DKARS MAGAZINE

Contest News.By Steve Telenius-Lowe, PJ4DXThe RSGB IOTA Contest is a popular event that took place at the end of July. We take a look at that, and a quick look back atthe first DKARS Dutch Kingdom Contest (DKC).The inaugural Dutch Kingdom Contest, sponsored by DKARS,took place on 6 – 7 June this year. The results were published inlast month’s DKARS-Magazine but shortly after that I receivedthe nice certificate that you see to the right for my participationin the contest. Thanks to the organisers for this fine contest andcertificate!RSGB IOTA CONTESTLast year I took part in the RSGB Islands On The Air (IOTA) Contestfor the first time from Bonaire, making 1662 QSOs and 176multipliers for a verified score of 2.182M points. This wasenough to win the first place certificate for the Islands, Fixedstation (not DX-pedition), Single Operator, Unassisted, SSB-only,24-hour, High Power section. In this contest if you are a singleoperator you can choose whether to operate for 24 hours or 12hours, whether to operate CW, SSB or both (Mixed), andwhether or not to use the DX Cluster or other form of‘Assistance’. Then there are Island and Non-Island (Rest of theWorld) sections, and also Multi-Operator Island and Rest of theWorld sections. As you can see, there are very many possibilitiesto win a certificate! As this is being written I have just participatedin the 2015 IOTA contest, which this year was on 25 – 26July. Conditions were really poor at the start of the contest andindeed continued to be very poor on 10m, although 20mopened up nicely and I had some great pile-ups with verystrong signals from Europe on that band.The DKARS Dutch Kingdom Contest certificate.I ended up with 1696 QSO’s and 186 multipliers, for a claimedscore of 2.375M points; just slightly higher than last year’s finaladjudicated score. The good news is that Hans PJ4LS was alsooperating the contest as PJ4V on CW. The SA-006 multiplier wastherefore available to contesters on all 10 band-mode slots (10,15, 20, 40 and 80m SSB and CW), probably for the first time everin this contest. Unfortunately conditions were so poor on 10mthat no-one could have worked Bonaire on all 10 slots (I onlymade two QSOs on 10m, and PJ4V did not make any). Hansended the contest with 1168 QSOs and 159 mults for a claimedscore of 1.421M points. Unfortunately there is little activity fromthe Caribbean in this contest, which seems a pity, because eachIOTA island reference is a multiplier. I would encourage DKARSmembers in P4, PJ2, PJ5, PJ6 and PJ7 to get on the air andsupport this event in 2016. I hope to hear you then!73 de Steve PJ4DX2014 RSGB IOTA Contest certificate for 1st place Single OperatorUnassisted SSB section.DKARS Magazine, editie 14 -35- augustus 2015