M0BLF Amateur Radio

RSGB AFS Contest

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:02:55 +0000

The Contest

□ When the contest was and where I operated from

The aim of the RSGB Affiliated Societies contest is for members of local radio clubs across the UK to compete with members of other clubs. Although there is a Cambridge University club entry this year, the rules say that all operators must be within a 50 mile radius of the club, which unfortunately I am not. So, I'll be submitting a checklog this year unless I make enough contacts to warrant an entry on behalf of Dartmoor Radio Club.

I operated as M0BLF in the RSGB AFS SSB Contest on 16 - 16 January 2010, from my home QTH in Yelverton, Devon, England (IO70wl) (Co-ordinates: 50.49697°N, -4.09073°W).

Equipment

□ The Rigs and Antennas used in the entry

Icom IC-706Mk2G, 100W, very long wire at about 3m AGL with ATU. (No, I'm didn't expect a big score!) Logging software: Win-Test

Claimed Score

□ The summary of points I made during the contest (subject to adjudication)

Write-up

□ My comments about the contest

Having not participated in AFS since 2004, my first comment must be how much easier it is now that club names aren't part of the exchange. It was one of the things that slowed me down the most in my previous attempts and I have viewed the contest as frustrating ever since. It's so much more pleasant now and the 4 hour duration makes taking a few hours off to participate does not ignore much commitment. I just wish my local club would enter!

Given my lack of decent antenna at this QTH, I was never going to make a fantastic score this contest, and was quite content to mainly give out points. Apologies and thanks for persevering to those whom I annoyed with my weak signal; I know how frustrating it can get.

The only major issue that I encountered was the failure of my rig-control when I came to set-up Win-Test. Something to look at before a more major contest entry but otherwise everything seemed to work OK.

QSL Information

□ How to get a QSL-Card for a Contest QSO

QSL is OK direct or via the bureau to M0BLF. About my QSL Card

□ My last entry in this contest

I last took part in AFS in 2004, when I operated from G3PJT on behalf of Cambridge University Wireless Society.

Document changes:

2010-01-16: Page launched
2010-01-16: Live-Log removed and replaced with log-search at end of contest. Other text moved to the past tense. Added score table and write-up.

[The Log-Search Module cannot be displayed within the RSS feed. Please load the page from my site to see it.]

M0BLF Year In Review 2009

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:53:40 +0000

Summary

In my review of 2008, I remarked that I should be starting a new job in 2009, and that sunspots should be increasing during the year. At the time, I felt safe making these predictions but, as it turns out, sunspots have only started to increase in the last couple of months. I also had a problem with my PhD which has prevented me from finishing as soon as expected, so I could not start a job during this year, either. The result of this is that my QSO totals for the year are, unfortunately, lower this year than they have been for many years.

Some of the highlights for me, however, have been being part of the annual CQ WW DX SSB contest at M4A in October, our DXpedition to Culatra Island, Portugal in September and a SOTA activity from Snowdonia in August. Other contests and DXpeditions are linked in the news, below.

This year I have also been continuing my computing efforts for the hobby. The IOTA website, which I develop, has continued to undergo maintainance and some new code has been written. In addition, in June, I assisted the Dartmoor Radio Club's race communications for the Dartmoor Discovery by mapping runner positions in Google Earth and development of /qsos/, my innovative web-based logbook (which will shortly be coming out of beta testing) has continued.

As a nice surprise to end 2009, I was pleased to have a QSO with Louis M6LJK on New Year's Eve. He was one of the young Scouts whom I helped introduce to radio at my old Scout Troop in January and it was a real pleasure to be his first ever QSO at the end of the year.

Looking forward to 2010, I will be starting a new job in May, which is located in Cambridge, so I should have better access to radios at the Cambridge University Wireless Society shack. With sunspots finally increasing, my DXCC score will hopefully start to rise once more.

Between 01-01-2009 and 31-12-2009, I made 243 QSOs to 41 DXCC entities (countries).

