Contesting

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 Last week and this week I decided to try and work some stations during Tuesday nights RSGB VHF Contest. The Contests are held weekly on Tuesday evenings and Cover five VHF Bands. I have operated on two of the five Contest bands 144MHZ and 433MHZ.
Below is the table found at the RSGB Contest Committee Site explaining what band is used and the operating times of each Tuesday's evening Contest. Also the previous month - January's results can be seen via the Results links.
Every 1st Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
144MHz UK Activity Contest and Club Championship
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
Every 2nd Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
432MHz UKAC
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
Every 3rd Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
UHF UKAC
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
Every 4th Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
50MHz UKAC
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
Every 5th Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
70MHz UKAC
 
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
The contacts I made during both Contests were worked using the Yaesu FT-847 and the home made single loop horizontal antenna better known as the IOIo beam. ON 144Mhz I ran 50W and worked 17 stations with the furthest Station to be worked being M0BRA at a distance of 279km. The results were even better on 433MHz which surprised me as I only worked 10 stations with QSB and poor conditions, again I used the FT-847, IOIo antenna and this time only 35Watts. The furthest Station worked at 302km away was G5LK. Many Thanks to all Stations worked, I had a lot of fun as well as obtaining a few points!
I will be looking forward to using my humble antenna system and QRP Station in many more VHF Contests, hope to work some of you!

Most of you HF guys will have been active this weekend either Taking the ARRL Contest serious or like myself looking out for DX and giving a few points away at the same time. I made some nice QSO Sunday evening on 20M as the band stayed open until my bed time. I worked near enough 25 Stations in one hour with big signals and lots of fast signal reports/Power output exchanges. I worked on the 20M band with my Yaesu FT-847 and Vertical Antenna - Hustler 6BTV (ground mounted with 4X 20M radials). To my amazement the change in signal reflection and propagation path had influenced the change of my preferred HF Station a Yaesu FT-767GX and  Full wave Delta loop that normally does the best job for me. Not the case this time, It is good to have a choice of the two set ups. Check out the log to see the ft-847, 50W and a 6BTV performance.
Click on log to enlarge

That's all folks, until next time! 73!

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