Monthly Archives: April 2021

BERU HQ stations – too much of a good thing?

15 Thursday Apr 2021

Posted by in HQ Stations, Teams

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Hi

The Commonwealth Contest is a DX contest and DX means long distance and challenging radio contacts. Just hold that thought in your mind for a moment.

The first HQ station was GB5CC in 1987 operated for the 50th contest, so ‘5’ for the 50 anniversary and ‘CC’ for Commonwealth Contest. GB5CC is a bonus station for all entrants including the UK&CD entrants. UK&CD entrants do not work each other for points. Since 1987 Australia, Canada and New Zealand national societies have allowed the use of their HQ call suffixes in the contest. It has been accepted that there should be one HQ station per Commonwealth call area. GB5CC has been the UK&CD headquarters station.

We have to recognise that in the period of poor solar conditions there is a need to provide extra stimulus when the HF bands are closed. So in 2017 ( 80th contest) a number of G#80CC HQ stations were activated from individual countries in the UK&CD. The UK was still one call area for entrants but these extra HQ stations provided local activity and bonus points for UK entrants. This year, 2021, in addition to GB5CC other UK HQ stations G#6XX and G#3DR were activated. If fully operated this potentially leads to 5 (bands) * 15 (call areas )*20 bonus points being available to UK entrants. Further all these points are available as local short range QSOs. Whilst these bonus points do not give equivalence with stations in Canada, especially , and Australia less so, they distort the contest for UK stations. These QSOs are hardly DX. Moreover these UK HQ stations have to be manned by someone. So as the number of UK contesters is limited it is inevitable that the more HQ stations there are, the fewer UK entrants there will be. This suggests that the best use of HQ stations is to encourage newer contesters to build technique and experience rather than be operated by leading UK contesters who might otherwise compete at the highest level in the main sections.

With COVID hopefully behind us and international travel resuming what options might we consider :-

1. Revert to GB5CC only. Comment has been made that GB5CC is an unusual call for a contest ( it might be unique ). But it has the benefit of having been used for the last 34 years, so should be familiar by now.

2. Have only one HQ station per country for the UK, probably G#6XX. Possibly retain GB5CC for G only with G#6XX for the other UK countries. Focus effort on getting HQ activity from the smaller UK countries and new contesters.

3.Approach OFCOM to issue G#xRSGB ( or G#xHQ ) to bring the suffix into line with other HQ stations. The explicit use of G#xHQ would clarify the role of the station without ambiguity.

Finally recall this is a DX contest and DX means long distance and challenging radio contacts, so the stimulation of more DX contacts is the real goal.

73 Bob G3PJT

UK Teams – time for a reboot?

15 Thursday Apr 2021

Posted by in Results, Teams

≈ 8 Comments

Hi

When I was analysing this year’s results I was struck by the UK positions in the Team contest. There were 10 teams , 2 from Australia, 4 from Canada and 4 from the UK. The UK teams were placed 7,8,9 and 10. But when I summed up the scores of the top 5 UK single op entrants I realised that if that group had been a team then that UK team would have been placed 3rd, a very respectable position indeed. Only Australia 1 and Canada 1 would have done better. Looking at the entrants in detail it seemed that as well some of the UK’s top operators had unfortunately chosen to operate HQ stations rather than compete as single op entrants.

I would like to suggest therefore that for 2022 we encourage our 2021 leading single op entrants to form a UK ‘top ops’ team. Other leading single op entrants could be added to make up the number to 5 if necessary. This selection on performance approach is the way the VKs do it and they feel it has improved their contest operating.

No change in the rules is needed. All entrants will be encouraged to form and compete in teams as normal.

This proposal is an attempt to have at least one very strong UK team entry so we can see what our very best operators can do. Each year going forward a ‘UK top ops’ team will be drawn from the leading UK single operator entrants of the previous year.

73 Bob G3PJT

VE3BR

09 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Reports

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A few notes on my usual points: propagation motivation stamina running. Propagation in a word “wasn’t” (as in “wasn’t there”). Again. This year there was an additional layer to my standard statement “There is only so much you can do with LP and an 80/40 vertical”: a layer of noise and very strong QSB. I had to constantly ask for repeats. Stations going from 599+ to below my noise level within one transmission. Getting just one digit of the exchange per repeat and then parsing/pasting it together (hopefully right) was the name of the game most of the time. Noise I could deal with better this year; I still do not have an RX antenna but I had installed a phase noise canceller and it seems to be helping quite a bit. But that QSB thing was a killer. The rest of conditions as per usual for the last few years: 10 and 15 pretty much dead (I only had one Q on 15 with ZF2CA who was consistently very loud on all bands other than 10 where I heard no one); 20 m – average just uncharacteristically low signals nobody seemed to be strong; 40 – OK by my standards and the way ZL6HQ/2 was coming through the second morning: wow! if everybody was that loud and clear all frustration (and fun?) would be gone; 80 m – noisy but otherwise OK; just really long stretches of “nothingness” because of my set-up. Hearing my “locals” carry on with good rates of running while I cannot hear a thing reminded me of my place on the totem pole: below the big guns below little pistols below BB guns amongst the “pea shooters”. Motivation I thought I had this time. No distractions and full commitment to go 24 hours. (My N1MM+ shows ~20 hours of operating time.) It was the stamina that I had not. I could make excuses that it is not really “morale boosting” when your Q rate in the last 7 hours of a contest is exactly 1 QSO/hour. But it was the stamina that failed me – utterly. Several times towards the end I found myself falling asleep sometimes for extended periods of time. P

Top Ten radios used in BERU 2021

08 Thursday Apr 2021

Posted by in Reports, Results

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Hi Bob,
 
After receiving this years results, out of curiosity , I looked at the ” top 10 ” radios used . Taking the leading 50 stations in the Open Sections and Single OP Unassisted,, and the leading 20 stations in the Single Op Assisted,   gives the following league table :-
 
1. Elecraft K3 or K3S                  37
2. Yaesu FTDX5000                    13
3. Yaesu FT1000                         11
4. Icom IC 7610                          11
5. Icom IC 7300                           9
6. Yaesu FTDX101                       8
6. Kenwood TS 590SG                8
8  Yaesu FT2000                         7
9. Sun SDR                                  5
10. Flex 6 series                          4
10 Icom 7700                             4
10. Kenwood TS890S                 4
 
73
 
Bob G4DBW