[UK-CONTEST] BERU 2012 - G3BJ

[Don Beattie]

Well, I don't recall ever starting a contest with the A index that high ! And I sense it made quite a difference to propagation on LF.

First of all, good to see the good level of activity, and the excellent vacation-style operations from a number of G's. Nigel did his usual stuff with a great signal and operating from ZD7, and Martin at ZF and Dave at J88 together with Bob at VP9 and a number of others made it interesting. The signals from these operations were generally good, and they were much needed additions to the bonus count. Chris and team at GB75CC were very workable on all bands and it was noticeable that the ZL count was, I think, up this year. Some great signals. Also from VK, but not quite so noticeable an upturn in numbers. A few ZS and the first BERU I personally can recall working Chatham Is.

The disappointment was the level of signals from VE on 80 and (to a lesser extant) on 40m. Signals on 80 here were not strong (other than just around dawn), and copy was quite tricky with the QRN and QSB. I found I had to ask for the serial to be sent fast, to copy. There was a natural inclination on LF to send more slowly when copy was poor, and this had exactly the opposite to the desired effect, as the rapid flutter would take out part of each number ! Faster sending always fixed it. 

Some good competition from G - didn't hear the end serials, but G0KPW (I assume Justin or Dave ?), GM0GAV and G6PZ were running well. May have been others with high numbers.

As for me, I think I am suffering from lack of activity because of "other duties". Had a few panics in the hour or so before the contest when I could not remember how to make some of the gear run in SO2R, but finally figured it in time. But then it took me the first few hours to get back into the SO2R routine.  Not sure I played it to best advantage, as was alternate band CQing for a while, and I sense the issue there is that the pause between repeat transmissions on each band is too great, and you get "tuned-past". But at the low point of propagation (about 03.00) I did wonder if I should be on three bands - alternate CQ on two, and S&P on the third. Need to think about that ! But in teh end I reverted to CQ on one band and S&P on the other.

One bright spot in the rather murky night was finding 20m wide open to ZL at about 03.45-04.45. It died later for a while, but signals in that period were excellent. 10m was patchy, but some good openings and VK2, Caribbean, S Africa and SE Asia all available in good strength.

Thanks to the G station who woke me up in the early hours when Nigel was calling me on 80 - must have taken a few seconds nap ! Sorry Nigel.

I did get a comment from a local station about clix on 80m - please let me know if you noticed these. The FT5K's are set to 6ms rise (the longest option) so I'm a bit surprised - it may point to something else going on here.

All in all, good fun but as we all know, BERU is a lifetime's learning. Here's my numbers, but I'm sure there will be other G's with better:

 BAND   QSO DUP DXC  HQ  POINTS BONUS   AVG 
--------------------------------------------
   80    51   0  26   2     255   780 20.29 
   40    83   0  35   4     415  1220 19.70 
   20    86   0  35   4     430  1260 19.65 
   15    86   0  32   2     430  1080 17.56 
   10    59   0  32   2     295   960 21.27 
--------------------------------------------
TOTAL   365   0 160  14    1825  5300 19.52 
============================================
            TOTAL SCORE : 7 125

Usual gear - 2xFT5K + linears. Microham SO2R box and Wintest.
10ele 40-10m yagi @ 80ft, 3 ele Steppir @ 60ft, 90ft vertical, dipole for 80
Beverages and K9AY

Thanks for all the Q's

73

Don, G3BJ