[3830] Commonwealth ZF2XF(G3TXF) Multi-Op HP

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                    RSGB Commonwealth Contest

Call: ZF2XF
Operator(s): G3TXF
Station: ZF2XF

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: Cayman
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:   17
   40:  256
   20:  354
   15:  286
   10:  300
------------
Total: 1213  Total Score = 11,820

Club: Three As Contest Group

Comments:

ZF2XF : Commonwealth Contest : 2014

G3TXF operated BERU 2014 as ZF2XF from the same location on Cayman (the
excellent ZF1A Club Station) as last year. The original plan was simply to try
to better last year’s score and to give out even more contacts from Cayman
during the 2014 Commonwealth Contest. The ZF1A Club Station has many excellent
antennas and making a high score in any HF contest from there is not difficult.


The Commonwealth Contest (BERU) runs on all five HF bands and in order to make
a good score you need to be active on all five bands. The quaint scoring system
used in BERU incentivises working different Commonwealth Call areas across all
the bands.

However this year’s entry from ZF2XF did not turn out quite as planned. There
was a problem with the 80m antenna which meant that (apart from a lucky handful
of 80m QSOs made right at the start of the contest), there was no operation on
80m. 

The first half of the Commonwealth Contest was operated in traditional “BERU
Single Op” fashion with heavy CQing interspersed with trawling the bands for
those elusive Commonwealth Call Areas. Also there was the usual band hopping
with rarer Commonwealth Call areas.

The contest started off well with Win-Test telling me that I was significantly
ahead on my own QSO totals and score (in comparison with last year) during each
of the first four hours of the contest.

However as dusk approached (at around 22z) on the Saturday evening and it
became clear that there would be no more operation on 80m, the operating mode
changed from BERU Single Operator to BERU Single-Operator Assisted (which for
some reason within the RSGB Rules is strangely designated as Multi-Operator). 

Connecting up the K3 to the laptop (which I don’t usually bother to do for
contesting) and through the laptop to the RBN completely changed the operating
style for BERU. With the RBN running I was able to see who else was on the
band, and also see when useful new Call Areas popped up. The logging software,
as ever, was Win-Test. Win-Test is very good at displaying the incoming RBN
information and it’s easy to click onto the wanted station. 

For several years I have travelled with an Elecraft K3 and a small Tokyo
High-Power HL-550X amp. The latter has worked faultlessly on numerous trips,
but on this occasion the amplifier was the weak link in the RBN chain because
it did not switch bands automatically in step with the K3. [I can see that my
much travelled THP amp may soon be retiring, to be replaced by an Elecraft
KPA-500 which automatically hops from one band to the other together with the
K3]. 

Evidently the relevant Commonwealth Call areas data file in my Win-Test has not
been updated in a while since VR2 Hong Kong (which left the Commonwealth many
years ago) kept showing up as a potential Call Area. Meanwhile Nick G3RWF who
was valiantly operating as 9X0NH from one of the newest Commonwealth countries
did not show up as a Commonwealth Call Area at all. I must find out how to
up-date this file within Win-Test before next year’s Commonwealth Contest!

The new RBN-backed BERU operating style at ZF2XF was fun. As soon as a new Call
Area popped up on the screen an attempt was made to work it. 

From Cayman there are three main directions of activity. North-East for the UK,
Asia and long-path to VK/ZL. North and North-West for the Canadians and South
West for VK/ZL on the short-path. 

Fortunately there are several multi-band beam antennas available at the ZF1A
station. The largest one was usually left pointing towards the UK (where it
would also pick up the VEs on the Eastern edge of Canada) and another
multi-band beam was left pointing South-West. This was useful for picking up
both VK and ZL on 10m and 15m during the night-time openings.

Apologies to the several stations who called me on 40m around the UK sunrise
time saying, in effect, “oy, why aren’t you going to 80m now, OM?”…
“Sri, no ant fer 80m” was my lame reply. Sorry about that.

Operating in RBN-assisted mode enabled me to spend time calling stations who
were not operating in BERU but who were useful Call Areas bonuses nevertheless.
ZD8D, 9J2T and 5W1SA come to mind. Also several short ‘rag-chew’ QSOs were
had with VKs and ZLs whose CQing just happened to show up on the RBN, and who
were also in needed ‘bonus’ Call Areas.

Despite not having any major activity on 80m, the QSO total (1,213) was only
slightly down on last year’s 1,269. However thanks to RBN there was an
increase in the number of Bonus Points (for working those needed Call Areas). 
The overall claimed score (11,800) is therefore slightly up on last year’s
11,515.

Thanks for all the QSOs made from ZF2XF during the Commonwealth Contest, and
once again apologies that I couldn’t hop to 80m when you asked me to!

73 �" Nigel G3TXF at ZF2XF


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