[UK-CONTEST] Beru 2004 G4BUO

[Dave Lawley]

Relieved to find I was able to keep close to Andy G4PIQ/P's QSO
total, unlike last year. I took a 90 minute sleep break and woke to 
hear him 9 Qs ahead, but in the following hour I made 24 Qs and
probably picked up all the VE3s on 40 and 80 that he had already
worked.

Bad problems with static rain on Saturday afternoon, but fortunately
I had a 20m quad loop which meant that one band remained usable.
The main problem was Writelog. No, I didn't use the brand-new Beru
module: for a contest like this a paper check sheet for bonuses is
pretty easy to maintain. My problem was that I decided to use two
PCs, one on each rig (though only a single keying line) and to network
using WL. All was fine until I stupidly let the laptop battery run down. 
When I restarted, the log synchronisation process decided there were
a number of dups and at this point WL went crazy. Every time I keyed
anything in the callsign field, it incremented the serial by one, and in
Beru an inflated serial number can be very misleading.

I finally figured out how to solve the problem - export one log to ADIF,
edit it and remove the 'dups', then import again. Open up an empty log
on the other machine and then connect the network. As far as I was 
aware I ended up with just two skipped numbers, but at the end WL
says I made 371 Qs whereas the last serial number was 374.

I've read all about WLs handling of serial numbers on the reflector
and while I accept that it is hard to avoid dups and gaps, the fact that
once it thinks there are dups in the log it assigns a new number each
time you key anything in the callsign entry field is definitely a bug.

The other technical problem was that the digital readout on my Omni-D
has gone intermittent. The rig is 25 years old but has a better receiver
than the FT1000MP. At least I prefer it! Anyone know of an Omni gathering
dust that I might use for spares?

Great to work so many ZS stations, and the lack of VE7s in the log is
surely a reflection of the poor propagation rather than lack of activity.
The 80m LP opening to ZL on Sunday was excellent, with five stations
worked and ZL2AZ particularly loud. It surprised me by starting earlier 
than in most years, but having now checked using CT, ZL sunset changes 
by 10 minutes per week at this time of year.

Claimed Score = 6795

        Qs      Bonus
80      50      31
40      85      57
20      132     73
15      80      62
10      24      24
        371     247

Ten-Tec Omni D + Ten-Tec Titan
FT1000MP + Dentron MLA2500
80m delta loop
40m 4 square
20m 4el up 65ft, delta loop up 50ft
15m 4el up 75ft, dipole
10m 4el up 70ft

Dave G4BUO