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Ever since I was first licensed in 1979, I’ve kept notes on contests I’ve entered in my station
notebook in order to compare my claimed scores against the adjudicated results, set myself improvement targets for next time and remember the highs and lows of each event. Some of those notes and the results I’ve achieved are repeated below (mostly for my benefit not yours!).
Further down are instructions for changing NTP servers and setting the PC clock accurately, a couple of scoring spreadsheets for BERU (RSGB’s Commonwealth Contest) and other
miscellaneous contest stuff.
Thanks to my friends at ZL6QH, I‘m the proud owner of contest call,
ZM4G. It seemed
appropriate for an ex-G ham
called Gary, especially as it
works quite well on both CW
and SSB. I’m not
moving to ZL4-land - the ZL
call areas are no longer
enforced, luckily. ZM2G
was already in use but ZM4G
suits me nicely.
My contest results and records
2010 (QRV as ZL2iFB & ZM4G)
-
RSGB Commonwealth Contest (BERU):
claimed around 6,000 points from 469 fun-packed QSOs for the ZL team, the
Call Blacks, one
third up on 2009.
Given that BERU coverage
is brand new in N1MM and
it is an unusual format,
I'm not surprised if
there are a few bugs in
there. It
doesn’t seem to
have counted ZK3 for
example but I may well be
wrong. Ten metres
opened to the UK for some
of our Aussie friends, I
gather, but I was happy
to work a few VEs and
some VK/ZLs on ten by
backscatter (I guess - I
could only hear them when
I was beaming to NE
anyway). Countries
wkd: 3B9, 5B, 9H, 9J,
9M6, 9V, G/GW/GD/GM, J3,
J6, J8, V5, VE1-7, VE9,
VK2/3/4/6/7/8, VO1, VP2M,
VP8, VP9, VQ9, VU, VY1,
ZB2, ZC4, ZF, ZK3,
ZL1-4&6. Oh and
a few lucky JAs, BAs, Ws
and DLs, naturally!
DL1T was extraordinarily
persistent, pestering me
for ages but in vain for
a QSO on two bands with
his very loud, very
annoying signal (turns
out that was in fact ZL1T
with a TX/RX changeover
delay consistently
knocking out the whole of
his first dash!).
One RW6 station must have
tried likewise for about
10 mins, changing his TX
freq every over and no
doubt wondering if his TX
was still working and/or
my RX was broken.
These and several others
really ought to listen
more for those subtle
little clues such as
“CQ BERU BERU BERU
BERU TEST” and
“BERU TEST ONLY
UK/VE/VK PSE”
(sometimes at ~12 wpm to
give them no
excuse!). On the
other hand, a polite JA
stn who waited for a lull
to give me a quick report
was fine and I took pity
on a few others this year
if they were at least
courteous enough to wait
until there were no BERU
callers. I even
found time to bag a
couple of non-BERU
Carribean stns just for
kicks. Mni thanks
to ZK3OU and ZK3YA who
worked me pileup-style
and then gave me the BERU
numbers when
prompted.
Thanks also to 3B9WR for
calling me on 2 bands:
what a buzz! I was
pleased to work few VUs
again but still no 4S7
nor ZS. And finally
thanks to Nigel G3TXF for
re-sending his call just
to confirm he really
wasn't somewhere
exotic this time!
Hit a brick wall 90 mins
before the end and sloped
off for a little rest
that ended up being a big
sleep. Next year I
must remember not to
install a deer gate and
fencing just before BERU
(doh). Final position = 26th overall and 3rd ZL, just behind ZL2BR and ZL1AZE with only 75 points separating us three and ZL3IO just below - tight grouping for sure. 5,910 points was my final tally for 2010. More info on G3PJT’s site.
-
CDXC LF Challenge:
for some reason, my heart wasn’t in it this year. Finished a disappointing 21st out of 50 entrants.
- ARRL DX CW
: quite a buzz this
weekend with great condx
on 15m and 10m in good
shape to NA as
well. Worked just 2
shy of 1,000 QSOs,
claimed 537k points and
filled several new WAS
band-slots (though sadly
not ND).
-
CQ Magazine WPX RTTY:
I entered this contest partly because conditions were [relatively] good so there were plenty of RTTY stations to work but mostly because I need the practice with N1MM and MMTTY - like for example figuring out what are the most appropriate and useful preset messages and macros.
My 172 QSOs gave 73,000
points claimed, but the
casual, low-key entry
left me enough free time
to rescue an orphaned
lamb from the forest (now
named “Ritty”) and clear out the spring that supplies our water.
-
Had a play in the 40m leg of the
VK/ZL RTTY Sprint.
Was a bit of a
struggle with only the
vertical antenna - less
than ideal for high
angles (was easier
working UA0IT just before
the contest than some of
my compatriots!).
Still, was worthwhile for
the RTTY contest practice.
-
CQ WPX SSB:
other priorities meant a part-time single-band entry on 15m this year. Made 770 QSOs and claimed 871,832 points.
-
CQ WPX CW I
entered single band 15m,
single op, assisted, high
power. Made just
under half-a-million
points from a bit over
500 QSOs. It was
hard going on the Sunday
with only mediocre sigs
from North America and
hardly any from South
America.
