[UK-CONTEST] BERU from 9M2CNC

[Richard Everitt, 9M2CNC]

BERU from 9M2 this year was slow, only 225 QSOs in12 hours. However, it 
was fun as always having so many UK QSOs and a quick HI to many radio 
friends.

I also noticed that VK activity was well down which is bad news from 
here. It is indeed true that many of the most active contesters in VK 
(VK2IA, VK1AA, VK6DXI etc) are of European descent and not UK which may 
explain their absence from the contest.

I still view BERU as a good way for smaller UK stations to work some DX. 
I worked my first VK in BERU from the UK as well as other DX (9J2, 7Q7) 
etc that I probably wouldn't have been able to work with my 100W and 
indoor antenna in any other contest from the UK. Indeed, I try to be 
active in BERU to give UK stations the chance to work 9M2 if required. I 
was pleased this weekend to give at least one UK amateur "a new one" on 80m.

Back to the contest.

10m - nothing
15m - only 19 QSOs. The band did open at the very end of the contest to 
the UK but there were not many stations around.
20m - 54 QSOs. I had a great over the pole opening to Eastern VE at 
00:15 (1 hour after local sunrise) with VE3EJ at 599 +20dB. However, it 
seems that most VEs were on the low bands at that time working the UK.
40m - 132 QSOs. With only an inverted V at 12m I was surprised by the 
conditions. I worked one M3 and one UK station using 100W and an 80m 
antenna (!!). Good to have no BY OTHR QRM during the contest.
80m - 20 QSOs. Only an inverted V at 10m but conditions were again good. 
My first UK QSO was GM3POI at 17:19 Z and my last was G3SJJ at 22:45. 
Sadly, the 9M2RPN station is on public land and it is not possible to 
put up a beverage antenna.

My entry will be a checklog as I used cluster to see what was going on. 
Additionally most of the contest was from 9M2RPN (KL Planetarium) 
running 400W but the last six hours were from home using 9M2RPN over the 
Internet and only 100W (the amp. is not yet Internet controlled). An 
early return home gave me some extra points with the XYL and allowed me 
to make an entry in the BARTG RTTY contest next weekend :-)

Probably my last BERU from here as I am leaving 9M2 in May.

Thank you for the QSOs and hope to see some of you in BARTG RTTY this 
weekend.

73 de Rich, 9M2CNC/G4ZFE