SRCC LEAGUE TABLE – DECEMBER 2020
The number of entries in the League Table for December 2020 was nine – the same as in November. The monthly list for December is dominated by the battle for top position at the end of the year, with leadership contenders Colin G4LZE (last year’s winner) and Ray G4FFY both putting in a major year-end push. Colin moves up three places to take the monthly lead and Ian M0CGF moves up one place to second. But for every station who moves up, another has to move down, and this time it was Ray moving down two places to third – but only four points behind Ian. Peter G3ZPB, in a late spurt, moves up three places to fourth, followed by Ted G3EUE who retains fifth place, sitting pivot like between the upper and lower halves of the table. The lower half is headed by Club call G3SRC, moving up three places to equal fifth following operation in the 2m AFS contest, with an identical score to Quin G3WRR who moves down five places as a result of a quiet month following his November bash in the CQWW CW contest. Bringing up the rear with modest but welcome entries are Rick M0LEP and Steve G4FYF who move down by two and one places respectively into eighth and ninth places.
| ENTRANT | WORKED DXCC/SQUARE | WORKED SRCC MEMBER | WORKED IN CONTEST | POINTS THIS MONTH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G4LZE | 116 | 2 | 236 | |
| M0CGF | 96 | 3 | 11 | 209 |
| G4FFY | 84 | 2 | 33 | 205 |
| G3ZPB | 35 | 2 | 14 | 84 |
| G3EUE | 15 | 15 | 45 | |
| G3SRC | 9 | 1 | 10 | 30 |
| G3WRR | 9 | 1 | 10 | 30 |
| M0LEP | 7 | 1 | 16 | |
| G4FYF | 3 | 1 | 8 |
Colin’s 118 scoring contacts (95 DXCCs on HF, 21 big squares on VHF plus 2 SRCC members) were all on data modes, 85% being FT8 and the balance FT4. The largest number of scoring HF contacts – 66 (69% of the total) – were made on 40m, followed by 20m (14%), 15m (8%), 17m and 80m (both 4%). Of these, 57% were European, followed by 22% Asian, 7% African, 6% North American, 6% South American and 2% from Oceania. Interesting ones (in your scribe’s highly subjective opinion) were 9M4 (West Malaysia), PJ4 (Bonaire), S7 (Seychelles) and Z8 (South Sudan). Colin also managed to catch a good opening on 6m in which he used FT8 to pick up 21 big squares – many Finnish – in 8 DXCCs.
Ian’s 99 scoring contacts (83 HF, 13 VHF and 3 SRCC members) were mainly (55%) made using SSB, the rest being FT8 (38%) and FT4 (4%). Most of his scoring HF contacts (59%) were, like Colin’s, on 40m followed by 20m (29%), with the remaining 12% evenly balanced between 80m, 17m & 15m. His percentage or European contacts was substantially lower than Colin’s or Ray’s. 40% of his contacts were with North America, followed by Europe (33%), Asia (10%), Africa (10%), South America (5%) and Oceania (1%) – a single contact with YB (Indonesia). Interesting ones were half a dozen fairly uncommon Caribbean countries, plus BV (Taiwan), 9V (Singapore), 5Z (Kenya) and 6W (Senegal) for a new DXCC from his mobile! His 13 scoring VHF contacts were made on 6m & 4m using SSB & FT8, with England and Finland dominant.
39% of Ray’s 84 scoring contacts were made during contests. 73 were on HF and eleven on VHF. Of the HF contacts, 23% were on 15m, followed by 40m (19%), 160m (18%), 80m & 20m (7 each), 10m (4%) and 30m (3%). 66% were made using FT8 and the rest, apart from a handful on SSB, on FT4. Of these, 67% were European, 14% Asian, 8% North American, 7% South American and 4% African – with none this time from Oceania. Ray notes that these included five new DXCCs for him – 9G (Ghana), A9 (Bahrain), HS (Thailand) and ZF (Cayman Islands). Three quarters of his VHF tally of 11 scoring contacts, again mainly on FT8 with the balance on FT4 & SSB, were made on 2m and the rest on 6m & 70cm and included 5 DXCCs, including HA (Hungary) – probably by sporadic E, which often pops up around the turn of the year.
