VO land “Spring” always at its worst as another “BERU-Spoiler” storm blew through during Thurs , Friday and over night into Sat dumpimg 70cm of white stuff at the writers QTH. I took one “rest” break to clear snow for 3.5 hours. Overall the contest was enjoyable but participation appeared down. 10M was very disappointing.
My 8el remote tribander broke clear of the rotator during a similar storm in Feb and was self rotating between Eu and Africa. Coming to rest late in the day still atop the tower(See picture on VO Amateurs Facebook site.)

Score much lower the last year but still great to be able to be on with the crowd.
Frank VO1HP

K3 Line Remote
20 15 10 8el Yagi by N5DX
80 40 30 ZIO Super vertical 36ft. over 33 radials

HI all,

Contest kicked off to a good start with plenty happening in the first few hours,
working VE and G stations on 40 and 15m.
Early hours Sunday morning was good until 2300z, where the contest seemed
to come to a stop.  Good dB readings on the RBN but not a lot of operators.
Lots of nothing set a new run rate of 3 to 6 per hour. (139 less contacts this year)
Took this as a good time to grab another nap.. hi hi.
At 0500z it picked up getting better with a pleasing run on 40m into G land
via long path from 0630. Gotta love the 40m 4 square antenna as I could never
get this run on a standard verticle.

VK4M is so much better than VK4SN for CW.  I never got asked to repeat my call.

(And sri to the VK6 that received a GF and not a GL from my rushed keying after the contact. 😐  )

Thanks for all the contacts, and for the HQ stations giving me a shout.

 Band     QSOs     Pts  Cty  Sec  Pt/Q
         3.5      11     275    9    2  25.0
           7      88    1080   28    6  12.3
          14     124    1400   35    8  11.3
          21     113    1160   24    7  10.3
          28      53     965   32    7  18.2
       Total     389    4880  128   30  12.5

            Score : 4,880

VK4M Runs >10 QSOs: for computer named: VK4SN-1

2024-03-09 1002 – 1014Z,    7007 kHz, 16 Qs, 76.8/hr VK4M
2024-03-09 1024 – 1105Z,   21019 kHz, 74 Qs, 109.3/hr VK4M
2024-03-09 1137 – 1147Z,   21018 kHz, 11 Qs, 66.3/hr VK4M
2024-03-09 1710 – 1749Z,   14007 kHz, 39 Qs, 60.2/hr VK4M
2024-03-09 1755 – 1809Z,    7014 kHz, 16 Qs, 66.8/hr VK4M
2024-03-09 1819 – 1843Z,   14006 kHz, 15 Qs, 36.9/hr VK4M
2024-03-09 2035 – 2110Z,   28013 kHz, 23 Qs, 39.0/hr VK4M
2024-03-10 0639 – 0717Z,    7009 kHz, 43 Qs, 69.0/hr VK4M

Best 73
Alan
VK4SN / VK4M

Hi Bob

first thanks for your publicity efforts again.

The xyl and I rented a house overlooking Discovery Bay on the north coast here and it was fine, about 200 ft up overlooking the bay

with a verandah, used for operating.Cool but dark at 5 am start here !

Thanks to Nigel 6Y5HN for help and suggesting asking for the shorter call, obtained easily from the local licence office at no cost,but maybe it confused some ops.One G.XX did not recognise me being in the contest, which lost a few points! The suitcase verticals worked ok but it was a 5 min trip down the slope to switch the loading coil in for 80m when asked to QSY ! Then back again after the call, phew! hoho.Conditions were poor on 20m on saturday, some did not hear my calls, better on Sunday,The good news here is when G closes VE is still open and VE5 6 7 can be worked.10m was patchy, 15m was good, 20m poor on saturday, 40m good but noisy, 80m noisy and I failed to appear on 80 sunday morning for various stupid reasons, but got on 40m ok,,Great to work so many VEs and G s, and thanks to Andy 5Z4VJ for turning his beam my way after many tries,

I had a nap this year , trying to work out when is hard with a 5 hour difference when brain dead ! A very enjoyable trip again, despite less activity its still a yearly highlight.

Many thanks to the HQ stations who make it much busier for no score, cracking signals too!

