MRD 2013

MRD 2013

I’ve written about MRD comprehensively elsewhere.  Briefly it’s an event that takes places each April and lasts 36 hours.  During that time, ex-R/Os who are also licensed amateur radio operators fire up their transmitters and go on air.  The aim is to make contact with as many others as possible, exchanging signal reports, name, location, and the name and callsign of the last or favourite ship served on.

Most individuals operate alone, but some form in teams, especially as coast station or association entries.  For example, PCH, DAN, GKA, and IAR and the German Radio Officers’ Association were represented.  This isn’t a competition, and there are no prizes.  There is, however, a healthy but friendly rivalry as to who can make the most contacts with other stations under the MRD banner.

This year, for the first time, the ROARS group organised a team of 12 men who covered virtually the whole 36 hours between them.  We used the callsign M0ROA from my address and MX0ROA from the others.  We had a lot of fun and made a lot of contacts.  The ROA received a lot of publicity on the air waves.  Old contacts were renewed and plenty of new friends made.  And there was definitely a new feeling of camaraderie within the team – some of us have only ever met on the key, but I really felt that we know each other after this.

Amazingly, the ROARS team came second overall worldwide.  We were only beaten by the IAR team (Rome Radio).  Their total count was boosted by the larger number of non-R/O contacts they made.  We actually made more ship contacts than they did, and about the same number of coast station contacts.  And our colleagues, the German Radio Officers’ Association trailed behind in 13^th position!

Most individual team members worked a 2-hour slot.  Outside of that slot they were free to make contacts using their personal callsigns.  Some of these achieved good scores as well.  The results are all recorded in the attachment.

We are hoping to enter again next year, and have learned some lessons from this year’s event, so next year’s results may be even better.

Dave Ellis.

MRD REPORT FOR THE ROA (Radio Officers’ Association, Great Britain).

This is the collated input for the ROA, Radio Officers’ Association (Great Britain).

We are registered as “Dave and Crew.”

The base station callsign is M0ROA, used by the license holder at his QTH (Dave Ellis).

UK Amateur Radio Club License rules permit alternative QTHs with permission to use MX0ROA, and we had 10 other ROA members using this at various QTH’s in the UK.

The following shows the collated number of separate QSOs:

121 Ship Stations

26 Coast Stations

53 Other Stations

Call	Operator	Ship	Coast Station	Other
M0ROA	G4AJY	GCHM GZDA GVYQ PCRE GBCN GMZU FFUX GMCA GUPB GDGG GHZT DNDZ DLBO ZDMG PGGF GXYG MGRZ GYJU DLCD YLMN GRFT GZLD GTXL DDRI FNWH DDTW GWJD DAHC CTHC GSTM FNCM GBTT DLCD DCZB DEVC GQAB DHEF DGBS GOUS LCTC DFBB (41)	FF6 PCH GLD GKA DAN(2 bands) LGP DHS GKR OHM IQP (11)	A few of these are ships but c/s missedG3ZGC DL0EL MW6XRO PA3BYW G0JSB G4DMC G3HQS DL3AMB (2 bands) F6ACU G3VXJ S51RE DL6FAX DF7PM M0PIE F5CH S51NP (16)
MX0ROA	GD4RGR	UBCA WNE 5MNG MNES LECK DCZB GBVV FNMV UBCA (9)		F8BBT (1)
	G3OGP	GMZU DCZB J8EM4 LZSJ LCTC DAMY A8UF DUSP DGBS GPLC EQSB (11)	DAN (1)	SP3CW IZ6TGS HB9FAI I1GZG IV3RJH UU8JC (6)
	G4LFU	PADF GPLC DLDH GYXG PBVQ GZDA MYDN GZLD GOUS DDRL GOUJ GRFT 6ZIF GZMM GDGQ DCZB DJJH LZSJ STEN (19)	DHS DAN (2)	G4WSX G4ETQ DL3AMB 2EOPKK UA3DUZ  JI3CJP (6)
	G4ISP	SVZW GFSD (2)	ZSC SAH (2)	G0LKI EA7EGU DLUGAO G4UVG (4)
	G0LKI	UBCA GSWC ZMDQ (3)		DF5WN OZ6TL M0BRB M0BKB HB9CSM HA7JEL UQ3BV (7)
	G3PLE	GLFA HBDL ISER FNCM GMZU GYXG (6)	GLD (1)	G3UGK G4UGK (2)
	G4NCZ			UU1JO UR5MD (2)
	GW4XXF	OASC EQSB FNMV MACE LCTC GYXG GTZR GTLE GPLC OXGM GHZT (11)	PCH (1)	DLOSFK (1)
	G0CHV	LSZJ OLGK GYJU FNRO DCZB (5)	EAV ICB PCH WSC (4)	DF2IAH OK2SFO OK1APY DJ5MF I1OLJ S52CC K2TQC PA3BYW (8)
	2E0MPC	GMZU GPLC GBVV GBCN GDTQ DTFB GXYG LUKK OGYD LCTC DGLM GOUS GMCA GCYB DLCD DDQH (16)	PCH GKA DAN SAG IPA (4)	DL0EL DL5AL (2)