SUMMER WHINE 2004

Competing Stations
Position	Unit Name	Points
1st	Reading School CCF	270
2nd	Maidstone GS CCF	242
3rd	Warwick School CCF	221
4th	Bournemouth School CCF	202
5th	Churchers College CCF	189
6th	Vyne School CCF	186
7th	Yarm School CCF	184
8th	Hants & IOW ACF	183
9th	Oxon RGJ Bn ACF	176
10th	Cumbria ACF	148
11th	Welligton School CCF	54

General Comments:

Once again thank you all for a good competition. However a number of you sent your logs in late and three callsigns did not send in their logs at all. If I cannot cross check your log, I cannot give the points. I had everything complete by the time I was due to go on holiday when another log arrived, so the whole process was delayed until I got back home for the August Bank Holiday. Please please please try to get the logs in on time, but for goodness sake please get them in.

As always the scoring caused one or two units to inflate their claim. Contacts 1-8 score 1 point each contact 9 scores 2 points so 9 contacts is a total of 10 points (not 18 as some units claimed). Similarly 12 contactacts is 8x1 + 3x2 + 1x3 = 17 points not 12x3!

Your Comments:

The Vyne School CCF - 2 old hand and 3 new enjoyed the weekend. Sharing out part of the training area with a detachment from 16Regt RA we felt well protected. Rapiers all around, though not all visible. 2hours wasted from 0130 to 0330 when the antennas collapsed without the team realising the problem they could receive but not send. We all learn something each year. One or two contacts a bit suspect but we tried our best to keep things straight. Once again a good competition with plenty of training value. Pity there were not so many entries.

Hants & IOW ACF - We were in an excellent location, even fed by Pangbourne College in their refectory. Unfortunately we only had three very inexperienced operators and our star operator had never had a VP lesson before the day and was only 14 - a good prospect for the future? Once the cadets got the hang of things, it went quite well not only for us but all the other stations.

Warwick School CCF - Wet and windy this year but a good competition as usual. We had a complete team of beginners but kept going throughout the 24hrs. My last year in charge at Warwick. Good luck for the future.

Maidstone GS CCF - A good competition enjoyed by all the team. Very fast pace at times kept the operators on their toes. Suggest that BATCO messages in some other competitions increase the enjoyment of the event rather than just the use of numbers and perhaps a calling frequency to contact other operators to go to a particular frequency rather than a random up and down the frequencies could take away some of the lucky chance encounters.

Cumbria ACF - Appalled at poor VP from too many stations. "All callsigns on net", "Net commander", attempts to relay and reluctance of stations to give serial AND signal report in exchange. The usual failure to listen for existing nets on frequencies. Stations leaving a net mid round. Clearly some stations had not read the rules. However, the cadets were pleased at the number of contacts they made despite conditions. It built their confidence and they enjoyed the experience. Only worked 1400-2300 Saturday and 0815-1300Sunday. We expected a team of nine cadets but were let down badly by two of three companies in the county.

Maidstone GS CCF - A good competition enjoyed by all especially as our dipole gave us comms all the night. Good to hear a good amount of stations on the air. We would like to thank all the monitors who gave up their time to make the competition work especially Jim Clarke.

Churcher's College CCF - During later hours a lot of radio interferance from commercial radio being played on frequency this brought about about lots of unexpected noises (quite amusing really). Really enjoyed it however didn't have enough operators so all of us have had 3 hours sleep max. The team operated from one of the cadet's gardens.

Oxfordshire ACF - A positive improvement in the skills and VP demonstrated by all this year. A fantastic opportunity for our signals to train and practice. Thanks to all who took part in and organised the competition.

Competition Organiser - Lt Col Clarke