QSO totals by band/mode

	---------------------  	-------
	    Raw Totals          Band %
	---------------------  	-------
BAND	CW	PH	DATA		
----	--	--	----
LF	0	0	0	0
160m	1	1	0	0.8
80m	10	1	0	4.5
40m	23	22	0	18.5
30m	0	0	0	0
20m	87	25	0	46.1
17m	0	1	0	0.4
15m	31	6	0	15.2
12m	0	0	0	0
10m	8	1	0	3.7
6m	0	2	0	0.8
VHF	0	24	0	9.9
	---------------------
Mode %:	65.8	34.2	0

DXCC totals by band/mode

BAND	CW	PH	DATA	TOTAL	
----	--	--	----	-----
LF	0	0	0	0
160m	1	1	0	2
80m	8	1	0	9
40m	15	3	0	18
30m	0	0	0	0
20m	23	16	0	39
17m	0	1	0	1
15m	16	6	0	22
12m	0	0	0	0
10m	6	1	0	7
6m	0	2	0	2
VHF	0	3	0	3

Top 10 DXCC entities

USA (W): 51
ENGLAND (G): 31
FRANCE (F): 20
FED. REP. OF GERMANY (DL): 16
ITALY (I): 11
SLOVENIA (S5): 10
CROATIA (9A): 9
EUROPEAN RUSSIA (UA): 8
SERBIA (YU): 8
HUNGARY (HA): 7

Top 10 Callsigns

GB7HQ: 12
G1RCD: 6
G0LSG: 4
M3TBQ: 3
9A800VZ: 3
LA2AB: 3
DQ4W: 3
2E0DEY: 2
CS9L: 2
K5D: 2

All-time new DXCC Entities in 2009

The following stations were all-time new DXCCs for me:

Desecheo Is. (KP5): K5D
El Salvador (YS): YS1G
Niue (ZK2): ZK2V

QSOs by Month for 2009

January: 7
February: 72
March: 0
April: 6
May: 114
June: 2
July: 37
August: 0
September: 0
October: 0
November: 0
December: 5

News from 2009

Year in Review 2008
During 2008, I made a total of 1164 radio contacts as M0BLF, in 83 DXCC entities.
1 January 2009
RDXC Contest Results
The results from the Russian DX Contest held on 15th/16th March 2008 were released at the end of December 2008. I came 54th of 254 entries in the SOSB/20 category, 47th of 182 in Europe. After log-checking, I had 335 QSOs, giving a total of 181,104 points, a reduction of some 19% from the claimed score.
3 January 2009
2kg of bureau QSL cards sent
I today posted nearly 2kg of QSL cards to the QSL bureau, only two months after the last 1kg load. In addition, recent logs for both M0BLF and M4A have been uploaded to LoTW.
7 January 2009
Dartmoor Radio Rally
Sorry I've been rather QRT of late - PhD thesis is getting near completion and has been taking over my life. Today was the annual Dartmoor Radio Rally, however, and I was helping out as usual. Photos are on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnas2/sets/72157617689720488/ and, if you missed last year's video of the rally on YouTube, a reminder that it is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYeM-KqedZs
4 May 2009
CQ WPX CW Contest
I made 101 QSOs in the CW leg of the CQ WPX contest.
31 May 2009
DXpedition to Ilha Barreta (EU-145) Announced
I will be one of a large group of operators activation Ilha Barreta, off the coast of Faro in Portugal, on 4th-6th September 2009.
29 August 2009
Successful DXpedition to Ilha Culatra (EU-145)
Our DXpedition to the Ilha Culatra (EU-145) on 5th-6th September was a big success, with over 400 QSOs made.
1 November 2009
CQ WW DX SSB 2008: M4A win First Place M/S England
Received a certificate this morning: M4A got 1st place in England, Multi-Single in CQ WW DX SSB 2008.
1 November 2009
CQ WW DX SSB 2009: M4A
I was one of 14 team members at M4A for the CQ WW DX SSB Contest. Claimed score is 4,586,025 points from 3,566 QSOs.
1 November 2009
MW0BLF/P August 2009: Logs now in SOTA database
With apologies for the delay (I had misplaced one of the bits of paper I logged on), the logs from my SOTA activations in Snowdonia in August are now on the SOTA website. They can also be browsed and searched on my site.
24 November 2009
G7WJF Log now available
It has been a big project to type up over 1500 QSOs recorded on paper, but the logs for my old 'class B' callsign, G7WJF, are now available to browse and to search on my site. I held this callsign from 1996 until 2000 (although most of my QSOs from 1998 onwards were made with my current M0BLF callsign).
24 November 2009
VE2/M0BLF/P and W1/M0BLF/P (2003) log-search added
My logs from my 2003 DXpedition to the islands of the St. Lawrence Passage and US Eastern seaboard are now online and searchable. I have also added a direct link for requesting bureau QSL cards to all log search results on my site.
28 November 2009
MM0BLF/P IOTA+SOTA Sept 2004: Logs online
Log search from my IOTA and SOTA operations in September 2004 is now available.
5 December 2009

