144MHz UKAC Sept 2015

Conditions to were not as good as the last event with the average distance being down from 226 to 216km, but more northern Multipliers were found to break the 50 barrier. Having decided not to use the MHP, as the K3 with internal xverter was good enough on its own, we ended up using it to join 2 coax cables as no barrel connector could be found!

144MHz UKAC August 2015

Heading to the Blorenge straight after work I was greeted at the site by Driving rain and wind, not a great prospect. How wrong I was!

 Issues with The MHP cable meant that the Preamp and Anglian Transverter could not be used, so the system was quickly reconfigured 5 minutes before the start of the contest to use the K3 internal Transverter to feed the PA  and use the Transmit Cable for the antenna connection (the MHP fails to transmit)

Nothing for the first 3 minutes then it was wall to wall stations, a lot from mainland Europe. 83 were worked in the first hour, as many as worked previously in the complete contest. Conditions to the East faded out so we decided to try for multipliers to the North as GB3ANG was loud. No sign of life in JO03, IO64 and IO74 but GM4AFF and GM4JJJ from IO86 and GM6JNJ in IO75 called us with big signals

We ended up with 183 QSOs 48 multipliers for a total of around 2 Million points best DX was DK5QN in JO42 at 789km. The average QSO was 223km compared to the normal 184km.

Luckily the weather cleared by the time the contest finished. 

Pos Call         Loc       QSO Score Mult Total       ODX        kms
 1 GW0FRE/P IO81LS 181  41,207  48  1,977,936 DK5QN    789
 2 M0BUL/P   IO82OI  167  30,328  49  1,486,072 PA4VHF  652
 3 M1DDD/P  IO93CH 172  28,105  47  1,320,935 DK1MG   726

The result would have qualified for 2nd in the unrestricted section!

Pos Call          Loc        QSO Score Mult Total        ODX        kms
 1 G4CLA       IO92JL   234 43,096  57  2,456,472 DG7TG    733
 2 G4FZN/P    IO94JF   170 37,819   49 1,853,131 DK5DQ    662
 3 G4ODA      IO92WS 144 29,983   54 1,619,082 DG7TG    654

50MHz UKAC June 2015

As it was going to be nice weather conditions we decided to do this UKAC from the Blorenge IO81LS as GW0FRE/P. Roger G4BVY again loaned us his 5 element F9FT Tonna to connect to the Elecraft K3.

After we connected  up the radio to the antenna, the band was full of Eastern Europe stations and Scandinavian stations.  As the contest started conditions were all over the place and a lot of DX was worked as can seen by the map below:-

The lack of "intermediate stations" (PA/F/ON) is most marked. As the first hour hour ended, the DX stopped and it was down to working UK stations and multipliers. 125 QSOS were completed in 10 countries and 40 locators for around 3.1 Million points. The best DX was UT5XR;in KN49 at ;2215km. Not bad for 150 minutes with 100W, which the results seem to confirm:-

Section AR
Pos	Callsign UBNs	Loc	QSOS	Score	Mults	Total	Norm	ODX	Kms	Power
1	GW0FRE/P	IO81LS	117	55,772	53	2,955,916	1,000	UT5XR	2,215	100
2	M0VXX/P	IO82QL	148	45,417	46	2,089,182	992	IK7IMP	2,072	100
3	G4CLA	IO92JL	142	41,016	48	1,968,768	985	SM2YIP	2,021	100

RSGB Propagation forecast alerts me to DX.

Tuesday night was the 2m UKAC contest and as the clocks had changed, (enabling setup in Daylight), it was time to go portable from Blorenge, IO81LS again. As the RSGB prop forecast said conditions should be good  to the east I also took along a small 24G system to see what beacons I could hear before starting setting up the 2m gear.  I took my normal 24048/432MHz transverter (retuned from 24192MHz it used in the USA) with an FT817 as the IF and a 20dB reference horn. Sure enough upon arrival there was a big Inversion layer visible to the east.   GB3CAM at 210km was quickly found and was a good decode. GB3ZME was also a reasonable signal at 105km LOS , but not on the direct heading of 020 degrees but on 070 degrees! No other beacons were heard (GB3SCK and GB3AMU were considered possibilities)

The 24048/432MHz Transverter

The UKAC on 2m sounded like an HF contest on 20m. 144QSOS in 27 locators with the best DX being DJ2TX in JO33 at 731km. Used 300W (due to the auxiliary equipment more power tripped the 1000W generator) to a 9 ele at 15' from Elecraft K3 with solidstate amplifier and HA8ET preamp for the first 2 hours Then there was a generator incident so a KX3 running 2W from its internal batteries (I hadnt seen the need for the KX3 DC power lead!) was used for the remainder of the contest but 10 stations out to 350km were still worked!