[3830] Commonwealth ZM2B(ZL2BR) Open-24 HP

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                    RSGB Commonwealth Contest

Call: ZM2B
Operator(s): ZL2BR
Station: ZL2BR

Class: Open-24 HP
QTH: New Plymouth NZ
Operating Time (hrs): 17

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:   12
   40:   90
   20:  134
   15:   86
   10:   35
------------
Total:  357  Total Score = 4,765

Club: 

Comments:

This sure is a weird contest. Its been 40 years since I first operated in the
Beru and Im still learning how to get a decent score.

Yes propagation was better on 21/28 than recent years, but this meant that
ZL/VK activity was significantly reduced on 80 and 40m, plus no VEs were heard
on 80m either.

I think ZL activity was down this year and unfortunately the ZL3 Earthquake
Survivor team was the only ZL team. I failed to stir up any interest for
another ZL team.

Good to see 10m open to UK for the first time since the 2002 Beru, but the beam
heading of 350 degrees produced the possibly the worst polar signal flutter I
have ever heard. The G stations, even the strong ones, were just unreadable a
lot of the time.

Physically I was not ready to do 24 hours without breaks, so ended up taking a
good few naps. On Sunday morning I probably missed out on a good number of 25
point contacts with the VEs on 21/28. When the qso rate falls to less than 10
an hour, its hard to keep my mind on the job, so took a few breaks hand
watering the garden.  (We are having a drought so sprinklers are banned).

Because of the polar paths, Africa is always extremely difficult to work from
ZL2, so it was a very pleasant surprise to get calls from 9X0NH and 5X1AA.

The Carib stations were scarce and and not good signals, and I never heard the
ZF fellah.

Next year when the SFI will be around 200 (!), I will concentrate on being
better physically prepared for what after all is not only a weird but an
interesting contest.

Setup
IC-7600, AL80B, C-3SS beam, 40m GP and 80 dipole.

73, Frank ZL2BR/ZM2B


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