ARRL FD:
although I can’t actually enter the US/VE Field Day, it’s a good chance to fill in
a few missing WAS band slots and surprise a few FD entrants with a DX call. I fondly
remember my first contest - RSGB NFD in 1979 with the Sutton and Cheam RS. I sure hope
the buzz from working a ZL persuades a few NA contest initiates to take up contesting too.
- IARU contest:
this was a casual CW-only entry as I had other things to do during the
day - specifically building a fence to keep the animals away from my TX antennas - but I
made
 over 600 QSOs and enjoyed the conditions. On 20m around dusk, I turned on QSK to
explore the open paths by listening for my own signal
coming back. The long and short paths to North America
(SW and NE of me) were both open for about an hour,
while the paths to JA and Europe (NW and SE) were more
or less closed. It’s a bit disconcerting to hear my received
signal at a similar volume to the sidetone so I found myself
holding the rig in TX on the PTT footswitch while sending
callsigns and exchanges. There is a strange problem with
computer keying in QSK mode: the PC keys the amp
change-over relay OK but doesn’t key the rig, even though the MM3 keyer connected in
parallel does both. I really ought to get that sorted before the next contest. On 80m just
after dusk, we had one way propagation: there were strong signals from the US but most of
them couldn’t hear the ZLs calling. This resolved an hour or two later. Anyway, my final
claimed score of 357k won’t win anything in the multi-op section ... unfortunately, there is no
“single-op assisted” category in this contest, and the multi-op section is only mixed-mode.
-
DXCC, Clublog DXCC league and CQ Magazine DX Marathon:
these are not contests as
such but I am continuing to chase new DXCC countries and track my performance against
other DXers using a combination of Logger32, Clublog and LoTW.
2009 (QRV as ZL2iFB, ZM4G, ZM2M and 9L5A)
-
RSGB Commonwealth Contest (BERU):
the ups - I finally got the tribander installed on
Saturday, just in time; ZL2BR's BERU predictions were good once again, just missing the path
to 9M/9V around 00-02:00z on 20 + 15m; FB Hawke's Bay QTH - so nice not to live in a
valley; worked lots of old pals on 80-40-20 and can still remember most of their names;
worked VE7RAC, VK4WIA, ZL6A, plus GB5CC on 20m, for HQ bonuses; made a single 5
-bander with ZL1AZE; was called by ZS2DL on 20m at 11:02z, for my very first CQ Zone 38
QSO here in ZL; had a "spare" (4th/non-bonus) VU QSO on 20m for once, though no 4S;
was lent a spare rig but didn’t need to use it (TNX Lee ZL2AL); not too much QRM, just
enough to remind me why I bought those IRC filters and where the Reverse-CW button is;
polite callers, willing to persist until we completed; hand-logged QSOs with around 70 Johnny
Foreigners who evidently hanker to join the Empire and refused to copy repeated hints that I
was working “BERU RSGB TEST VE VK G ZL ONLY”! Managed to faze some by sending their
call once with ENN in the hope they would buzz off until after the contest; filled some more
band-spots (thanks J88DR, H40FN, 6Y8XF, 9H3JT and VQ9JC). Downs: only had time to rig
up the 80m inv-Vee at 11m off the tower, running N-S; had to hand-rotate the beam with a
rope as I'm 10m short of rotator cable (doh!), necessitating a dozen dashes up the little hill
and causing a few missed Qs; missed 9J2BO completely (DXcluster would have helped I'm
sure); tired from climbing the tower and hill, needed 3 hours kip on Sunday morning and lost
the will to contest for the last half hour of BERU; had to hand-score in Excel since N1MM
hasn't a clue. Equipment: TS850, Amp Supply Co LK550, Cushcraft A3S at 14m, 40m roach
-pole vertical, 80m inv-V at 11m and my trusty Morse Machine. 326 QSOs plus 2 dupes, 152
bonuses, final score =
4,455 points
, placing me 36th out of 138 in the open section. Team
ZL placed 4th of 7 teams. Excellent write-up here.
-
CDXC LF Challenge:
this is an enjoyable month-long activity period scoring points for DXCC
countries worked on any mode on any of the three low bands: 160m, 80m or 40m. No
mults or bonuses. No scores for the second or subsequent QSOs with any country. Easy,
especially as the scoring is done automagically by Clublog. I placed 13th out of 41, I think,
enough to win another certificate (which never showed up ...).
-
CQ Magazine CQ WPX SSB:
not being a fan of SSB, I didn’t take part seriously in this
contest but took the opportunity to fill in a few SSB DXCC band-slots (plus some new CW
slots too!) and complete the installation of a rotator.
-
CQ Magazine CQ WPX CW:
10m condx have been up and down the past month so finding
the band quite lively at the start I took a gamble on doing a single-band entry. After a
reasonable opening run, it just faded away and after the first four hours I only made 3 further
QSOs for the remainder of the contest. HP1RIS was a welcome multiplier and I was
impressed to work UZ2M, one of two Ukrainians heard but the only one to hear me.
