RSGB VHF/UHF Contests

RSGB VHF/UHF Contests


Each month the Radio Society of Great Britain runs ‘Activity Contests’ on the VHF and UHF bands. Full details are on https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/readcal.pl. These are a great way to cut your teeth in contesting, as they are nowhere near as cut throat as HF contests. 

For those new to the radio hobby these contests are a great opportunity to do some listening and to check out VHF and UHF receiving equipment and antennas as there is usually a lot of activity. 

The last part of the contest exchange is of most interest if you are not entering. It is the Locator Square (Maidenhead Locator) which is described in:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maidenhead_Locator_System . 

When you hear a Locator, enter it in the Grid Square box at

 https://dxcluster.ha8tks.hu/hamgeocoding/ 

and it will display a map showing the area where the station is located.

European contries run similar contests at the same times so you may hear stations from there as well as UK stations. 

To enter, you must have an amateur radio licence and be a member of RSGB or a member of an affiliated club. Do check the rules before entering as they are quite detailed.
  

If you are not entering the contest then the stations you hear, particularly those far away, will appreciate an email with the date and time you heard them and your location. You can find amateur station email addresses at www.qsl.net. 

Contest Timetable

Every 1st Tuesday	1900-1955 (Local)		2m FM Contest 144.5125 to 144.7875 MHz  and  145.200 to 145.400 MHz
Every 1st Tuesday	2000-2230 (Local)		2m Multimode Contest (see below). Mostly 144.150 to 144.400 MHz
Every 2nd Thursday	2000-2230 (Local)		6m Multimode Contest (see below). Mostly 50.130 to 50.300 MHz
Every 2nd Tuesday	1900-1955 (Local)		70cm FM Contest 432.525 to 432.975 MHz and 433.400 to 433.475 MHz
Every 2nd Tuesday	2000-2230 (Local)		70cm Multimode Contest (see below). Mostly 432.1 and 432.3 MHz
Every 3rd Thursday	2000-2230 (Local)		4m Multimode Contest (see below). I have never entered this contest, but band plan suggests 70.1 to 70.250 MHz
NOTES			For the FM contests, only FM mode can be used, for the other contests SSB, CW, FM, AM, JT6M, ISCAT and FSK441 can be used. Most contestants use SSB and a few call on CW (Morse) as well. Contest times are UK Local time, NOT UTC.

Good listening, and please leave a comment on here telling us how you get on. 

French CW Contest

I took part in the REF French CW contest this weekend (Championnat de France HF Télégraphie). I am not a great contester, or CW operator, but this event was a delight to take part in.

The object is to work as many French stations as possible. Foreign stations send RST + Serial, French stations send RST + Department Number - these are the multipliers and as there are 96 of them plus 11 overseas territories and Departments, there's plenty to go for.

The nice thing about this contest was that very few French stations were sending stupidly fast and secondly, they were all very polite - a massive contrast to the normal scrum of most CW contests. This would be a very good event to start with if you are thinking of trying a CW contest but are intimidated by what you hear in most events.

It takes place on the last full weekend of January (with the SSB contest the last weekend of February) and runs from 6am Saturday until 6 pm (UTC) Sunday. As the exchanges are numeric, you don't even need to speak French!

Full details are on http://concours.ref-union.org/reglements/index.php with the rules in several languages.

Thanks to the RÉSEAU DES ÉMETTEURS FRANÇAIS / UNION FRANÇAISE DES RADIOAMATEURS for running this event.