Monthly Archives: March 2016

M7T

14 Monday Mar 2016

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I did a fun entry total of 4 hours and thirty minutes in blocks of time over Saturday afternoon/evening.

QSO total was 114 by S&P no running. No Qs on 10m. GB5CC only heard and worked on 80 and 40m.

Notable Qs:
80m VK6, VO1, VY2, VP9.

40m was a good band with AT1HQ, J34G, VE1,2,3,9, VK2,3,4,6,7, VO, VP9, ZB2, ZL, 9V, even C4Z. Last Q was difficult with a VE3 as he was sending too fast for the multi-path auroral propagation was blurring his CW – a case of less haste more speed.

20m Worked C6ANM on same QRG as a stronger VK on the long path. Took a couple of NR? to get C6 NR but probably I am in the VK log twice as I had worked him earlier.

15m Nice to work 9J2BO as I normally do in BERU.

Only worked one on 4 bands VO1LET, but a number on 3: 40/20/15: CJ3T, J34G,VE3EJ, VE3FU, VE3UTT, VE9ML, VY2ZM; 80/40/20 VK6LW,VO1HP.

Did not hear anyone call CQ CC. CQ BERU is a more distinctive sound. Let’s forget the politically correct stuff and go for what the democratic majority actually want and do.

73 David G3YYD

C4Z

14 Monday Mar 2016

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That certainly was a challenge, it is little consolation to know that we were all batting on the same wicket The deep fade outs
were a problem and from here it was UK which was most affected, I had few problems with the dx. I had to abandon more contacts then ever before, sorry guys if you were one but you just faded away and did not return.

Without an 80m ant I had decided to do a 12 hr but in the event when it was sleep time I had less than 2 hrs remaining and I wanted to catch the dawn LP to Oceania on 20m, plus some dx on the higher bands later (that didn’t really happen) so I did around 14hrs in total.  LP didn’t happen on 40 or 15 but it was my  best ever numbers of ZL and a lot of VK’s in this event. By the time it was UK dawn some two hours later I wasn’t hearing them, cndx had changed.

40m SP Saturday evening was also best ever for ZL and worst ever for VK, no west dx on that band beyond VE3 although I did hear VA7RAC  at my dawn but couldn’t raise him. No VK on 80m nor ZL on 10/15/80.

I was pleased to work all of the UK travelers on at least two bands but how miserable were the cndx to the Carribean – on 20m, a band we can always rely on.  I couldn’t find any of them there on Saturday evening unless I left it too late. the band closes here a couple of hours ahead of UK. Bob J34G was the star with four bands 10 thru 40, he found me most, if not all, times. Alan at 5X & Mike at VP9 were great signals when I worked them. Peter at VO1  had a good score when I last heard him but seemed to have hearing problems on 20m, Sat evening he was loud but cq’ing in my face when I called him to no avail,same again same band this morning.

I did miss Dave, G4BUO and imagined that he must have broken both his arms since I doubt he has ever failed to turn out for Beru since he was a teenager!

Scores on the door.

24hr Open

10M – q’s 78    Bonus 15.
15M – Q’s 173   ”    40
20M – Q’s 293   ”    64
40M – Q’s 152   ”    38
80M – Q’s   5   ”     5

Total Q’s 699- less 5 dupes.   Total Bonus 162

Total Points  –  6718.

My score won’t survive checking. Having needed so many difficult fills my UBN is going to look ugly!, but despite all it was the usual fun and favourite event.

73  Brian C4Z / 5B4AIZ.

VO1LET

14 Monday Mar 2016

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Yes, apologies for that Brian! I think due to the dry weather, there was
cycling static that affected all bands. It would gradually rise in level
for several minutes and then discharge in a huge burst to leave a quiet
life for maybe half a minute before accumulating again. Didn’t spot it
when I did my noise survey earlier in the week . . .

Life was tough on the HF bands up here, not a sniff on 10 and very little
on 15. Even 20 was quite dead from dusk until a 15 minute opening right at
the end for a few remaining G’s. So most of my meagre score was on 40 and
80, despite the noise issue.

QSO/bonus totals were

80m – 153/26
40m – 226/56
20m – 181/24 !
15m – 33/20

Total score just 5485

Couldn’t raise Brian BO and the only African was V51YJ. Nothing heard at
all from 5X1XA. Probably the highlight was one of the few DX CQ replies,
from ZL/G3SGX, which took an age to complete as a result of the pulsed
noise issue. Sorry folks to those I just couldn’t hear (in addition to
Brian!)

