[UK-CONTEST] G0RTN BERU - a comedy of errors!

[Gerard Lynch]

10m 1/1
15m 11/11
20m 58/46
40m 35/32
80m 18/18  Total score: 2775

IC7400 and 100 Watts to a a 2x21m doublet on top of a 10 storey block of 
flats.

I'm glad to have encouraged some more people to try BERU with my little 
operating plan, and I hope operating in some of the worst conditions I can 
remember for any contest didn't put any of them off for life.  It's a lot 
more fun when the conditions are up.  Honest.

As you can see, my final result was notso-hotso for 21.5 hours more-or-less 
in the chair.  So much for my grandiose operating plan!  Actually, the plan 
seemed to work pretty well when the ionosphere allowed it to.  However, I 
now feel like one of those really irritating football commentators who 
writes in a really pompous, know it all, way about the game despite having 
been a B-grade player themselves.  It's time for me to come out of the 
closet and deal with the truth: I am the Jimmy Hill of amateur radio.

Anyway, back to the contest: boy, this was a stinker!  Propagation was 
atrocious - in one of those many slow periods in the middle of the night, I 
noted that the Solar Flux was a truly poxy 73, and yet at the same time the 
A-Index was a decidedly unsettled 13.  This does not make for happy HF 
conditions.  I noticed VA7ST posted about a great opening to Europe on 20 on 
the 3830 reflector.  Well, it may have been a long opening but it sounded 
terrible.  When I worked VA7ST, he sounded like he was keying by 
rhythmically farting into a microphone.  VE7CC sounded like they were using 
rectifiers they'd ordered from the Box 88, Moscow parts service in the 
1980s.  It was choppy up over the pole at the weekend.

While I didn't expect too much from the high bands, I was expecting to have 
a lot of fun on 80 in the wee hours.  This didn't happen - in fact I only 
scraped my last VE3 bonus about 45 minutes after sunrise, and I couldn't get 
VE2AYU to hear me at all.  Although I did work 2 ZLs (4BR on the short path 
and 6QH on the long path), all the usual Carribeans who had truly monumental 
signals at times, and a gaggle of interesting non-contest DX like HQ9F and 
6W/RW3TN, we really depend on the VEs on this band.  I think the aurora, 
rather than the MUF dropping below 3.5 MHz, was what made the path to VE so 
crappy on 80.  It's just too late in the year for that path to be MUF 
limited, especially with the solar flux still comfortably in the 70s rather 
than down in the 60s.  The night-time signals on 80 didn't have that echo-y 
'there's no ionosphere but my ERP is so massive I'm making my own one' sound 
they had on 40, but rather the 'there's entirely too much ionosphere and 
it's eating up the signals' sound that comes on high latitude paths when 
there's a lot of aurora about.  My 80 metre QSOs with VE9DX and VE3OSZ 
sounded more like 23cms QSOs pushing the limits of
troposcatter than HF.

I also didn't work VP8NO, which would have been an all time new country from 
England.  Bummer!  Oh, well, there's always the next one.

Band by band:

10 - I got to 10 about 1020 or so and obviously missed the opening.  One to 
chalk up to experience.  Only GB5CC worked on this band.  When the flux 
sucks, get on 10 from the get go.

15 - Poor, mostly Cyrpus/African stuff but also VQ9, J88DR and VE3EJ who was 
making his own F-layer (thanks for the patience, John).  I heard ZF2NT very 
weakly, thought I worked him on ESP mode, then found out later I hadn't when 
I called to query the number when he had a quiet period on 20.  Am really 
annoyed about this as I heard him at a good 569 about an hour later and 
didn't call him as I thought I'd already worked him.  Then didn't hear him 
again on 15.  Curses!

20 - The money band, but a real dearth of VKs.  9M2CNC was much weaker than 
normal, as was 7Q7BP and I didn't work either of them.  VEs moderate at 
best.  Some good Carribean stuff floating around.

40 - a real disappointment and the one band where I feel my recent change in 
aerial hasn't worked so well.  I usually get out well on the morning long 
path here but I presume the high A index made it poor on Sunday.  The VEs 
started going out here at 2330 and only the big guns (already worked) came 
through after that.  I didn't find the normal sunrise opening to VE7 which 
others evidently found.  Need a second doublet here to give he some 
diversity on radiation pattern.