Peter’s 35 scoring contacts consisted of 21 DXCCs, twelve big squares and two SRCC members. Most of the DXCCs were on 40m FT8 and within Europe except for two from North America (W – USA and PJ4 – Bonaire) and one each from South America (9Y – Trinidad and Tobago) and Asia (5B – Cyprus). All his VHF big squares were made in contests and were within the UK except for one DL (Germany).
Ted was largely tied up with domestic tasks during December but nevertheless took advantage of a contest to clock up scoring contacts, making 15 scoring contacts for 45 points. The band is not known, but the contacts are presumed to have all been on CW!
The Club call G3SRC was exercised in the RSGB 2m AFS contest by Quin G3WRR and gained ten scoring contacts (9 big squares and one SRCC member), all on SSB.
Coincidentally, Quin made exactly the same score as G3SRC with exactly the same distribution of “earners”, so there isn’t a typo in the table! His scoring points consisted of 5 DXCCs on CW in the ARRL 10m contest, 5 big squares – all within England – and all but one on SSB in the December RSGB 6m UKAC and one SRCC member also in the 6m UKAC.
Rick’s eight scoring contacts come, as usual, from 7 DXCCs worked during SOTA chasing plus a contact with John G8MNY.
Steve’s has again had little time for the hobby but following a bit of prodding (which fell just short of bullying), he submitted an entry 3 scoring contacts consisting of two European DXCCs, one big square and one SRCC member (again with G8MNY).
And so onto the “biggie” – the end of year League Table results and award of the ironwork. The annual results are shown below, and it can be seen that, by the narrowest of leads and after extremely careful scrutinization of the claimed scores, Ray G4FFY wins by just six points (0.4%) from last year’s winner Colin G4LZE and accordingly takes the SRCC Club Cup. Ray’s win is perhaps all the more impressive as he did not submit a League entry until the April session! So we look forward to the formal presentation of the SRCC Club Cup to Ray at some undetermined point in the future when we are allowed to meet again face to face…. A final point of interest, but of rather lesser importance, is the fact that the only change of the yearly listing between November and December is that Ian and Steve have changes places in positions 6 & 7.
| ENTRANT | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JLY | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC | SUM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G4FFY | 6 | 124 | 480 | 357 | 302 | 94 | 190 | 224 | 205 | 1978 | |||
| G4LZE | 101 | 125 | 124 | 182 | 356 | 176 | 128 | 166 | 118 | 132 | 128 | 236 | 1972 |
| G3EUE | 98 | 104 | 114 | 87 | 129 | 18 | 76 | 36 | 121 | 45 | 827 | ||
| G3WRR | 24 | 57 | 24 | 141 | 102 | 8 | 30 | 93 | 198 | 30 | 707 | ||
| G3ZPB | 24 | 42 | 38 | 84 | 53 | 78 | 141 | 28 | 21 | 24 | 87 | 617 | |
| M0CGF | 168 | 171 | 209 | 548 | |||||||||
| G4FYF | 23 | 32 | 62 | 48 | 42 | 50 | 60 | 42 | 35 | 42 | 8 | 8 | 452 |
| M0LEP | 16 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 56 | 30 | 22 | 18 | 36 | 14 | 28 | 16 | 263 |
| G3SRC | 78 | 12 | 63 | 3 | 30 | 186 | |||||||
| G4WGE | 6 | 6 |
So perhaps it’s time to speculate on the way the League Table will play out in 2021 – fortunately this is one area which is hardly affected at all by COVID…. except insofar as it maybe gives us all a chance to spend more time on the air! It will be interesting to see how the 2021 leadership challenge goes with Colin and Ray (hopefully) both submitting regular entries. And of course there is recent joiner Ian who, from a standing start in October has been zooming up the table month on month and it will be interesting to see how his entry (which we hope will continue) shapes things in 2021. New participants will, of course, be most welcome to come on and keep the leaders on their toes….
The other factor of course is the imponderable behaviour of the ionosphere. Having made frequent and over-optimistic predictions during 2020, I think it’s time to just sit back and see what happens! So thanks to all last year’s entrants, and we look to them and future participants joining the fun in 2021
73, Quin G3WRR (SRCC Leaguemeister)