The GM3HAM Contest Group of the Lothians Radio Society operated in the Restricted Section of RSGB VHF NFD on 7th-8th July 2012 from our excellent site in the hills above Gatehouse of Fleet, looking out over the Solway Firth towards the Isle of Man, and formerly used by Tom Douglas G3BA / GM3BA / SK. Unlike most of the rest of the country we had excellent weather apart from rain during Friday night and a brief shower while packing up on Sunday afternoon. Operation was on 6m, 4m, 2m and 70cm with very long yagi antennas. We were joined by Terry GM3WUX from Glasgow, who was a guest operator on 6m and 4m, mostly on CW.
The VHF NFD 2012 contest results have now been announced by the RSGB - CLICK for full access. In the Restricted Section the LRS station GM3HAM/P did very well, coming in at 2nd place nationally and 1st in Scotland, retaining the Cockenzie Quaich. We gained 1st place on 70MHz and 2nd place on both 50MHz and 144MHz.
In the following table scores are "normalized" relative to the leading station at 1000 points per band.
OVERALL: 2nd 3110 score
SCOTLAND: 1st 3110 score
50MHz: 2nd 71 QSOs 19,618 points
70MHz: 1st 80 QSOs 24,354 points
144MHz: 2nd 177 QSOs 51,157 points
432MHz: 9th 23 QSOs 5,519 points
Submitted Scores:
50MHz via GM4DIJ (checked):
Number of valid QSOs: 74
Claimed number of QSO points: 20556
Best DX - Callsign; Locator; Distance: G0FBB/P in JO01ld at 538km
70MHz via GM4DIJ (checked):
Number of valid QSOs: 82
Claimed number of QSO points: 25398
Best DX - Callsign; Locator; Distance: ON4GG in JO20ar at 718km
144MHz via GM4BYF (checked):
Number of valid QSOs: 183
Claimed number of QSO points: 53579
Best DX - Callsign; Locator; Distance: F1BJD in IN98wr at 796km
432MHz via GM8BJF & GM4BYF (checked)
Number of valid QSOs: 27
Claimed total score: 7156
Best DX - Callsign; Locator; Distance: G0FBB/P in JO01ld at 538km
Photos by GM3PSP:
Good planning is essential for an event such as VHF NFD.
Here we are, doing it in the Stable Bar a couple of days previously.
L-R: Pete GM4BYF, Brian GM4DIJ, Colin GM4HWO, Alan GM3PSP & Brian GM8BJF.
In spite of dire forecasts of heavy rain and floods we were fortunate to have dry weather for pitching the tents and assembling the aerials on the Friday afternoon. Then it rained all night!
Deja vu? No - this is the dinner in the Masonic Arms in Gatehouse on the Friday evening after pitching the tents.
We have now been joined by Mike GM4IGS from Troon and guest operator Terry GM3WUX from Glasgow.
L-R: Colin GM4HWO, Pete GM4BYF, Brian GM8BJF, Terry GM3WUX, Alan GM3PSP, Brian GM4DIJ & Mike GM4IGS.
After dinner we returned to the cook tent to plan the operating schedule for the following day, over several bottles of Scotland's most famous export.
Supervised by Mike GM4IGS, Pete GM4BYF is careful not to over-dilute his malt.
Cheers, chaps, and here's to a very successful VHF NFD!
Colin GM4HWO was up bright and early (as always) on the Saturday morning and his first job was to get his generator started. Switching the main switch to "ON" helped enormously!
Colin then cooked the traditional bacon-and-egg-rolls breakfast to everyone's satisfaction.
Breakfast group L-R: Mike GM4IGS, Brian GM4DIJ, Brian GM8BJF & Pete GM4BYF.
Brian GM4DIJ "framed" by his home-brew 9-element yagi for 50 MHz. This would be converted to an 11-element yagi for 70 MHz the following morning.
The 50 MHz / 6m station ready to go on Saturday. Contrary to the forecasts, we had beautiful weather all day, unlike the rest of the country, both north and south of us.
Mike GM4IGS operating 6m while Brian GM4DIJ does the computer-logging.
The 6m rig was a Yaesu FT847 running 100W to a 9 element long yagi.
Guest operator Terry GM3WUX joined Mike and Brian at the 6m / 4m station to operate mostly CW.
Both the 2m and 70cm stations were located in the Event Tent. The aerials were long yagis for the two bands:
2m: 16 element M2 beam @ 9 metres above ground
70cm: 21 element M2 beam @ 9 metres above ground.
Pete GM4BYF operating 2m. The station consisted of a Yaesu FT736R transceiver and a BNOS 100watt linear amp.
Colin GM4HWO provided the equipment and shared the 2m operating with Pete GM4BYF.
Pete and Colin also jointly won the "Best T-Shirt of VHF NFD" contest.
Brian GM8BJF operated the 70cm station, co-located with the 2m station in the Event Tent.
The station consisted of a Yaesu FT736R transceiver and a 100watt linear amp.
As overall LRS VHF NFD Coordinator, Pete GM4BYF kept a close eye on the operators to make sure they weren't slacking!
Dinner break on Saturday. Food was ordered from Gatehouse of Fleet as ongoing contest operating prevented us returning to the Masonic Arms for a second evening.
Night starting to fall on the Saturday evening, but contest operating continued.
Colin taking some essential liquid sustenance to help keep him going on 2m with Pete
Terry is a crack CW operator who was able to hear further down into the noise on 6m than the rest of us!
One of several nice keys in use.
Although beacon stations in Spain and Portugal had been heard on 6m on the Saturday morning, sadly there was no lift in that direction during the contest.
On the Sunday morning the home-brew 6m yagi was lowered for conversion to 4m with a second set of 11 elements using pre-marked positions on the boom. The 4m rig was a Yaesu FT847 + 40W solid state amplifier.
Brian GM4DIJ fitting one of the 4m elements to the boom.
Alan GM3PSP relieved Brian as 70cm operator when things got really slow and boring on the Sunday afternoon, and managed to pull in a few more stations.
Alan GM3PSP and Terry GM3WUX posing behind Alan's generator. Why, you might ask? Well, both Alan and Terry continue to be Country Members of the Edgware & District Radio Society G3ASR in London, from whom the genny was bought a few years ago when that club decided it would no longer operate in portable contests.
Final group shot taken after the contest. There was one short rain shower when breaking down but apart from that the wx had been great and we all enjoyed the weekend.
L-R: Mike GM4IGS, Pete GM4BYF, Terry GM3WUX, Colin GM4HWO, Brian GM8BJF, Brian GM4DIJ & Alan GM3PSP.
Well done, chaps!