80 - Nice to work ZLs, but no sign of a VK (which would have been a new band 
country, which ZL wasn't).  J88DR and ZF2NT were LOUD here in the wee hours. 
Heard ZL6A sending his callsign at a good 579 about 7 am, and worked out he 
was calling GM3POI but slightly off frequency so POI wouldn't have heard him 
if he had narrow filters in.  Tried to attract their attention but had no 
success when VE3EJ showed up on frequency and was actually S9+ for the first 
time.  Then couldn't get ZL6A to move down from 40 (no propagation here - 
oh, yes there is).

General - slept from about 1.35 to 3.50.  Mistake.  Should have pushed 
through until about 2.30, as the Canadians were still coming in fits and 
starts earlier on, then slept until 4.45, when 5B4AGC was still coming 
though for the last Cyprus bonus.  Didn't imagine the band would be so bad 
at 4 am.

Compared with the three stations who placed above me for the John 
Dunnington, I closed the gap, but not as much as I would have hoped for 
given the improvement in aerial.  In terms of QSO total, I went from 56% of 
G3LET's tally last year to, er, 56% this year, and vs. G3WPH went from 75% 
to 85%.  I was about 5 QSOs ahead of G3IAF at midnight but about 2 behind 
him at 7 am, so seem to have fluffed my chance of placing this year, unless 
I luck it with the bonuses.

I don't think there were all that many new QSOs to be had by better 
operating; some, but not enough to close the gap with even G3WPH. 
Therefore, what do I do next given the constraints of the location?  I can 
easily get a few extra wires up for diversity of attack angle and radiation 
pattern, but what else?  How do I get a proper ground from a 9th floor flat? 
I sort of think I need a proper ground.

After every miserable contest defeat, one learns some lessons - what were 
mine this year.

LESSON 1 - Make sure you actually have psychic powers before attempting to 
make QSOs using ESP.

LESSON 2 - Don't be too conservative with your pileup tactics
I played the short odds far too much here.  I heard G3LET bust two pileups 
in no time by being a bit unorthodox right from the get go (he's loud enough 
here for me to know when he's about and when he isn't).  I'd been playing it 
safe for some minutes to no effect.  Then I copied what Peter did and got 
through next call... always try and remember what the pile sounds like from 
the other end.  I should have worked both 9M6/G3OOK and VQ9 on 40 but 
didn't.

LESSON 3 - Frequency agility is key in this contest
In the 17Z hour, I was hopping like mad from 80 to 40 to 20 and still 
checking 15.  It worked.  It's one of the keys to this contest.  I should 
have done more of it.

LESSON 4 - Expect the unexpected
Back in November when I visited G3LET's for CQWW CW, I mentioned that I 
started checking 40 earlier than I usually did for BERU last year - like 
over half an hour before sunset.  Peter sort of looked at me with tolerant 
contempt and told he I needed to go there much earlier.  I took my first 
look at 40 this year at 1510 and heard VK4EMM, although not yet really 
workable.  Hitting band openings very early meant a few more repeats but 
working lots of stations an hour and half before the pileup descended. 
Checking 20 very late (well after it closed to NA) turned up a few nice 
Carribeans and the Summer evening long path opening to ZL which I would not 
have expected in these conditions - nothing new on it (ZL6QH, booming), but 
if conditions were better who knows?

LESSON 5 - Don't be afraid to CQ
This is my failing in all contests - I spend too much time DXing, and not 
enough time running.  Of course, that's probably why I like BERU so much. 
WPH and LET spent much more time CQing than I did.  Sometimes people came 
back to my CQs.  I should have done it more.  Actually, it was noticeable 
just how many Gs were CQing this year, I suppose because conditions were so 
poor.

LESSON 6 - Unmetred broadband is your friend
No QSOs in the 05Z hour?  No problem!  Look at all those pretty websites 
about model trains, snowboarding, synchronised swimming and dogging so you 
can find a new hobby, one that doesn't involve you getting up in the middle 
of the night on a Sunday for no purpose.  Just don't look at that nasty 
cluster.

LESSON 6 - Don't go around thinking you can beat G3LET.
Peter wrote the book on this contest, sunshine.  He was winning this contest 
when your Ma was in nappies.  Don't go all wet young Lynch, you always said 
you liked a challenge.  And at least I was centrally heated toasty warm at 
4.30 am even if Peter was stomping all over me!

73

Gerry G0RTN
Vanity Page at http://www.gerrylynch.co.uk
"In days of old, when ops were bold, and sidebands not invented,
The word would pass, by pounding brass, and all were well contented."