Radio Contests

2006 Top Band club call Log. Click here

2007 Top Band club call Log. Click here

    Many people who have spent a lot of time in putting together an amateur radio station want to find a way of determining just how good the station (and their skills in using it) really is.

    A Radio Contest is a convenient way of achieving this,  in as short a time as possible.

    Contests are organised by a wide range of clubs and National Organisations,  such as the  R.S.G.B. Although the rules vary in detail from one contest to another,  they all have the basic objective of contacting the greatest number of stations possible in a given time.

This is Kevin,  the Club's Chairman operating during a 2 metre contest from a tent on top of St. Agnes Beacon.

This is the view from the 2 metre station shown above.   The tent containing the 2 metre station is behind the photographer.
This view is looking north,  along the north Cornwall coast.   The village of St. Agnes can be readily seen.
The Newquay coast is in the far distance.

    VHF Contests require a location which is higher than the ground surrounding it.   The picture above shows one site that the Newquay Club used in 2002.   It can be seen that the location is indeed higher than the surrounding fields.

    The antennas used at VHF are like old fashioned television aerials.   They are directional,  thus they need to be turned to point at the station being contacted.   Most stations are quite a long distance from Cornwall,  so it is important to use antennas which can make the best of very weak signals.   For the same reason the receiver needs to be as sensitive as possible,  without suffering from the effects of any strong local stations that there might be.

    See VHF Contest diary for the latest (2009) listings of the R.S.G.B. VHF contests.
 

 
 

     This shows the tent,  and the bottom of the mast supporting the antenna,  during a VHF contest from the St. Agnes site in 2002.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

    HF Contests,  on the other hand,  utilise frequencies which enable far greater distances to be contacted.   The antennas are often much larger and often involve long lengths of wire.   The Newquay Club has entered a number of H.F. contests from their meeting place at Treviglas Community College.

    The equipment clearly needs to cover a different range of frequencies.   The receiver becomes a very important aspect of the station,  is it is important to be able to seperate the wanted station from many other stations very close in frequency to the wanted one.   Modern receivers use digital techniques to try and make the wanted station 'stand out' from the unwanted signals and noise.

    See  H.F. Contest Diary   for details of the H.F. contests organised by the R.S.G.B. during 2009.

  It is not only the equipment which needs to be working to its best ability,  the contest operator needs to be familiar with the equipment,  so as to waste no time in moving from contacting one station to contacting the next.   It is also important to be able to record not just the station's callsign,  but the details that the contest rules require to be exchanged.   This is often the location of the station (particularly on VHF contests) or other details,  as dictated in the rules.
 

    The Club enters a number of contests each year.   The contests which have been picked out as being a good cross section of bands and types of contests,  and which the club proposes to participate in are given in  the Club's Contests 2009.