RSGB 2m UKAC

Myself and Roydan M0LEX participated in the VHF RSGB UKAC last night (Tuesday 6th October) so I thought I'd get a blog post up about it. I say WE participated, it was Roydan in the hot seat for the contest, I helped set up the antenna and provided the drinks instead of competing. Not to say I didn't have a great time. It's always nice to see so many stations take part in the event from up and down the country. It makes a change from hearing the bands dead. Roydan worked 110 stations in the 2 hour 30 minute contest with some nice Scottish, Irish and even a Belgian station coming through.

We stopped at our usual spot between Heywood and Norden which are 2 towns between Bury and Rochdale. The site is on the edge of Scout Moor Wind Farm which boasts some impressive turbines that are surprisingly quiet as their blades spin. Ashworth Hill Reservoir lies a few hundred yards to the North. You can usually see as far as Holme Moss Transmitting Station to the East and as far as the hills of Blackburn and Darwen to the West. The view North is obscured by the Scout Moor Wind Farm and the view South stretches as far as the eye can see towards Manchester Airport and Alderley Edge. Unlike the last 2 contests we've done, the rain was coming down and it not only made visibility very poor, it also made setting up the beam and putting it on the mast hard work. I usually take lots of photographs and video footage of the setup and contest itself but it just wasn't possible. I've got some video footage of the contest which I'll upload to my YouTube as and when. We perservered in the rain and got in the car and waited for the contest to start.

We had a really busy start with the first 30 stations coming through in the first 10-15 minutes but it did slow down after that. The 110 he worked was really impressive. We spoke car to car DMR simplex on the way up to the site and the TYT MD-380's really worked well. I put a couple of calls out on 2m after the contest and got nothing back. I always enjoy visiting the spot as I can open so many repeaters on a handheld from Stoke to Blackpool, Llandudno to Huddersfield and everywhere inbetween.

Below is the list of stations worked and their location marked on a map (click to enlarge):

G3UVR	M0HAZ	M0VAA	G4LPD
2E0BMO	2E0ILO	2E0BMA/P	2E0BIB
2E0BZU	2E0LDZ/P	2E0DKY	2E0TJX
2W0JYN	2E0LKC	G0RXT	G0BRC
G0AJJ	2E0LMD	G1PPA	G0BWB
G0CER	2E0XJP	G3PHO	G0GJV
G0OHY	G0BFJ/P	G3YOA	G0JJG
G0RKT	G0DQQ	G4JLG	G0LUJ
G3SQQ	G0SLR	G4NTY	G0MCV
G4AQB	G1KFB	G4YBS	G0WWH
G4HYG	G3TCT	G8BUN	G1MHU
G4LBH	G4BRK	G8FDJ	G2ANC
G4NDM/P	G4GFI	G8PEF/P	G3LAS
G4OAR/A	G4HGT/P	G8REQ	G3RCW
G4WUA	G4KCT	G8ZRE	G3TDH
G6BKF	G4OAR/A	GD1MIP	G4CRF
G6XHF	G5BBL/P	M0GAV	G4IDF
G7VGP	G8KBH	M0HGY	G4NBS
G8EOP	G8TIC	M0JAV	G4RQI
G8OVZ/P	GM4BYF	M0PNN	G4YUP/P
G8WUY	GM4JJJ	M1EIB	G8MKC/P
GW4ZAR	GM4JTJ	M1EYP/P	GI4SNA
GW8ASD	M0EMM	M5DWI	GW0PEB/P
M0CES/P	M0MPM/P	M6KTP/P	M0DZB
M0COP/P	M0NST	M6XAK	M5MUF
M0HWO	M0PNN	MW0HTG	M6GZE/P
M0OGG	M6FTT	ON5AEN	M6TFV
M0WBG	M6NKB

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.

Manchester, UK.