RSGB 50MHz UKAC 12th January 2017

For 2017 the RSGB VHFCC have moved the 50MHz (and 70MHz) UKAC events to a Thursday night. Whilst a lot of UKAC regulars are not happy about this it suits me much better than a Tuesday so I have made myself a 6 element DK7ZB yagi for the 50MHz series!

It was a rush to get it done in time as Xmas break slowed my building of the new yagi down but I managed to get it usably finished mechanically on Wednesday the 11th after work and then drove out to test it electrically, getting home by 10.30pm on Wednesday night. The match to 50ohms wasn’t as good as I would have liked at an SWR of 1.5:1 but I decided it was usable anyway so headed out on the Thursday after work.

This is a terrible phone picture of the yagi on the mast taken on the Wednesday test night. The yagi is actually longer than my normal size 6.1m scaffold pole mast:
first test of 50MHz 6 element DK7ZB
On the evening of the contest several heavy snow showers were forecast and then changed to some light ones. I decided to head up to my usual spot anyway. On arrival on site I was pleased to see no snow at all. However getting out of the car to start unloading the car I nearly slipped over. The single track dead end road apparently was covered in frozen rain! Undeterred I started to unload the car. Shortly after the snow started! This is how much had fallen in the short time it took me to fit the mast to the base and set the guys (which takes a few minutes):
snow starting to stick already
Boom supports set down for about a minute!
boom supports gathering snow
There was nothing for it really other than to carry on setting up and worry about getting down the hill after the contest.

This was my first time on 50MHz since the late 80s so it was a relatively first time for me. I found conditions weird. They seemed very poor but for the first hour I had a lot of activity. It was a lot harder work in the last 90 minutes though. I was surprised to have G4CLA call into me! Only two of the very controversial Red Scottish 2000 point bonus squares. It was pretty cold, the first time I have had to put on gloves whilst operating as I don’t run the car engine normally when operating.

The second the contest ended I switched off and started to pack away. The genny had collected a little snow despite being in its little shelter:
generator collecting snow
The snow on the mast base. This was actually on the sheltered side of the car:
mast base collecting snow
Just as I finished packing away it started blizzarding again so I was lucky to have a small window without snow to tear down in. I used the Passat Alltrack’s descent assist to get down the hill on the 2 inches of fresh snow. It worked really well and felt completely in control and secure.

I ended with 104 QSOs which seemed disappointing, but it turned out to be the highest QSO count and highest claimed score of the event which I was very pleased with. All the frantic work on the long yagi looked to have paid off! Not many portable stations out tonight though.

My QSO map:
50MHz UKAC 2016-01-12 map
Claimed scores (top 10):
Claimed scores 50MHz UKAC Jan 2017
Final scores (top 10):
Final scores 50MHz UKAC Jan 2017
Hereford ARS member scores:
Hereford ARS Member scores
50MHz Local club standings so far:
RSGB 50MHz UKAC Local club standings Jan 2017
Full result list (PDF)