[UK-CONTEST] BERU 2006

[Mike Harris]

G'day folks,

Hard going down here due to not being on anyone's main path beam heading 
thus dwelling in the valley of the side lobes.  A common problem with 
DXpeditions except 3Y0X who was right down the barrel much of the time. 
Could have powered the house off the energy coming this way in the 40m 
pile-ups, however, I digress.

K2/100W, Trident LP1830 log at 12m, 20m dipole 2m above, vertical for 40m. 
The vertical is actually a slightly extended 30m vertical with two 
slightly shortened gull wing radials which are padded out for 40m 
resonance with a small common inductor.

Logging by SDC.

83 QSO's, 47 Bonus, 1355 points.  Fault at the power station wiped out the 
electricity for the whole of Stanley for 15-20 minutes about two hours 
into the operation.

Band  QSO's/Bonus:
10m 2/2
15m 38/21
20m 25/8
40m 18/16

Average QSO distance approx. 12570km.

10m was working, I guess it was assumed not to be.  G3WPH was S3 and J88DR 
9+20, J88DR was my closest QSO at 7250km.  Had a normal QSO with CN2US in 
Tanger calling CQ with no takers.

20m saw George GM3OXX, who never runs more than 1W, in the log.

Changed bands a few times on request.  Was a real pain 'cos it meant I had 
to rush out of the house to switch from the log to the 20m dipole each 
time, and back again.  Must finish off the new cable installation.  Had a 
temporary cable for the rotator into the house otherwise it would have 
meant rushing out to the workshop to change headings.  Inflation guide, my 
PST 61D rotator, late 2005, cost almost as much as a new Austin Mini in 
1973.

Discovered my next door neighbour had a couple of horses in his yard and 
an electric fence running, 9+20 pulses on 20m but the K2 noise blanker 
killed it off.

Regards,

Mike VP8NO