[UK-CONTEST] G3BJ - BERU 2007

[Don Beattie]

Quite a fun contest this year. Lots more activity, and plenty of propagation 
(10m excepted)

As usual, it was a continuing trade-off as to where to point the beam. I was 
struck by the thought that there is just as much activity in BERU as most 
other contests, but not of the rate monster type. It really is a "thinking 
man's contest" where the issues of where, when, and direction (SP/LP) really 
make it happen.Still a lot to learn, and I've been doing it for 20 years !

Murphy stayed away from the BJ QTH this year, although there was a mild 
panic 10 minutes before the contest started, when the SO2R box refused to 
key one of the rigs. In the end it seemed to be a poorly seated plug. But no 
repeat of last year's snow static, and all the antennas worked - and stayed 
up. K9AY was again wonderful on 80m, giving painless copy on ESP signals. 
Funniest experience took me back to the 1960's, whilst  working and AP2 (the 
second one worked in BERU this year), whose frequency wandered all over the 
place - I had to chase him around the band to complete the QSO.

Poor results on 10m - tried a number of QSYs with stations, but generally 
nil. Only two QSOs.

Did the full 24 hours, although the eyes were drooping around 4.00 am, 
during the "dull" part of the night.

Very enjoyable, and am already planning the improvements for next year.

Here's the details (Sorry about the tabs):

 BAND   QSO DUP DXC  HQ  POINTS BONUS

-------------------------------------

   80    65   1  20   3     325   760

   40   100   1  31   3     500  1140

   20   126   4  32   3     630  1240

   15    40   1  23   2     200   740

   10     2   0   2   0      10    40

--------------------------------------------

TOTAL   333   7 108  11    1665  3920 16.55

============================================

            TOTAL SCORE : 5 585

73

Don, G3BJ