The 2013 IARU R1 UHF Contest is best described as "average". The Hepburn tropo forecast looked very promising for Sunday but there was only a minor enhancement in practice, the only noticeable tropo DX being SK7MW, DJ8MS and DL7AKL on 70cm. The weather was pleasant, with no rain and light winds. I had some problems with the control box for the 23cm SSPA which meant that the interlocked 13cm PTT had to be manually operated and the SWR trip would operate occasionally.

As usual the contest was hectic on the Saturday and then more slow paced on Sunday. 70cm was the usual search and pounce style operation, notable contacts over 600km in addition to SK7MW were DL0GTH (JO50), DK2GZ (JN49), DL0HTW (JO60), DK8SG (JN48), DJ8MS (JO54), DL7AKL (JO62). Several tries were made with OK2A, but nothing was heard, whereas usually we make a QSO by aircraft reflection.

23cm was the bread and butter band, QSO rates were somewhat slowed in the first few hours by QSYing to other bands but it ticked along well. DX on this band included DF4IAO, DF9IC (JN48), DL0GTH (JO50), DK2ZF/P (JO43), DJ8MS (JO54), DJ6OL, DJ3AK, DG5ACX/P (JO52), DM7A, OK2A (JO60), SK7MW (JO65), DL5YWM (JO61). SK7MW was extremely strong on the peak of the aircraft reflection so we made this QSO on SSB.

13cm was awkward to operate with the manual changeover, so slick CW operation was impossible, but the best DX with SK7MW was a straightforward aircraft reflection contact. Air Scout proved invaluable at predicting the right times to try for aircraft reflection contacts. Other DX on the band included DL0GTH (JO50), DK1VC (JO31), DF0MU (JO32), F1BZG (JN07), DL3IAS (JN49).

9cm worked well, with one of my highest scores in this event. Apologies for the chirp and FM, there seemed to be some problem with the GPS locking. DX over 350km included DK6JL, DK1VC (JO31), DF0MU,DK2MN (JO32), DL3IAS (JN49), PI4GN (JO33)

6cm was very disappointing this year. Few stations seemed to be active and one or two tests failed for some reason. I think this is my lowest score on the band in the 10 years or so I have been QRV. Just DK2MN (JO32) and PI4GN (JO33) were over 300km.

3cm activity is also low, but not as bad as some years. Few UK stations were worked as there did not appear to be any of the larger contest groups out with gear for the higher bands. DX over 300km included DF0MU (JO32), PI4GN (JO33), DL0LN (JO31), F6DKW (JN18), PA0WMX (JO21) and G4KUX (IO94).

So not a vintage year. Maybe in 2014...?

73

John G3XDY

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