CHRISTMAS CRACKER 2009

Competing Stations
Position	Unit Name	Scored	Claimed
1	Bridlington School CCF	77	181
2	Bournemouth School CCF	70	149
3	Royal Russell School CCF	42	109
4	Maidstone Grammar School CCF	37	99
5	Hants & IOW ACF, C Coy	29	122
6	1474 Sqn (Wickford) ATC	27	70
7	Dollar Academy CCF	26	60
8	Churchers College CCF	25	53
9	497 Sqn (Daventry) ATC	4	27
10	Essex ACF, A Coy	3	28
11	Essex ACF, C Coy	2	8
Adult Operators
Position	Unit Name	Scored	Claimed
1	Net Monitor - CW	16	33
2	Net Assistant - Basingstoke	10	26
3	Net Monitor - Scotland	5	11
Active & No Log
	Humberside & South Yorkshire ACF
	Merseyside ACF - Birkenhead Det
	King's School Chester CCF
	Nottinghamshire ACF, D Sqn
	Merchant Taylors' School CCF
Not Active & No Log
	425 (Aldridge) Sqn ATC
	2480 (Holywell) Sqn ATC

Comments from the Organiser

On the whole, this competition seemed to go much better than previous years. A larger proportion of logs were returned in time for me to collect and check. Conditions were variable overnight but seemed to pick up again during daylight hours.

The closing date for the logs is reasonably tight as after 11^th December I can no longer get access to the unit to collect logs. Therefore if the logs arrive after this date, I will not get them until mid January 2010! Most logs were typed up or neatly written and for this I thank you. It makes checking each message easier as I don't have to decypher poor handwriting on scraps of muddy log sheets. Timings were much better this year and all but a handfull were within the 5 minute cut off although I think one station was changing between the 12 and 24 hour clock throughout the competition.

The log sheets are the most important part in this competition as without both logs matching, no points can be awarded. If you make my job easier by writing neatly on the log sheets as each message is sent, you are more likely to score the points you claimed. A few stations adapted the supplied log sheets and check grids, which made it more difficult to check as the sheets were all different, however, some changes made by stations will be taken onboard and applied to next years sheets. I did notice some stations who had handwritten their logs having over sized ":" in the time boxes which made it look like an "8". This may be very pretty and look nice in essays or handwritten letters, but it seriously messes up log sheets!

Hopefully everyone learnt something from the competition, whether it be equipment or propagation related. I hope to see even more diverse callsigns entering next year and hope to see most people who entered this year back again in the other competitions.

Congratulations to the winners. They have slowly climbed back to the top of the table over the last few competitions and are regaining their reputation from a number of years ago! Certificates of entry will be sent out to stations on request.

Comments from Entrants

Comments back from the organiser are in a dark blue italic font after each section.

Bridlington School CCF - Good competition, all cadets enjoyed it.

Royal Russell School CCF - There was very little use of the 5 second pause.

Also contained details on rules infrigement. Details investigated.

Maidstone Grammar School CCF - Very slow, poor weather conditions and could the times be changed to 0900 - 0900?

Timings may change in future competitions, however, it may exclude some stations from participating as they are on exercise the whole weekend and it would involve an earlier deployment.

Hampshire & IOW ACF, C Coy - Given the RX power levels that we were receiving it is apparent that some equipment being used is far in excess of the 30W max output specified in the rules. The speed at which some stations were able to tune would suggest that they did not need to change antenna lengths or that they were not using military radios.

Also contained details on rules infrigement. Details investigated and unable to verify.
There have been tests conducted between myself and other Net Assistants / Monitors using various radios, antennas, microphones and power settings. The signal can appear much stronger and clearer by just using a civilian microphone with a PRC 320 giving the impression of a higher power radio. Stations can of course use any radio set they wish as long as it is suitably tested, inspected and the power is set to 30W PEP or under.

1474 (Wickford) Sqn ATC - A team of very junior operators this year who experienced difficulty when the net got very busy on Sunday, undoubtedly missed alot of potential points there.
A few frequencies were unworkable due to local interferance on the long wire but the dipole we put up on the Sunday had much better signal to noise and we will adopt this as our initial setup next year.

Churchers College CCF - A good competition much enjoyed by our small team of three 14 year olds.

Net Monitor - CW - Radio conditions very up and down. Some good net control. Some units calling for all stations when a net in progress, probably could not hear it due to poor radio conditions. Too many radio checks and offering of messages, just send the message - it saves alot of time!
Very pleased to hear a unit on the south coast making contact with Scotland.
Well done all.

Net Assistant - Basingstoke - Long letter enclosed with lots of details. Have extracted the following regarding Essex ACF, A Coy during the early afternoon on Saturday.

Essex ACF, A Coy was in control - I think she was young, inexperienced etc but with background coaching she was doing well. Congratulations to her. The other stations on net were pleasingly tolerant.

Net Monitor - Scotland - VP was tolerable. At the start there were huge pauses on nets and stations disappearing. Probably stage fright! Could have done with more space on the logsheet to fit in 6 characters. I was a very late entry and was only asked to authenticate once! Many thanks for organising the competition.

Christmas Day Net

The results were read out at 1200 on Christmas Day to a collection of 8 stations. Thanks to those stations who were able to join in. They were able to get the results before they were put online.

NB: Further competition dates are available on the Competition Dates page.

Competition Organiser - Fg Off A May