Great fun though as always – meeting up with old buddies is what it’s all
about!
And yes, a certain Midlands station WAS calling CQ CC and stood out like
the sore proverbial . . .

73, Peter VO1LET

G3SJJ

14 Monday Mar 2016

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Report from G3SJJ. An interesting QSO Party but a pity about condx. Some
good signals from ZL and VK on all bands except 10m. I was able though
to use it to develop SO2R techniques. I had improved the set-up on last
year and had the 40m diamond loop that I used in AFS connected to the
2nd radio. With an swr of less than 2:1 on 40, 20 and 15 it was useful
to be able to transmit on those bands. Something I always wanted to try
was repeat dual CQing which proved good fun but would have been even
better if conditions had allowed more activity. In the end I didn’t
transmit much on the 2nd radio but used it check RBN Spots that came up
on the band map, I then used Alt F5 to swop radios and work a station on
the main Radio 1 set-up. I also got used to just hitting the FT1kMP band
buttons to display other bands. My body clock timing went a bit haywire
and I reached a big tiredness peak at 21:00 so went to bed and returned
to the radio at around 03:00 for an hour, then another short session
around 08:30. I was approaching the 12 hour limit by then so decided to
call time.

80 17
40 45
20 98
15 40
_10 05_
205 QSOs – 4485 points

Radio 1 – K3 + Expert 1.3K-FA amp, A4S at 50ft, 2 el phased verticals
for 40m, dipole and 66ft vertical for 80m
Radio 2 – FT1kMP + Acom 1k amp, 40m diamond loop for 40m – 15m.

N1MM+ logger of course. Really nice that it only displays Commonwealth
station rather than lods of other stuff.

One funny to report. Some idiot called a couple of times sending BERU? I
reply R CC. Get a life!

Chris G3SJJ

G3PSM

14 Monday Mar 2016

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Well I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

I started 5 hours into the contest and found 10 dead and made just 3
QSOs on 15 before the band apparently closed.

That said I did work everything I could hear apart from James 9V1YC and
ZL4PW. Oh and the VUs who I guess have very high noise levels.
Certainly AT1HQ didn’t seem to be hearing very much at all but I’ve
never worked so many VKs on 40 in one session.

So 9 hours after starting I called it a day with 85 Q’s in the log for
my 100 Watt, restricted, unassisted session. Not sure about N1MM+
scoring but it says 1,940.

Must do better where possible.

73

Colin, G3PSM

G3YMC

14 Monday Mar 2016

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Well managed 37 QSOs in the new ‘QRP’ section which I see is now 24
hours for my 8 hours operating. As others said, conditions dire,
nothing at all on 15m and 10m. GB5CC worked on 40 (hard) and 80
(doddle) but not heard anywhere else. But I was very pleased to work
Nigel J79XG this morning on 80 – I half heartedly came into the shack
at 6am thinking I would be too late but there he was at s9 plus and
first call. Nothing worked from VK and nothing at all even heard from
ZL.

I suppose there is always next year…

73 Dave G3YMC
5W, K2, long wire and Hustler.

G7PVZ

14 Monday Mar 2016

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Hi all,
BERU is the annual endurance test for QRP stations!

Had a nice run into VE, mainly on 20. Indeed, 20 was the bank band.

Heard several VK’s here, but sadly not made it into the G7PVZ log.

Crumbs, even GB5CC on 80 was a struggle.

Bill, G7PVZ

J79XF

14 Monday Mar 2016

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The first QTH was so noisy (same place that John G3LZQ stayed at several years ago
At 19z on Saturday I took the antennas down, packed up the station and moved to a 
different location about 200yds down the road! At the second location I only put u
p antennas for 40 and 80, but the location was so much quieter than the first. 
Finish with 753 QSOs. Log already uploaded.

73 - Nigel J79XF

VO1LET report

14 Monday Mar 2016

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Well done to all!  Even 15 hardly opened up in these frozen wastes and for sure no dawn flurry and not a sniff on 10!  20 stayed resolutely closed from dusk until the last 30  minutes, when a few G’s came through.  All the VK/ZLs were really weak but a few responded to targetted CQs.  Note that SD scores everything PERFECTLY!

Ended with 602 QSOs and a miserable 126 bonuses, mostly on 40 and 80, for a score below 5500.

However, watch out for VY2ZM, who I’ve been coaching in return for helping me to my VE licence a couple of years ago!  He was really determined to put on a show and all depends on whether he’s  got the bonuses in . . .  Still using CT, so had (has) absolutely no idea how he was doing!  Guidance was to achieve at least 100 QSOs more than John EJ and I think that was achieved.

73, Peter