403 QSO s , maybe 4k points if N1MM+ is right…

Mike 6Y6YI (G3VYI)

Hope everyone enjoyed the contest, from VK6 the condx seemed a little disturbed with a high A index and elevated solar wind. Overall activity was perhaps down too in VK/ZL and elsewhere.

Thanks to all the HQ stations who were consistently active once again,  providing the extra bonus points which were most welcome in the quiet periods during the second day.

Noticed a bug in N1MM, a couple of VK6 short contest calls called me and I worked them thinking they would be zero points (easier then trying to explain) but N1MM awarded 25 points to each QSO.  Which will come out in the log check

Thanks for all the QSO’s

         QSO’s    Bonuses

80m:   38         18

40m: 134         39

20m: 220         50

15m: 168         48    

10m: 114         34

Claimed: 674 Q’s 189 B

Points: 7170

73’s Kev

VK6T

They say that without deadlines nothing gets done. Certainly BERU prompted me to change out the 80m tower shunt feed capacitor with the vacuum variable I picked up from Don G3XTT at the RSGB Convention. I can now run full power without the arcing problem, but as it turned out there was no benefit over the 80m inverted-V at 55ft. Quite surprising, as upgrading the rotatable 40m wire dipole arrangement has the total tower + pole height now at about 80ft. I can only assume stuff was coming in at high-ish angles.

As long time readers of this forum will know, BERU has been a CW journey for me; prompting me to get better at CW. It’s probably my favourite contest because the speeds are moderate, and I still get the thrill of my little signal working the world – not such a little signal anymore, perhaps. For the first time, I managed to have the composure to move someone (J35X). Combined with the fact that I don’t get enough paddle practice, I’m sure I sounded like a LID, but hopefully I’ll get better at it. A higher QSO count compared to last year, so some progress perhaps.

As others have said, propagation was mediocre for this point in the cycle. 80m was particularly poor for me, with no VK/ZL worked. I think maybe I should have run more on that band at sunrise. I don’t think I heard any CQs from them. A nice surprise to be called by 3B8HK at 9am on 10m, and VU2TMP popped up on 10 & 15m near the end. I didn’t hear any ZLs on 10m. The occasional nugget from trawling 20m through the night (e.g. V4/WB8IZM). Several full houses, but I never found G6XX on 10 & 15m. Also only worked GU6XX on 20 & 15m, but I know that was only a part time effort (thanks Bob). 

Something impulsive and very noisy came up on 15m to the east on Sunday morning. It’s not always there. I’ll have to track it down sometime. There’s also a wandering SMPS harmonic that takes out 10m and it’s pot luck where it is at any one time.

Keith mentioned VK7WIA. I don’t mind that he was sending at 20wpm, but I did get quite frustrated as an unassisted untrant at the lack of ID’ing. Even though I sent QRZ? several times, many QSOs passed without an ID. I marked it in the bandmap and came back later. They did ID when there were no callers and I easily got through the next mini-pile. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to scare them off for next year!

Fewer travellers this year, and poor participation from the wider pool. Nonetheless, I like the fact that this is not just another rate contest. Personally I wouldn’t be in favour of G works G.

Thinking of upgrading the amp. It’s not really capable of 1kW for extended periods. I found myself regulating the fan speed by the periods between my CQs!

This is what N1MM said at the end:

Band     QSOs     Pts  Cty  Sec  Pt/Q
         3.5      19     415   11    2  21.8
           7      60    1120   32    6  18.7
          14      82    1530   46    8  18.7
          21      95    1635   50    7  17.2
          28      30     690   23    3  23.0
       Total     286    5390  162   26  18.8

            Score : 5,390

Gear:

Momobeam TRI-12 @~60ft

40m rotatable dipole @~80ft

80m inverted-V @~55ft + shunt-fed tower

IC-7610 + 1K-FA (1kW)

A shame not to make it to 300 Qs. I note that Andy (PIQ) pretty much did in 12 hours with wire antennas what I did in 24 hours with a beam! The rest of us are mere mortals :-).

Thanks to all the travellers and HQ stations. Until next year.

73 Andy, G4KNO.

So, here is an offering from way up north. I had high hopes for propagation and have never been on in BERU during high flux times – unfortunately, the forecast was correct – high K index before the start that seemed to take a serious edge off things. And the aurora on Sat evening really threw a spanner in the works.

