.
Depending on your experience, we have lots of important 'supporting' roles
for newcomers, which we see as a route to operating in the future.

Our Awards Manager Stewart GW0ETF reports that he sent out 73 Award
certificates this year, compared to 53 last year.
Congratulations to the Newbury and District ARS team (G3ZGC,G3RVM,G3LLK,
G4DOQ,M0DDT,G8MIA,G3VPW and G3XVR) on winning the Trophy in the
'Medium Club' section and congratulations to Grimsby ARS team (G3RSD,G3VIP
and G4EBK) on winning the Trophy in the 'Small Club' section.
Both trophies will be presented at the HF Convention in October.
This year we had new Award Certificates for the fastest station to work
GO2HQ on all 12 band/modes - the DX winner was David Deane EI9FBB  who took
53 minutes, and the UK winner was Steve Jones GW0GEI who took 60 minutes -
well done both !

Lastly, I've been invited (but it has not been confirmed yet) to give a
short presentation about GR2HQ/GO2HQ at the Convention in October, so anyone
interested please come along. If there is anything in this posting that you
would like more information about, please ask.

73
Chris
GM3WOJ - GR2HQ Team Leader