P43something came up briefly (sporadic-E or aircraft/meteor scatter perhaps?) but
disappeared before I could grab the key. Thanks to those stations who evidently only came
on to work me. It would have been even more soul destroying without you. 69 QSOs and
53 prefixes made 10,441 points claimed. Hardly world record territory. E73C in the same
section claimed over 1 million! I blame the lack of hams on this side of the globe.
-
RSGB Islands On The Air (IOTA):
first real run for the K3, worked like a charm. Also tried
Win-Test for the first time - seems OK but hard to justify the $$ compared to N1MM. And
this was the first outing for ZM4G - that worked well too, quicker and easier than ZL2iFB,
though some struggled with the ZM and a few asked where I was. Made about 475 QSOs in
10 hours (QRO single op assisted multiband CW 12h). Not enough mults (60) - spent too
long working the pileups and not enough chasing mults on the band map. Lost 9% of my
claimed score in checking. Placed
FIRST Oceania and 4th worldwide (though admittedly
there were only 6 entrants in that section!).
-
Waitakere Sprint SSB:
I saw this one advertised and decided to give it a whirl for a change.
It’s an hour-long Saturday evening contest on 80m for VK/ZL/Oceania stations. My fairly low
80m dipole worked fine for this event but I’d be more competitive if it was oriented side-on to
VK, not end-on! Still, my 40 QSOs gave me joint 4th place in ZL and 12th overall in the SSB
event. I missed the CW one entirely but I’ll have to give it a go next time.
-
Oceania DX CW:
operated with my international group of friends at ZM2M and made a jolly
good show. Operating split on 40m was interesting - seems there are many hams out there
who flock to work anyone working split, regardless of who they really are :-) Got grief from
other ZL entrants though, and will have to move up the band next time I try that!
-
CQ Magazine CQ Wordwide SSB:
I joined the lads at ZM2M for this fabulous contest and
had a whale of a time. We set ourselves a target of 3,000 QSOs, estimating that this would
be enough to beat the current ZL multi-two record, and thanks to good long runs on 15m we
ended up with over 3,500 QSOs. LF condx were poor, especially with heavy QRN on the
second night, but still I’m pleased we went to the trouble of building and erecting a topband
vertical with a decent set of earth radials.
-
CQ Magazine CQ Worldwide CW:
I rejoined the Voodoo contest group in Freetown, Sierra
Leone for CQ WW CW 2009, operating 9L5A in the multi-two category. All five ops got on
well as a team, ably supported by our new best friend, 9L1BTB Zbig. Zbig is a star! He
helped us immensely with the station and general logistics, not least providing a taxi service
to the local eateries and sectional poles for our lightweight beams. This was a “carry on”
contest setup in true DXpedition style. With the normal Voodoo equipment stockpile
temporarily stuck in 3X, we were forced to take all the equipment (including 3 x K3s and 2x
Alphas) plus three portable beams and wire antennas for the LF and WARC bands, on the
plane with us to Africa from three other continents (Oceania, America and Europe). The hotel
QTH that had been selected previously worked very nicely with a clear view from the roof
across the Atlantic in the main two directions (NW to US and NE to EU). We scored around
19m points - claiming world 2nd [... and 1st of 1 in 9L!!]
-
ARRL 10m contest:
not long after returning home from the 9L trip, I wasn’t originally
planning to enter this event but 10m conditions were so good on our Saturday morning
before the contest that I got drawn in. There were several prolonged openings to South
America and VK, one or two short runs to JA but hardly any propagation to North America
until the last 6 hours or so. I bagged several new DXCC band-slots including DL, EA and EA8
via two long path EU openings (listen to one of them on YouTube). Unfortunately a French
station with a decent S3 LP signal didn’t hear me at all despite my best efforts (need more
ERP!) and an HK slipped away before I could persuade him to try just one more time. I
operated CW only and with DXcluster assistance, so according to the rules I must enter the
multi-op multi-mode section :-( Anyway, 455 fabulous QSOs and 76 fantastic multipliers
gave me
138k points claimed
and a great big grin. According to the claimed scores on
3830, I should place about 7th in my section behind 6 ‘proper’ multi-op stations with between
two and seven operators each: without DXCluster, I would easily have won the QRO CW-only
single-op category since the highest placed entrant there was 9A5W - a great op but with
only half my score. I really don’t think DXcluster gave me that much of an advantage!
-
DXCC:
not really a contest as such but I had a good and very enjoyable year achieving many
new countries and band/mode slots.
-
Clublog DXCC league:
the excellent Clublog lets DXers track our performance in relation to
our peers through the DXCC league. I enjoyed a year-long friendly competition with my
friend and fellow KiwiDXer John, ZL1BYZ - we were neck-and-neck all year.
-
CQ Magazine DX Marathon:
once again using AD1C’s program to extract the data from my
log, I successfully entered this year and (after a friendly exchange with John K9EL) had my
entry confirmed on the official list of entrants. AD1C picked me a W QSO for zone 6 (XE) for
some obscure reason - must check the log ... aha! Seems N7TR, NX6T and a few other Ws
have [mistakenly] confirmed they are in CQ zone 6 via LoTW. Oops. Claimed 229 countries
plus all 40 zones worked in 2009, total claim 269 points.
