[UK-CONTEST] COMMONWEALTH CONTEST - G3BJ

[Don Beattie]

An interesting contest. As far as I remember, this is the first time for a while where I've started the contest at 10.00 Z - and stayed - on 40m, and that was a reflection of what was to come. Really mediocre HF conditions, but LF condition which gave good opportunities for easy bonus points.

For once, things seemed to work OK here - no equipment problems, and even the operator seemed to be getting the hang of SO2R (but this is a lifetime's learning opportunity). The new beverage on VK/ZL worked a tad better than the K9AY, and I had no problems copying the LF DX on that path. Great increase in activity in some parts of the world (kudos to Bob, G3PJT, and Dave G4BUO for all their hard work here) and many parts of the "Empire" were all over the bands like a rash.

Disappointment was western VE, which only made it into the South Shropshire log on 7MHz. No VE7 on 20m or 80m (:-(

The contest managed to keep the adrenalin going until about 04.00, at which point I learned what it's like to hit a concrete block at 70 mph. >From 04.00 until 10.00, with the exception of the VK/ZL openings on 80/40/20, I found virtually no new stations to work. Continual CQ'ing and listening on the other bands produced a real shortage of new QSOs and, more importantly, bonus QSOs.

Although I am slowly learning that you must move EVERYTHING to another band in BERU, I still forget - so some bonus points got away due to carelessness. But some very rewarding moves, proving that you CAN beat propagation - or more significantly, what you believe to be propagation.

Great to hear so many G stations out and about in "the colonies", and great signals from 6Y8XF and V47CD - just huge. Also a great pleasure to hear so much from VU/AP - a nice improvement - lets hope this is a sign of things to come. And VQ9JC was BIG everywhere.

A good UK-based element to the competition - it was interesting to keep track of the others by eavesdropping - a very close call this year, I think.

Here's the guff - I am sure others will have done better:

 BAND   QSO DUP DXC  HQ  POINTS BONUS   
-------------------------------------
   80    96   1  35   5     480  1260 
   40   121   3  41   6     600  1500 
   20   127   1  39   8     635  1500 
   15    19   0  15   1      95   380 
   10     2   0   1   1      10    40 
-------------------------------------
TOTAL   365   5 131  21    1820  4680  
=====================================
            
TOTAL SCORE : 6 500

Usual stuff here: 2 x FT 1000MP + linears, 10-40 yagi at 80 ft, steppir at 60 ft, dipoles, 90ft vertical, K9AY and beverages. Win-Test doing its usual great stuff on the logging.

Thanks to everyone for another great contest - roll on 2010.

73

Don, G3BJ