Thanks for your kind words Bob. To add some colour, the basic SO2R set-up is a pair of K3s using DxLog in ’SO2R Advanced’ (that I am familiar with) with amps and duplexers to the various beams (rather more of a handful). The complexity lies in that it also has a full remote capability with an IT backbone that is both invisible and impenetrable to mere mortals. After that its just a matter of remembering where the sun is (it’s quite hard to tell from within the shack – the duplexers now cover the windows!), and what time tea is in VK/ZL 😊. I try to think and live in GMT and then remember that the sun is 80 degrees phase shifted.
1. I like this contest a lot. It does not matter to me that my reasons are selfish and of “make me feel better” kind – we all deserve a little boost now and then. I consider myself not even a “small pistol” amongst “big guns” but rather a “pellet gun” or a “BB gun”. The format audience and scoring system of the BERU contest all work very well to rub my fragile ego the right way. “Linear” rather than “exponential” scoring does not leave the weaklings with a typical for other contests minuscule fraction of the winner’s result. Feeling more like one is “in the game” works for me.
2. 12 hours vs 24 hours. It has been many attempts now and I have yet to put in a “full-time” effort. One reason is that I am officially a senior now. The other is my setup resulting in what I can hear drying up rather quickly with subsequent long periods of “nothing to work” drudgery. The scoring format helps in that decision too: there is always a chance that you stumble upon a juicy bonus pointer in the midst of a desert (or in the emptiness of an ice floe). So 24 hours it is even though this year I put in just over 17 and again found myself asleep in the chair towards the end.
3. Conditions I think were significantly down from the last year. One of the CCO members has rightly asked “OK who gave the 10m band the day off???” Also 80m was extremely noisy here likely some exchanges logged will turn out not to be correct. So be it you can’t be asking for repeats forever.
4. Well there is always “next year”. And I am looking forward to it!
This year seemed a little busier than last year; but only 5B 5Z 6Y 9H and ZF worked outside Gx VE VK and ZL. 80m very quiet with VK/ZL (and JA) being heard; 15m plagued by variable propagation and fierce multipath echoes making it hard to copy callsigns and serials. Thunderstorms stayed away this year so little QRN. Plenty of BERU traffic during VK Saturday night / early Sunday and early Sunday evening, with Sunday daytime being relatively quiet. It was another enjoyable contest – thanks to everyone who answered my calls and my apologies to those who I couldn’t hear. Looking forward to next year’s contest! VK2IG
What a pleasant surprise to find your email when I opened my mailbox this morning.
This comes 50 years after making it to 5th place in the 1974 BERU Contest. I first took part in the contest in 1971. BERU was very different then as was the equipment used. It was a 48 hour contest and my first participation was made with an AR88 receiver, a home brew 2×807 cw transmitter, and a wet strings on the roof. TX/RX antenna switching was manual and the home brew electronic keyer was a bit of a marvel in itself, with a modified switch from a telephone system used as a paddle, but given your G3 callsign you probably know all about this. Nonetheless, around 450 QSOs were made. By the time 1974 came, a Trio TS510 was in use and this time round an ICOM IC7300.
Band conditions were not at their best this time round, but did provide some good dx QSOs. I would love to see some more Commonwealth countries participating in BERU. There is activity, though not as much as in the old days, but there are stations across the Commonwealth who could easily put in an appearance if not be there for the whole contest. Unfortunately CW activity has declined across the board, and disappointing band conditions in this and last cycle have not helped either.
I will let you have that picture you requested by this weekend.
