[UK-CONTEST] Logging for Beru

[Dave Lawley]

Des's question about logging for Beru comes as I was just starting to 
put together a note about logging for this contest. Apologies because I 
can't actually answer the question about N1MM and keying, but there may 
be some alternatives.

SDC from EI5DI continues to give excellent support for Beru, and it can 
be obtained by emailing Paul - pokane at ei5di.com
SDC correctly scores the contest according to Beru rules.

Writelog has support for Beru, though as far as I know the issue with 
scoring noted last year hasn't been fixed. It doesn't recognise 
different prefixes within the same call area, so for example VA3 isn't 
recognised as VE3 for the purpose of counting bonuses. See www.writelog.com

There is a new option, which is Win-Test. This is a Windows contest 
logger which looks very much like CT. Simon M0CLW used it from here in 
the ARRL contest and I was very impressed. The current version which can 
be downloaded from www.win-test.com hasn't got Beru support built in, 
but I have tested the development version - it worked fine, and scored 
correctly. The developers plan to put the Beru version on the web site 
before the weekend.

All three of the above produce a Beru Cabrillo file as output, but only 
SDC is freeware. Writelog costs 75 dollars while Win-Test costs 35 Euros.

The particular scoring scheme used in Beru has worked very well over the 
years and produces a flatter range of scores than would be possible with 
multipliers. This has enabled stations in 9H ZF ZL 5B VK VE to win over 
the years, and if you read G3PJT's excellent book you'll see G3FXB 
nearly managed it as well. However, the scoring scheme does present some 
challenges to the software writers!

You can use any contest logger in WPX CW mode for Beru so long as you 
can figure out a way of
1. noting when a station sends 'HQ' as part of the exchange
2. keeping a track of bonuses

- strictly speaking the second isn't a requirement, since you don't have 
to show a claimed score in your Cabrillo entry, but during the contest 
you really need to keep a track of how many bonuses you've got for each 
call area as that has a major effect on the score.

I haven't tried N1MM though I hear good things about it, and of course 
it is freeware but if that is your main criterion then so is SDC and it 
has the considerable advantage of being designed for the contest and 
producing a correct score.

Dave G4BUO