2008 (ZL2iFB & ZM2M)
-
CQ 160 CW.
Had a brief play but my topband antennas are clearly poor radiators and the
amplifier was playing up too. More work needed to be even vaguely competitive. No entry.
-
LZ DX.
Worked a handful just for the hell of it, and then got spammed by the contest
organizers expecting me to enter ... No entry.
- UBA
. Worked about 50 to fill in a few ON band-slots. No entry.
-
ZL Jock White Memorial Field Day.
Worked a handful, then discovered I should have been
giving out branch 00 not 48 since I was a fixed station. Oops. Must read all the rules next
time ... No entry.
-
RSGB Commonwealth (BERU).
This was interesting for me - my first ‘multi-op’ BERU entry
since I used DXcluster. I had a reasonable start at 11pm local, worked through the night and
took a couple of hours sleep around lunchtime the next day. Things were really slow going in
the afternoon with no joy working the Africans behind the hill, so I took a long walk and
contemplated calling it a day. In the end, I came back before dusk to find 40m open to G
-land but although there were lots of G signals, they were all very weak (S-zeroes). I had a
good long run and finished with a better score than last year. I logged with N1MM which
doesn’t support BERU: I had to set find a contest that used serial numbers and allowed extra
text for the HQ stations. After the contest, I converted the log to BERU format by a bit of
hacking in NotePad and Word, and scored it manually on a spreadsheet printout (see below).
4,515 raw points x Southern Hemisphere Fudge Factor = 6,601 points claimed. [For some
reason my score was shown in the official results table as an HQ entry - which it wasn’t - with
4,450 points, whereas in the results write-up, I was credited with
FIRST multi-op
. Oh well. C’est la vie.]
 CQ WPX SSB.
I wasn’t planning to enter this one ... but got
carried away. After logging 100 QSOs in Logger32 which is
pretty hopeless in a contest situation, I changed over to N1MM,
an “interesting” move. N1MM successfully imported the ADIF
log extract but somehow I messed up the serial numbering. I
couldn’t convince N1MM to continue numbering >1, and for
some reason it wanted to restart at 1 on each band. In the
end, I ignored the suggested serial number and simply used the
QSO number at the bottom of the screen. The first day was a
blast with good runs on 15 & 10m. Overnight, we had a power
cut but luckily the generator works well and seemed quite happy to power the linear (with
better regulation than the house supply in fact!). On the final day, the bands were
comparatively terrible. I was unable to run on any band; 4 0m was full of EU sigs but due to
their local QRM, only a few could even hear me; 10m was open
with half a dozen W beacons audible but only a handful of W
stations to work. Still I slogged it out for just under 1,000
QSOs in total. Final score was 1,123,864 points, 948 QSOs
and 376 mults, placing me
FIRST in ZL and 44th worldwide but
it’s a hollow victory since the 2nd and 3rd placed ZLs were both
using low power: well done to my pals ZL1BYZ and ZL4PW.
-
CQ WPX CW.
I can’t remember much about this one except
that I made FIRST ZL
and 9th worldwide.
-
CQ WW SSB.
I joined ZM2M for a multi-2 entry. We scored around 2.7m points from 2,500
QSOs, 123 zones and 290 DXCC countries. I enjoyed my time on 40m and especially 80m
but although LF conditions were hot, 160m was disappointing: we could hear well but weren’t
getting out on topband. New 160m TX antenna required ...
-
CQ WW CW.
I had a brief play on 40m from home, then went to ZM2M to help their casual
Multi/2 entry. 40 + 80m were fabulous, again, and even 10m opened to JA for nearly an
hour.
-
CQ DX Marathon.
I entered the Marathon even though I wasn’t actively chasing it and spent
a few months off air while moving home. My score of 231 was enough to
win ZL but about
100 shy of the leader - a very impressive lead! AD1C’s useful program to extract CQ DX
Marathon info from an ADIF log made it easy to find the new ones, although pasting the data
into CQ Mag’s official entry spreadsheet was awkward because it is password-protected
which stopped me pasting in the selected data.
2007 (ZL2iFB, E51iFB)
-
RSGB Commonwealth Contest (BERU).
Although my entry was rather disappointing, I
was glad to be a part of the
winning ZL team and get a nice commemorative medal for my
efforts. I understand the Southern hemisphere’s handicap advantage will be reduced next
year ...
-
CQ WPX CW.
Despite having an eminently collectable callsign (E51iFB), this was another
very disappointing effort, thanks to me being the wrong side of an enormous chunk of
Rarotongan granite from most of the accessible population centres. I only managed 51 QSOs
in a couple of hours on the Saturday evening, on 40m only using a vertical in a palm tree by
the beach. To make things even worse, the entire E51iFB log was subsequently lost in a puff
of logic due to the sudden failure of the laptop’s hard drive (lesson learnt! At least it wasn’t
one of the major entries). I apologise to anyone seeking a QSL: sorry, no chance. No entry
either. Meanwhile, my friends at ZL6QH made over 10 million points multi-multi: they were
busy working loads of stuff on 40m that I couldn’t even hear from E5.