My experience was similar to Don in many respects. I could hear JA on 10m before we started but it didn’t really seem to get going and 10 was a struggle. 15 was better but everything is relative. I made several tactical errors which cost me I think: I was trying to make interleaved CQs on two bands but this meant that I wasn’t listening in second direction on one of the bands so I think this cost me dxcc. I also spent too much time calling and not working much on 80 and 40 as VK/ZL had their SR and we had our SS. It was very disappointing, excepting ZL3AB on 80m with an excellent signal. This cost me time into VE and I did badly to the mid and west on 20, 15 and 10. Did catch VE7 late on 10 by beaming SW which often happens when we get hit by aurora.

There were some loud signals on 15 and 10 from VK and VE but, oh, such little activity. There were so many entities that you might reasonably have expected that I just simply never heard – only one station from Africa 5Z4VJ…………one!!

I just ran out of stations to work at 02z, slept a couple of hours, but only added two VE on 80m before SR, duped ZL3AB as the only ZL on 80m. About 0440 I noticed the SWR on my 80m vertical had shot up and the amp was objecting. I ventured out in rain and strong easterly wind to discover a broken loading wire and no fix possible – so it was a reconfiguring and the back up antenna for the remaining single scoring QSO!  40m LP was poor, poor. LP on 20m was better with a few new things. VK7WIA wasn’t making many friends sending at 20 wpm and not signing his call – but at least he was on and making QSOs. The morning was livelier than some previous that I recall, but I made only one scoring QSO after 0915.

Thanks to all the guys who moved on request – much appreciated. Several didn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t.

I really don’t know what to make of this contest. It’s good in the sense that almost all the QSOs we make from the UK are DX, are we are not expecting high rates, but the contest needs activity and that is simply not there. I suspect some of my perception of poor conditions is more down to poor activity. I was called by loads of Gs, many EU and also some juicy DX that was no use, and the other contests certainly made an impact. I don’t know if a rule change would help – yes, we could work inter-UK in some way but you have to wonder about the viability of the event overall when >90% of the DXCC entities are not represented, a full representation of HQ stations doesn’t materialize and general support from VE, VK and ZL is poor to pretty dire.

Sorry about the formatting – I can never get this neat

BAND   QSO DUP DXC  HQ  POINTS BONUS   AVG

——————————————–

   80    37   1  12   7     185   440 16.89

   40    74   1  21   9     370   880 16.89

   20   105   3  28  14     525  1320 17.57

   15    95   1  25  13     475  1160 17.21

   10    47   1  19  11     235   780 21.60

——————————————–

TOTAL   358   7 105  54    1790  4580 17.79

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

            TOTAL SCORE : 6 370

Professor Keith M Kerr,

I can’t explain it but after 60 years as a Radio Amateur (SWL ay age 10) I still get a great buzz from a QSO with VK or ZL and I guess that’s what brings me back to BERU each year. It’s certainly not the endless CQing during the night and last couple of hours of the contest with few replies.

Propagation has been well covered by Don and Andy. One additional comment is that as Andy said conditions on Saturday afternoon to VE on 10m were disappointing. On many occasions I could detect the presence of VE stations but not at a workable strength, my feeling was that a beam ( I only have a dipole at 12m) would have made them workable but looking at Don’s (who has a couple of beams) report I actually had more QSO on 10m than he did. Perhaps that is down to me being assisted and told where the  DX was. I ended with just over 10% less QSOs than last year even with my slightly higher power so I’m going to say conditions were down on last year.

QSO count was:

BAND QSO BONUS HQ DUP POINTS AVG

———————————

   80  19    11  7   0     95 5.0

   40  61    31  9   1    305 5.0

   20  87    44 13   1    435 5.0

   15  88    45 11   3    430 4.9

   10  38    26  8   0    185 4.9

———————————

TOTAL 293   157 48   5   1450 5.0

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

        FINAL SCORE: 5 550

I must also thank the travellers and HQ station operators – without them this contest would die.

Equipment:

FTdx101D and ACOM 1k at 600w (any more upsets my neighbours)

Nested dipoles at 12m for 40, 20, 15 & 10m

45m long wire at 12m for 80m

DXLog for logging

73

Mike /G3WPH

Well another year has passed, and it’s BERU time again. 

