This was my first attempt at the 432MHz AFS contest and the first contest that I've entered for 2015 out portable and what a surprise it was too. This was an Affiliated Societies contest and was open to both individual entrants (who must be RSGB members), and to teams made up of a number of operators who must all be members of the same affiliated society, but not necessarily RSGB members themselves. So an affiliated group effort was required for this contest and we managed to get a team together under The Blacksheep CG which consisted of Single Fixed Operators & Portable Operators: Matt G0XDI, Roger G3MEH, John G0ODQ and Andy M3IBF including myself M0XII (Andy and I were portable under M0XII/P).
The location that was selected for going out portable for this contest was on the Isle of Sheppey in Locator Square JO01. The contest started at 09:00UTC and ended at 13:00UTC. There were flat conditions on the band with very heavy QSB at times, we also has some power issues (flat battery & SWR / Power meter going kaput on us) but we limped through the contest anyway. The weather conditions were pleasant for the duration of the contest which made dealing with some of the issues we had a lot easier.
We finished the contest under M0XII/P with a claimed score of 16,689 points at 214 points per QSO. We managed to work 78 QSO's and 8 DXCC's and 19 WWL's. Our ODX was 572Km with GM4PPT, I would like to thank Dick GM4PPT for his patience in completing this contact as QSB had a major part to play during our QSO.
I would like to extend a big Thank You to my fellow Blacksheep CG Team members;
Matt G0XDI, Roger G3MEH, John G0ODQ and Andy M3IBF for not only the loan of some equipment for this contest but for their commitment, group effort and participation in this contest and I look forward to doing more with these guys in future contests.
The equipment we used out portable was an FT847, 100w Linear Amplifier and a 21 element F9FT Tonna Antenna about 5m from ground.
A Map of our QSO's in this contest is here:
UPDATE:
Congratulations goes to the Blacksheep Contest Group who won the G0ODQ Trophy by a good margin. Second place goes to Camb-Hams, who were not far ahead of their rivals from Bristol Contest Group in third place.
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