-
Oceania DX CW.
I started this contest with good intentions on 40m & 80m but lost the will
to continue at around 1am local when the amplifier antenna changeover relay started sticking
in the TX position. There was just enough leakage in the RX path to hear strong signals but I
guess they were about 30-40 dbs down on normal. I fixed the amp with a surplus Jennings
vacuum relay during Sunday and rejoined the contest for dusk. All in all, 356 QSOs are in the
log, all of them on 40+80m. Despite the overnight problems, I was placed
third
in ZL (behind
ZM2B and ZL1BYZ) with 516,350 points and 230 multipliers. My high points-per-QSO rate
suggests I worked more DX than most. Good show!
-
CQ WW SSB.
Made a token “all band single op assisted” entry - just 49 QSOs with 26 zones
and 31 countries, claimed 6,327 points. Placed THIRD out of 3 in ZL. The UBN report shows
100% accuracy for once!
 CQ WW CW.
In conjunction with my
pal and fellow ex-pat Phil (VK4BAA ex
-G0HSS), we completed some
antenna upgrades and entered as two
single-op single-band entries from my
home: Phil doing 15m and me on
80m. Receive problems on the low
tribander, coupled with lousy condx,
gave Phil a hard time. He had a 40m
quarter wave vertical and loop to fall
back on but missed the beam’s gain.
We didn’t have time to rig up the 5
-ele 15m monobander, unfortunately.
I had it much easier on 80m with a
decent choice of antennas: a topband
doublet up the hill, an inv-Vee dipole in
the trees out front and a bent 80m
quarter wave vertical that is evidently
too bent to work. The inv-Vee did
most of the work.
FIRST
Oceania & ZL. Set a new
Oceania record on 80m QRO single-op
assisted with 202,895 points from 680 QSOs, 32 zones and 85 countries.
2006 (ZL2iFB, ZL6QH, VK9NI)
-
ZL Jock White Memorial Field Day
. I operated with my pals at ZL6QH in a field on Quartz
Hill. ZL FD is ‘different’ to NFD in G-land. It’s 40+80m only and as activity levels are so low,
we’re allowed to work each other again every hour. The station requirements are similar,
simulating emergency conditions.
- CQ WPX CW
. I entered at VI9NI, a DXpedition to Norfolk Island. Despite the special event
callsign celebrating the 150-year arrival of the Pitcairn Islanders in 1856, and some decent
CW contest ops, we did quite badly - just didn’t seem to be getting out for some reason. Bad
coax or something. Placed
SECOND in Oceania
(behind ZL6QH) with 3,063,995 points from
1,530 QSOs and 565 mults (and FIRST in VK9N!).
- CQ WPX SSB
. Entered single op low power 15m monoband. Scored 2,010 points from 33
QSOs and 30 prefixes in 3 hours of casual operation. Not my best effort but enough to win
the category (however with no other entrants, I also came last!).
-
Oceania DX CW
. Entered the multi-multi section at ZL6QH with Brian ZL1AZE, Wilf ZL2BSJ
and John ZL1BYZ, all top notch CW contesters and DXers.
-
CQ WW SSB
. Part of the multi-multi team at ZL6QH not long before the diggers moved in.
FIRST in Oceania
with 5,980,928 points from 4,668 QSOs, 144 zones and 344 countries.
-
CQ WW CW
. Single-op assisted, 40m single band, QRO from home. Scored 840,712 points
from 1,943 QSOs, 35 zones and 117 countries. Placed
FIRST in Oceania,
setting an
Oceania record and 5th worldwide. The contest was a blast thanks to excellent worldwide
propagation both nights due to the low sunspots/solar flux, K-index and A-index and a pretty
quiet location here in the ZL countryside. I was still working stuff an hour or two after
dawn/pre dusk and probably should have taken even less sleep but my work schedule didn’t
give me much rest in the week prior to the contest (as usual, excuses excuses). I used
simple antennas: a quarter wave ground plane (albeit with an extensive earth may made
from deer fencing) and a dipole at about 50 feet. The vertical is an efficient radiator but can
be rather noisy on receive. I really ought to rig-up a changeover relay to transmit on the
vertical and listen on the dipole. A four-square would be good too. So many ideas, so little
time ... Meanwhile, my Oceania record stood for a year but was soundly beaten in 2007 (well
done ZM3A!).
2005 (G3GRS/P, G0FBB/P, ZL6QH)
-
CQ WW CW
- ZL6QH multi-multi with ZL2BSJ, ZL1TM, ZL1BYZ, ZL2AGY and ZL1AZE.
FIRST Oceania
, and lots of fun! Scored 10,414,813 points from 6,336 QSOs, 154 zones and 445
countries.
-
CQ WPX CW - chased DX instead of entering, again
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend RS -
third restricted
-
RSGB VHF FD - Windmill CG -
FIRST
open - I operated 2m where we placed
second
2004 (G4iFB, G0FBB/P, G3GRS/P, GJ2A)
-
RSGB AFS CW - CDXC -
second
of ? clubs, I placed 16th of 224 entrants
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend -
third
restricted section
-
RSGB VHF FD - Windmill CG -
second open section
-
CQ WW CW - GJ2A multi-two - 8.2 million points, 6th world
-
CDXC 9BCW - competition abandoned when John’s house burnt down taking the server!
