VHF/UHF Contesting
CRA is proud to affiliate with Colchester Contest
Group, a dedicated group of individuals who take part in all the major
VHF/UHF & Microwave RSGB Contests throughout the year. As you can
read below, they are very successful in these, showing that dedicated effort
really pays off.
However if you are newer to contests or just want
to help CRA amass points in a team competition, there are a couple of ways to
do this:
1. 144MHz
AFS contest
This is held in December each year and like the
HF team events described above, contribute to the CRA team score. The
exchange is a genuine signal report by ear, a serial number 001 increasing by
one for each successive contact and your locator square (e.g. JO01LV etc).
Typically to be effective, you should use a horizontally polarised
antenna and beam in various directions to find the maximum number of
stations.
2. VHF/UHF FM Activity (FMAC) contests
These are a series of events aimed at newcomers
to VHF/UHF contests - and therefore use FM rather than the usual SSB/CW for
those who perhaps only have an FM VHF/UHF radio. They are also restricted
to 10 or 50W entries to match the Foundation and Intermediate licence levels.
In purpose they are very similar to the idea of the local Leiston
contests that used to exist, which CRA members previously supported.
These events are 7-8pm local time. The 2m
FMAC sessions are on the 1st Tuesday of each month.
The 70cm
FMAC sessions are on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.
There are also 6m and 4m FMAC events in each month on other evenings.
Colchester Contest Group consists of a dedicated group of individuals who take part in all the major VHF RSGB Contests throughout the year.
Most activity takes place from their regular contest site at Walton on the Naze (Locator JO01PU) using the call sign G0VHF/P.
Over the years the Contest Group have become a force to be reckoned with and are normally found near, if not at the top of the results tables. One of their biggest achievements to date is winning their section of the VHF National Field Day Contest for five years on the trot, a remarkable achievement by any standards.