MM0BLF/P IOTA+SOTA Sept 2004: Logs online

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:58:05 +0000

Log search from my IOTA and SOTA operations in September 2004 is now available.

VE2/M0BLF/P and W1/M0BLF/P (2003) log-search added

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:03:23 +0000

My logs from my 2003 DXpedition to the islands of the St. Lawrence Passage and US Eastern seaboard are now online and searchable. I have also added a direct link for requesting bureau QSL cards to all log search results on my site.

G7WJF Log now available

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:52:23 +0000

It has been a big project to type up over 1500 QSOs recorded on paper, but the logs for my old 'class B' callsign, G7WJF, are now available to browse and to search on my site. I held this callsign from 1996 until 2000 (although most of my QSOs from 1998 onwards were made with my current M0BLF callsign).

MW0BLF/P August 2009: Logs now in SOTA database

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:47:14 +0000

With apologies for the delay (I had misplaced one of the bits of paper I logged on), the logs from my SOTA activations in Snowdonia in August are now on the SOTA website. They can also be browsed and searched on my site.

CQ WW DX SSB 2009: M4A

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:24:17 +0000

I was one of 14 team members at M4A for the CQ WW DX SSB Contest. Claimed score is 4,586,025 points from 3,566 QSOs.

CQ WW DX SSB 2008: M4A win First Place M/S England

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:23:56 +0000

Received a certificate this morning: M4A got 1st place in England, Multi-Single in CQ WW DX SSB 2008.

Successful DXpedition to Ilha Culatra (EU-145)

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:22:42 +0000

Our DXpedition to the Ilha Culatra (EU-145) on 5th-6th September was a big success, with over 400 QSOs made.

DXpedition to Ilha Barreta (EU-145) Announced

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:18:51 +0000

I will be one of a large group of operators activation Ilha Barreta, off the coast of Faro in Portugal, on 4th-6th September 2009.

CQ WPX CW Contest

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:15:13 +0000

I made 101 QSOs in the CW leg of the CQ WPX contest.

Dartmoor Radio Rally

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:15:10 +0000

Sorry I've been rather QRT of late - PhD thesis is getting near completion and has been taking over my life. Today was the annual Dartmoor Radio Rally, however, and I was helping out as usual. Photos are on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnas2/sets/72157617689720488/ and, if you missed last year's video of the rally on YouTube, a reminder that it is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYeM-KqedZs

2kg of bureau QSL cards sent

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:19:44 +0000

I today posted nearly 2kg of QSL cards to the QSL bureau, only two months after the last 1kg load. In addition, recent logs for both M0BLF and M4A have been uploaded to LoTW.

RDXC Contest Results

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:45:47 +0000

The results from the Russian DX Contest held on 15th/16th March 2008 were released at the end of December 2008. I came 54th of 254 entries in the SOSB/20 category, 47th of 182 in Europe. After log-checking, I had 335 QSOs, giving a total of 181,104 points, a reduction of some 19% from the claimed score.

Year in Review 2008

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:12:22 +0000

During 2008, I made a total of 1164 radio contacts as M0BLF, in 83 DXCC entities.

M0BLF in CQ WW DX CW Contest

Dominic Smith (m0blf@domsmith.co.uk) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:37:04 +0000

I made 200 QSOs in 51 DXCC entities in the CQ WW DX CW Contest, which I entered part-time in the SOSB(A)/40 LP category.