2003 (G4iFB, G3GRS/P, G0FBB/P)
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend RS -
third
restricted, just me and G4BUO on the team this year
-
RSGB IOTA - 12 hour CW 100W unassisted, placed 5th overall,
FIRST G
-
RSGB VHF FD - Windmill CG -
FIRST open section
-
RSGB SSB FD - Windmill CG - details lost
-
CQ WW SSB - chased DX instead of entering
-
CQ WW CW - SOSB(A) 15m QRO - 406k points, set a
G record which still stands
2001 (XT2DX)
-
CQ WW CQ multi-multi with the Voodudes from a hotel roof in Ouagadougou, capital of
Burkina Faso. Scored 36,947,232 points from 15,560 QSOs with 187 zone and 677 DXCC
band-slots. Placed
2nd world I think.
1999 (M6T)
-
CQ WW SSB - Multi-multi at M6T - 29 million points,
FIRST
G, EU and zone 14. EU MM, G
and zone 14 records still stand. I operated 160m again. It was a real blast!
-
No more time for contesting this year - still too busy doing the MBA
1998 (M6T)
-
CQ WW SSB - M6T multi-multi - I operated 160m - details lost
-
No more time for contesting this year - busy studying for an MBA
1997 (G4iFB, G3GRS/P)
-
RSGB AFS CW - CDXC - details lost
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend RS -
second
restricted behind GM3POI/P this year!
1996 (G4iFB, G0KPW, G3GRS/P)
-
CQ WW CW - Single op 15m at home - 406k points,
FIRST G and set a G record (which I
beat again in 2003!)
-
CQ WW SSB - G0KPW (now M6T) multi-multi.
FIRST G
. I operated 160m and got 67
countries on a quarter wave vertical.
-
CQ WPX CW - 28MHz QRO single op, claimed 66k points, results lost.
-
RSGB AFS CW - CDXC - placed
second
out of 70 clubs, I was 6th of 304 entrants.
-
RSGB AFS SSB - CDXC - placed
third
of 77 clubs, I was 9th of 186 entrants.
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend RS -
FIRST
restricted, won the Bristol Trophy yet again.
-
RSGB IOTA - 12 hour mixed - placed 5th of 36,
second G.
-
RSGB SSB FD - Gravesend RS - restricted, claimed 303k points, results lost.
-
RSGB 2nd Topband - placed 5th of 44.
-
RSGB 1st Topband - aborted entry when amp blew a coupling capacitor.
-
CDXC 9BCW - results lost.
1995 (G4iFB, G3GRS/P)
- RSGB 1st Topband - placed 7th of 48.
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend RS -
FIRST
restricted, won the Bristol Trophy again.
-
RSGB 7MHz DX CW - placed 19th of 46.
-
RSGB AFS CW - CDXC - placed
third
of over 100 clubs, I was 18th of 343 entrants.
-
RSGB QRP Fixed - technical disqualification from 11th place for having a QRO PA (though I
didn’t use it - doh!).
-
CQ WW SSB - 160m single op - details lost.
-
CQ WW CW - chased DX instead of entering.
- RSGB 2nd Topband - claimed 892 points, results lost.
-
ARRL 160m CW - placed
second
... albeit out of only 3 UK entrants!
-
RSGB Summer Topband - placed 6th of 32.
-
CDXC 9BCW - placed 27th of 34 ... using 5W QRP all year :-)
1994 (G4iFB, GW4iFB, GW8GT, G3GRS/P)
-
CQ WW CW - GW8GT multi-single - 3.9 million points,
FIRST UK.
-
CQ WW RTTY - GW8GT multi-single - 1.7 million points,
second world,
FIRST UK.
-
CQ WPX SSB - GW8GT - 80m single op - 1.5 million points,
FIRST EU, third
world, new EU
record.
-
CDXC 9BCW - placed 6th of 22.
-
RSGB AFS CW - Flight Refuelling ARS - 14th of 90 clubs, I was 65th of 320 entrants.
-
RSGB AFS SSB - Flight Refuelling ARS - 41st of 73 clubs, I was 107th of 141 entrants.
- RSGB 1st Topband - details lost.
-
CQ WPX SSB - single op 80m at GW8GT -
FIRST
G, GW and EU -
new EU record.
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend RS -
FIRST
restricted, won the Bristol Trophy again.
- RSGB 1st Topband - placed 10th of 32.
-
RSGB Summer Topband - placed 4th of 83.
- RSGB 2nd Topband - placed 9th of 40.
-
RSGB IOTA - GW8GT - 1.8 million points, placed 4th of 37.
1993 (G4iFB, GW4iFB, GW8GT, GB5CC, G3GRS/P)
-
CQ WW CW - Single op 15m at GW8GT - 600k points -
FIRST G and GW,
new UK record & GW record still stands.
-
RSGB Commonwealth - operated GB5CC HQ station at GW8GT.
