From: Colin Smithers
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2022 21:50:55 GMT

It was good to be back in person, although the travelling remains far harder. I found myself thinking twice about which events I should attend in the days before, just in case. Various meetings and in particular a charity fund raiser dinner dance could all have cooked my goose, as could the travel itself and until I’m home that fun isn’t over. I’m now clear to get back into the US at least and to continue the biz trip.

To get to Cayman requires a valid test within 24 hours, so my routing through meetings meant I had to find a US test. Time was tight so I opted for an airport test the afternoon before. Flight schedules are now thinner, so my flight from Chicago via Miami to Cayman was due to leave at 5 a.m. The in-airport test seemed fine – you book it online and poll up. But then “You need to scan that QR code and fill in the form” said the 20-year old manning the entry point.

Up pops a long form which involved duplication up to three times, no way to enter a non-US phone number and ‘signing as read’ 8 legal disclaimer docs, several of which were each about 30 iphone screens long and in tiny print. Yeah, right. 20 minutes and much less battery later, from a distance you could see a semblance of semi-cubicles with chairs and tables, like in the UK. But I was ushered to a 2m high vertical perspex screen with two 10cm holes in it. There another teenager placed her arm through the upper hole and jabbed the swab up my nose. We were both standing so the accuracy was not good. I must have skipped the bit about signing up to allow brain surgery. Keep remembering ‘this is your hobby, it’s for fun’. Anyway, I passed.

Check-in at 3 a.m. was ok except in Chicago they know how to do ‘officious’. “What’s THAT?” the check-in lady said of the UK NHS vaccine app. I got out the paper vax tickets and she seemed to give in.

Cayman has its own ‘Travel Cayman’ form which can only be obtained by uploading a valid QR code and the UK app QR code worked – Commonwealth! Despite this the Cayman border lady said “What’s THAT?” about the app and also needed to see the tickets. My mother could never have managed all this.

In the UK we have now relaxed so masks are no longer mandatory and sanitising is no longer even offered in most places. Walk into a shop in Cayman without sanitising and they literally scream at you and the supermarkets have someone at the door who will spray your hands for you. Masking remains mandatory.

The hotel is ’open’, though on Mondays there is only take-out food service, as they are ‘not fully opened up yet’. Room servicing – what’s that? I need to complement their Accounts dept as, despite all this, invoicing does seem to be fully up to speed.

Finally I arrive at the ZF1A station. It continues to evolve care of the host Andrew Eden’s laid-back attitude and some dedicated US serial contesters. Antennas have been added and rotators almost all work. The problem, like everywhere, is the slowly creeping noise floor so, frequently, antenna selection is more about picking for low noise than for being heard. Sometimes I would set out to be heard and then switch around to make out the weak ones, or even to detect if they were there.

The station has permanently benefitted from the remoting project that I was able to use last year, although that does add some trip hazards. Friday was spent just learning how to drive it, plus enough food prep to avoid significant stops.

The micro-ants come and go from year to year on the island. This is a medium year. I forgot and had left a mug of orange juice out of sight behind a laptop. When I reached for it barely two hours into the contest, there must have been a couple of thousand swarming the mug and running a multi-lane ant motorway across the table. They are so quick at this.

So to the contest. I was on and ready on 80 and 40 by 09.30 but it was all very quiet, quieter than usual. I even checked I was on at the right day and time. Slow start and immediately fumbling. I’m back to DxLog and have started using Enter Sends Message for greater efficiency. I learned you can quickly get badly tied in knots with non-standard Qs and turned it off. More practise!

I have now corrected my previous error of failing in the 2^nd hour to focus hard on VK/ZL on 40, better this year. Propagation seemed reasonable but rate was a bit slow. The decision then is when to bail for the UK 20m opening. It’s a fine balance as if it’s wide open you drown in all the signals, but leaving bonuses behind is a tough call. Someone tried to QSY me to 15 right in the middle of the 20m hoard – time and a place my friend😊

Then to 15 which was in reasonable state and even ten seemed pretty decent at times, mostly slowed down by fewer people being there and other local comps creating distraction. Once the sun had risen in VK/ZL 15 seemed best for rate, but 10 was sometimes the better signal and twenty often hard or impossible. Again, when to bail for the UK 40m opening? – a points rate decision once the bonusses began to slow.