Last year I entered in the QRP section, and decided I would do the same this year. The XYL and myself were going down the caravan, on the Isle of Sheppey, but with the M25 closed and a Grand Prix on Saturday, we decided to stay at home. My radio wipes out the TV in the caravan when I transmit, and Linda must watch her Grand Prix.

 Anyway went out to raise the mast, and the fan dipole was stuck in the apple tree, and 40,20 and 15 metres were well out of tune. So had the vertical, but thats not been so good since the garden got flooded last week. So thats the excuses out of the way.

Started on 10 metres, but that was pretty dire,in fact I only made 4 Q’s all told. 15 and 20m were half reasonable. 40 metres was a struggle, and 80 metres was only really for the G6XX and GB5CC that were worked. There was 4 VE stations I worked on 80, but that was all. There appeared to be very few other commonwealth country’s on. I guess there were about 10 other country’s that were on, which is not many. I heard VU, ZL  but never managed to work them. I still find it amazing that with just 5 watts and an aerial with a 4 to 1 swr,I can easily work into VK land. I guess they have a beam and a good set of ears.

Total worked below

Many thanks to those who persevered in my little signal, to make the contact.

Nigel G0W.G0VDZ

There is always something about BERU weekend. I seem to recall that most of my technical issues here have been unearthed just before the weekend of the Commonwealth Contest. This year was no exception, but not the usual sort of technical problem. Exactly an hour before the start, we discovered that the main pump on the sewage system here (septic tank and soakaway) had failed and the system was backing up badly. So the start of the contests was spent trying to find (unsuccessfully) someone who could come out on a Saturday. As it was, we had to be content with Monday, but it meant that the first couple of hours of BERU was well sub-optimal. I never caught up from that.

Like Andy, I found conditions pretty moderate. LF (80) was disappointing with I think the smallest clutch of ZLs at Sunday dawn I can remember. No real extension of propagation to Western Canada on 80, and VKs were thin on the ground. The other bands were fair, but not the sparkling conditions that we have seen of late. Some interesting propagation during the night on the HF bands, but a shortage of activity to take advantage of it. One or two stations down under were clearly keeping an eye on HF during our night, and popped up in response to CQ calls. Some astounding back-scatter on UK stations on Sunday morning on HF, making a number totally unreadable here. I agree with Any’s comments about the auroral impact too.

The other comment Andy makes about activity is one I also agree with. Frankly, without the HQ stations (thanks to everyone who hosted on of these) it would have been a pretty drab contest. Only a few travellers, and disappointing activity from Africa. Take out Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and it is pretty thin. Bob, G3PJT, has done a great job promoting BERU, but it really needs more activity to increase the appeal. I suppose the one bit of excitement was the J3 activity which added a bit of spice this year.

I saw comments a week or so back about the assisted category in BERU. Half way through the contests I was wondering whether I was destined to change to assisted in future years, as the continuous hunting for stations and bonus calls makes this a pretty intense contest, even if the QSO rate is low by international standards.  But for this year it was the hard slog of a lot of tuning whilst CQing (thank goodness for SO2R) and a lot of listening. As usual I did not discipline myself to move people as much as I should have and will have missed a few bonus points as a result. (I say this every year!) 

It was good to hear a good number of UK stations taking it seriously and I expect some big scores. Nick was a good way in front of me when last heard, and I suspect one or two others will be as well.

Here’s the numbers for the record:

G3BJ – Commonwealth Contest 2024. 24 hour high power non-assisted

BAND   QSO DUP DXC  HQ  POINTS BONUS   AVG

——————————————–

   80    40   1  12   7     200   500 17.50

   40    74   3  23   9     370   940 17.70

   20   110   2  28  14     550  1320 17.00

   15    98   4  28  13     490  1260 17.86

   10    31   0  14   7     155   580 23.71

——————————————–

TOTAL   353  10 105  50    1765  4600 18.03

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

            TOTAL SCORE : 6 365

73, Don

Don Beattie G3BJ / G5W

Hares Cottage

Woolston

Church Stretton SY6 6QD

United Kingdom

+44 7802 922 219

g3bj.don@…