-
RSGB RoPoCo 1 - placed 15th of 55.
-
RSGB County Roundup CW - placed 20th of 39.
-
CQ WPX CW - chased DX instead of contesting!
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend RS -
FIRST
restricted, won the Bristol Trophy again.
-
IARU - GB3HQ at Flight Refuelling ARS with G3SQX - details lost.
-
CQ WW SSB - placed 3rd G low power.
-
RSGB Club Calls Contest - Flight Refuelling ARS with my good pal Ed G3SQX (now mostly
GW3SQX) in Hampshire - placed 6th of 69.
1992 (G4iFB, GW4iFB, GW8GT, GB2RS, G3GRS/P)
-
CQ WW CW - Multi-multi at GW8GT - 17.5 million points. What a buzz!
FIRST GW
. Our GW record still stands.
-
CQ WW SSB - at GW8GT - details lost.
-
CQ WPX CW - Operated GB2RS demo station at the RSGB radio rally at the NEC in Brum.
-
RSGB NFD - Gravesend RS -
FIRST
restricted, won the Bristol Trophy again.
- CQM -
first place
20m single op from G.
1991 (G4iFB, GW4iFB, GW8GT, GB5CC)
-
CQ WW SSB - GW8GT multi-single - details lost.
-
CQ WW CW - GW8GT multi-single - details lost.
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend -
FIRST
place restricted, won the Bristol Trophy.
-
RSGB AFS - Gravesend RS - 15th of 93 teams. I was 208th of 345 entrants.
-
RSGB Commonwealth - operated GB5CC HQ station at GW8GT.
-
CQ WPX SSB - entered but the entry was lost :-(
-
CQ WPX CW - GW8GT multi-single - 5.9 million points, placed 10th world, 5th EU,
FIRST GW again.
1990 (G4iFB, GW4iFB, GW8GT, G3GRS/P, GB5CC)
-
CQ WW CW - Multi-single at GW8GT - 7.6 million points,
FIRST GW. GW record still stands.
Operators G3OAY Neil, G4BKI Paul, G3SXW Ed, G4VXE Tim, GW4LXO, GW4TTU Kelvin,
GW0MAW Norman, GW3NWS Ross, GW4JBQ Julian, GW5NF Roger, GW0CLD, GW6ZUQ
Dudley, GW3KYA Brian and GW4iFB me.
- WRTC -
FIRST UK, 7th EU, 12th world.
-
SAC - 584th overall, 4th of just 6 G’s.
-
RSGB LP FD - had lots of fun with just 100mW but submitted a rather pathetic checklog.
-
RSGB Commonwealth - operated GB5CC HQ station at G6LX Ron’s place.
-
RSGB SSB FD - Gravesend RS -
first
of 29 restricted.
-
RSGB VHF FD - Windmill CG -
second
of 36 open. On 2m (the band I mainly operated) we
made 3rd place, despite a solder blob coming adrift in the masthead preamp.
-
RSGB HF NFD - Gravesend RS -
third
out of 49 restricted.
-
RSGB AFS - 3 A’s B team - placed 58th out of 94. I was 63rd out of 339 entrants.
-
WRTC - just played in that one.
1989 (G4iFB, G4BUO/P, G0FBB/P)
-
RSGB HF NFD - With G4BUO and G4FAM - placed
third
of 64 in restricted (the same score
would have placed us 2nd in the Open section that year!).
-
RSGB VHF FD - with Windmill CG - placed 6th of 49.
-
RSGB SSB FD - with Gravesend RS - placed
second
of 34 in restricted section, not bad for
the club’s first ever entry in that contest!
-
RSGB 2nd Topband - placed 43rd of 44, missing the wooden spoon by just 1 place.
-
RSGB RoPoCo 1 - placed 15th of 50.
-
RSGB RoPoCo 2 - placed 26th of 43.
-
RSGB County Roundup CW - placed 7th of 31.
1988 (G4iFB, G3LRS/P, G5UM/P)
-
RSGB HF NFD - Leicester Radio Society A team placed
FIRST
on 160m single-band with a
genuine 10W, just to prove a point.
-
RSGB VHF FD - Leicester Radio Society placed 6th out of 48
-
RSGB Region Roundup - placed 4th of 7 QRP entrants.
-
RSGB Summer Topband - I checklogged for G3SJJ.
-
RSGB 7MHz CW - placed 19th out of 39.
-
RSGB 432MHz AFS - Leicester Radio Society placed 11th out of 21.
-
RSGB AFS - Leicester Radio Society A team placed 21st out of 96. I was 53rd out of 354
entrants.
1981-87 (G4iFB, G3LRS/P, G5UM/P etc.)
-
I have lost my notes and only have vague recollections of contesting during this period. I
recall several HF NFDs with Sutton and Cheam RS at Tadworth, and VHF FDs at Leek, then I
moved to Leicester in 1983. I was at university throughout so really only entered a few club
events in the uni holidays.
