UKAC_Contest

The 2020 RSGB UKAC VHF/UHF evening contests closed in December with some highs and sadly a big low. It has been described on many occasions as "a year like no other" with a Virus Pandemic causing massive disruptions forcing national lockdowns, "Stay at Home" orders which enforced many people off work and a Brexit thrown in for good measure ! As a result many people renewed their interests in radio and the number of logs sent in for the UKAC increased in numbers by some 25%.

It meant the bands were generally busier but the contest is essentially split into two sections. Local Clubs who live or operate within an 80km radius of their chosen point and General Clubs whose members are more widely dispersed. The rules for 2020 where not changed from 2019 other than a tweak of power levels for the 70MHz restricted section and the timing of the 13cms events.

Our big and so unexpected loss, was that Denis G3UVR our main man sadly went silent key after a short illness in September. Denis was a giant of a man in so many ways and was respected by everyone he came in contact with. He will be a very big loss for years to come. RIP Denis.

Overall, Individual operator stations climbed by 100 to 832 individual stations taking part representing 128 affiliated RSGB Clubs.

The Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club finished in overall 3rd Position (up 1) out of 90 clubs in the General Club Section. A very creditable position and Well Done to Everyone involved. As has been written before we are not a contest group but an enthusiastic Radio Club. It was another tremendous result, but in reality we are going to have to work a lot harder in 2021 !

Position	Call	50 MHz	Logs	70 MHz	Logs	144 MHz	Logs	432 MHz	Logs	1296 MHz	Logs	SHF	Logs	Total

11	M1MHZ	972	11	768	7	961	12	949	10	964	9	95	6 (6)	4709
14	G8REQ	816	12	894	12	850	12	852	12	835	12	119	11 (11)	4366
24	G3UVR	734	6	710	6	561	5	607	6	737	6	514	7 (20)	3863
47	GD0AMD/P	756	7	667	6	972	8	868	9	123	2			3386
59	GW0MDQ	496	10	335	7	666	11	571	9	690	10	167	9 (15)	2925
63	G8LZE	608	12	528	12	726	12	656	12	326	11			2844
76	G4OAR/A	609	9	630	9	471	11	408	10	421	9			2539
87	G8ZRE	811	12			780	12	689	12					2280
98	G0CDA			331	6	507	5	816	9	519	9			2173
156	M0WBG	422	10			645	11	519	10					1586
158	M1SMH	493	5	285	4	469	6	323	5					1570
219	M0HWO	468	9	238	8	388	11							1094
286	MW0XAD(/P)	145	3	43	1	233	5	224	4	72	2			717
293	G4BKF	143	3			540	11							683

Once again, WADARC continued to enjoy the added generosity of points from our country members:-

Bob G1ZJP (operating as M1MHZ), Andrew GD0AMD, David G8LZE, David G8ZRE, Mike G0CDA and Simon MW0XAD.

We thank you for ALL your points and loyalty and look forward to your continued support. The UKAC are great fun and we hope you all feel part of our team effort, despite some evenings the weather throwing everything at us together with appalling radio conditions !

It goes without saying that those from WADARC are equally to be thanked for their continued support of the contests.

On SHF, in 2020 2.3GHz proved as popular as ever with Denis and Frank G8REQ producing some great scores for WADARC whilst the greatest increase in activity was seen in the 3.4GHz section helped by a reasonably priced transverter but again WADARC had a presence there with our new man from the previous year Paul, GW0MDQ who took advantage of his location and arrived with some very commendable results, so a BIG Well Done to Paul.

Summaries of the winning clubs and results of those members taking part from WADARC follow :-

As said, WADARC is primarily a Radio Club and many of our members have jobs, families and other interests which make operating every Tuesday/Thursday plus attending Radio Club Meetings on a Wednesday as well, pretty tricky ! It requires plenty of family diplomacy, and household support, making everyone's contribution of completing in as many monthly events as possible so appreciated.

Not everyone has every band available, nor do they sit on the top of a big hill !! I am surrounded by 80ft trees which wave at each other every time it rains just to annoy me !! but as we say .. "Each operator's contribution is still very important to us".