DO YOU LIKE CONTESTING?

For example, if you live anywhere in the UK or in the near Continental countries such as France, Belgium and Holland you could enter the weekly UK Activity Contests on VHF and UHF. If you live within 35km of our “Virtual meeting Place” (IO93JM94 or National Grid Ref: SE 54810 02542) you can join us in the RSGB 80m Club Contests, which run from February to July inclusive.

There are many other contests we take part in such as HF and VHF Field Days, PW Low Power Contest, various RSGB Trophy Contests and Islands on the Air (IOTA). In all of them we acquit ourselves very well, especially in the UKACs and the 80m Club Contests.

To reward Society members for their efforts, we run our own internal league table in parallel with the RSGB’s, so, for example, if you are the highest scoring club member in the UKACs or a band leader, you’ll receive a handsome certificate at the end of the contest season. At the recent Society Awards Evening we presented some 30 certificates to Society members, so there is plenty of scope to earn the odd “sheepskin” !

“But I don‘t have enough power or good enough antennas”, we can hear you say… well that is something you should put out of your mind straight away! Surely you have at least one band you work regularly, possibly on VHF or UHF. Why not give that a go? We have members with very restricted antenna facilities who regular take part and help to lift the Society’s league position each week, even though they only score a few points , using simple antennas, themselves. There are QRP sections in most contests for those of you restricted to 10 watts or less. You have a wide choice of modes. Most contests involve SSB and/or CW but there are contests (eg the RSGB 80m CCs) that include RTTY and PSK63.

If you are a newcomer to contesting you will have several very experienced contesters in the Society to fall back on for advice and help.

We are especially looking for more contesters with 23cm and microwave bands facilities but offers from anyone for any bands and any modes (ssb, cw, data) will be welcome.

Details of our contest programme for this year can be downloaded at:

http://www.mediafire.com/…/…/Contest_Calendar_2016_Ver_2.pdf

This document also has links to the RSG Contest website where you can find information on contest rules and links to the log upload system. There is also useful information regarding logging software.

So … Join a great group of contesters and make your contesting count!

Just follow this link to our Open Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sheffieldwireless/

Then  click on “JOIN” at the top of that page and you’ll be referred to the Society committee for membership. It usually takes a very short time to become a full member. Once again you don’t have to live near Sheffield! You may live too far away from a club or your present club is not interested in group contesting. If so, you can enter for us, yet retaining all the other priviliges of your present club. Don’t feel you are letting your present club down …. you won’t be! Many of our members are also members of several clubs, all at the same time!

Once you are a member of SDWS you will be able to access our Society Facebook Hub, a vibrant and constantly changing page of posts, photos, discussions and chat about Society activities and amateur radio in general. If you have a radio problem you will very likely find the answer by posting on the Hub!

Join us for contesting and you’ll be working with a real club, not a nebulous cyber group formed just for the purpose of contests. We are a real club with a real constitution, affiliated to RSGB and holding regular monthly meetings at a Sheffield hotel.

For more info or help re SDWS Contesting, please email:  SDWS(at)g3pho (dot) org (dot)uk