1980 (G4iFB, G3LCH/P)
-
RSGB HF NFD - with Sutton & Cheam RS - placed 20th out of 51
1979 (the year I was licensed and first operated as G4iFB)
-
RSGB 21/28 SSB - placed 28th out of 38
-
RSGB 21 CW - placed 21st out of 39
Contest miscellany
Instructions for adding NTP servers to Windows XP
I’d like to auto-synchronise the clock on my PCs with NTP servers on the Internet, so I know I’m
starting the contest on time and logging QSOs accurately. The built-in Windows function accessible
by double-clicking the system clock on the XP desktop only includes two NTP servers (time
.windows.com and time.nist.gov), both of which are in the US. I would prefer to use a server
nearer ZL (such as NTP.Adelaide.EDU.AU) but there’s no obvious way to add NTP servers to the
Windows list.
A bit of Registry searching later, I’ve found the NTP server list and discovered how to hack it.
Disclaimer
: this process involves changing your system’s registry. This worked on my Windows
XP machines - I haven’t tried it on any other version. I offer no guarantee it will work on your
system!
Take a registry backup first and proceed at your own risk.
0. Backup your registry.
If you don’t know how to do this, stop right here and go find
out. A few moments backing up sure beats several hours rebuilding your entire system because
you accidentally deleted or changed the wrong key ...
1. Open the registry editor by clicking the Start menu, then Run..., enter “regedt32” into the
dialogue box and hit return.
2. Navigate to the following registry key by finding and clicking the relevant + buttons starting at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE:
In the default configuration on my PCs, there were 3 values under that key:
-
“Default” = 2
-
“1” = time.windows.com
-
“2” = time.nist.gov
3. Add another key value of type string (right-click in the right pane, select New --> Value -->
String)
4. The name of the key value should be “3” (just type 3 <Return> if the new key name is
highlighted).
5. The value of the new key value should be the domain name of your chosen NTP server - find
and choose an NTP server near where you live. I found the Adelaide one using the list built-in to
timeRC.exe, an old time synchronization program I found knocking around on my hard drive. I
guess Google knows them all.
6. The “Default” value appears to define which NTP server is used by default. I changed mine to
“3” and it works for me.
7. Add more NTP servers if you wish by going back to step 3.
8. Close regedt32.
9. Double-click the clock to pull up the time synchronization dialogue.
10. Click the Internet time tab.
11. In the drop-down box, your new NTP servers should now be visible. Pick one and click
‘Update now’.
12. If it works, you should see a success message very quickly. If not, you most likely have a
problem with your Internet connection (try again - satellite links sometimes time out but usually
work eventually) or firewall settings (sorry, I can’t help you there as each firewall program is
different. Look for a configuration option to allow outbound NTP traffic and if necessary list the
NTP servers you added at step 5 in the ‘permitted sites’ list.)
13. Check the ‘Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server’ box to have your PC
resynchronize itself automatically once a week. This is a set-and-forget option. It consumes a
negligible amount of memory and CPU time but turn it off if you are tight.
14. Start and finish the next contest bang on time!
There’s another way too: this free Windows utility (one of several handy programs from a YL called
Karen) gives you a wide choice of time-synch servers. The drawback is that to make regular
synchs, you need to run Karen’s program continuously, taking up system resources, whereas the
Windows function runs anyway.
Yet another free PC time setting utility is About Time. This one shows the corrections in
milliseconds and, using a local university’s NTP service, seems the most accurate of the lot for me.
Dimension 4 is yet another popular choice though I haven’t even tried that one yet. About Time is
plenty good enough.
BERU checklist
Here’s a 2-page checklist for fellow semi-Luddites who prefer to keep track of their
Commonwealth Contest bonus QSOs on paper, to supplement the computer log. It is an Excel
spreadsheet. Just delete my BERU 2006 mults from the sheet before using it, and check for any
recent changes in Commonwealth membership!
BERU checklist
There are four columns on each band to tick off the four possible bonuses: HQ stations and the
first three regular QSOs. Don’t forget to strike out your own call area since home country QSOs
don’t earn bonuses (check the rules!).
Thanks to ideas from Ian GM3SEK, here’s a post-contest version to help tot-up your claimed QSO
and bonus points. I’ve added some instructions.
Other contest stuff
I’ve long admired VE3NEA’s free MorseRunner training program that authentically simulates CQ WW
CW, down to QRN, fading/flutter and QRM. I’ve just discovered that it’s possible to link N1MM with
MorseRunner, to more accurately train the user in logging contest QSOs with N1MM. The trick is to
run a linking program from K7OG - the program and instructions are here.
I found the info above while browsing the contest wiki at contesting.com. It’s early days but this
wiki has the potential to completely blow away the “Introduction to HF contesting” I originally
wrote for the RSGB some 20-odd years ago!
Sleep Your Way To The Top is an interesting HR piece about the perils of sleep deprivation in a work
environment, but exactly the same physiological factors affect contesters too. Don’t listen when
some idiot tells you to ‘train your body’ for round-the-clock operating by staying up later and later,
getting less and less sleep prior to a major contest ... unless, that is, you are competing against me in a major contest in which case I thoroughly recommend that most excellent approach!!
When you are in any contest you should work as if there
were - to the very last minute - a chance to lose it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Keep trying, keep learning and keep the best
r
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