I made one particular schoolboy error. During the contest I think and eat in UTC, it helps me keep track of propagation. So at 1 a.m. when I set my phone alarm to give me 90 minutes kip, I set it to 2.30, which of course allowed me…. 6.5 hours sleep – Agggghhhh! Fortunately I awoke at 4.15 with a start knowing something was not right.

40 remained reasonable but 80 was at all times quite a slog and my 80m Q count says it all. Static was mercifully low, signals were just weak. I’m not sure if they were not there or below the QRN. The EU beverage was an important option, even for signals seemingly not from that direction.

But despite everything about propagation I reminded myself again that it also requires someone at the other end of the radio. If they are only on to tune around and give away a few points, or maybe only one, they will likely not be up past bedtime. Blink and they are gone.

Getting people to understand what BERU means remains a continuous challenge. In the quieter moments I mused on us letting all comers play. But then the smaller Commonwealth signals would simply not get a look-in – this contest relies on being able to spend 5 minutes making out that call and then the serial buried in the noise and everyone else being patient and standing by. I wish I could have explained to one persistent Spanish gentleman that his own national contest does not allow overseas contacts – as we know all too well from its clash with our International Low Power contest.

73, Colin Zf2CA, G4CWH, M3E

BAND    QSO       BONUS HQ          DUP       POINTS  AVG

   80       85           14           4             2             425        5.00

   40        199        44           15           4             990        4.97

   20        205        37           8             2             1020      4.98

   15        178        42           8             3             890        5.00

   10       50           32           2             1             250        5.00

TOTAL   717        169        37           12           3575      4.99

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

FINAL SCORE: 7695

Hi,
Well, Mr. Murphy sure got around this weekend.
When I got here the 40M dipole didn’t load up. I had a few days to experiment but despite climbing the 20M mast to swap coax (twice), nothing could be done, for reasons still unknown. I’m not a great climber but felt fairly secure using the harness and clips etc.
I didn’t bring any poles or wire and as the shack here was burnt to the ground two years ago hence spare equipment here is limited.
No worries I thought, I’ll just have to do without (trying to keep positive!). The main antenna here is an Optibeam 16 ele, 5 band, up high and was working very well. The only ATU was the internal IC-7610 which I know from previous experience struggles compared to a dedicated ATU or even the internal K3 ATU. (The K3 can load up my doublet at home I use for field day, the Icom cannot.)
Also I discoverd the linear was also destroyed in the fire so using 100W only.
On starting the contest all was well otherwise, I received some very complimentary signal reports from G despite the 100W.
All of a sudden about 2 or 3 hours in, 15M wouldn’t load up. (also 12M died so I suspect a common cause on the antenna).
At this point, having lost probably the two most useful bands, I lost my ‘mojo’ and realised this was going to be a ‘just for fun’ entry. The night time sessions are very slow, even when I have both 80 & 40M. With just a very noisy 80M dipole (S7+ noise) I couldn’t handle the thought of calling into the noise on just 80M for nearly 12 hours, (although 20M does open up to VK/ZL during the night for short periods). I therefore decided on a very casual entry, hour on, hour off etc. Apologies for not being there for UK sunrise.

10M opened up to VE, VK & ZL from here but alas no G’s.

From now on I will forget using a ‘renta shack’. My first two years ops from Belize were poles and wires etc over seawater and I did very well. I shall now go back to travelling with all the gear again, now the sun has woken up. At least I will only have myself to blame if the antennas don’t work as expected. I’m already looking for next years QTH, it wont be Belize as Ive been here for 5 years now, I fancy a change.

N1MM+ says 295 QSO’s, 8hrs on time, 3,475 points. (SOA-12hr) but only 100W.
A bit dissapointing to say the least but I had a good time nevertheless.

Band QSOs Pts Cty Sec Pt/Q
3.5 19 355 14 1 18.7
14 164 1850 49 5 11.3
21 78 805 19 1 10.3
28 23 465 18 1 20.2
Total 284 3475 100 8 12.2
Score: 3,475
1 Mult = 2.6 Q’s

Annoyingly, the 15M antenna suddenly starting working again the next day.. Mr. Murphy obvously went off to annoy someone else!

Iain V31GX/G4SGX