RSGB Commonwealth Contest – 2025

Call: ZL/G4BUO
Operator(s): G4BUO
Station: ZL3IO

Class: SOAB-24 HP
QTH: Waimarama
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
————
   80:   40
   40:  140
   20:  215
   15:  150
   10:   60
————
Total:  605  Total Score = 10,365

Club:

Comments:

As a participant in this contest for very many years I have always wondered what
it’s like from elsewhere in the globe, and thanks to the kindness of Holger
ZL3IO I have now experienced ‘Beru’ from ZL.

Despite preparing propagation charts and doing some operating from down here
beforehand, it takes a lot of mental adjustment. I never heard 9J 9M or 9V at
all. I heard VU2TMP calling someone else but I couldn’t get him to call me,
and I assumed Andy 5Z4VJ was sitting this one out until I heard him with 5 hours
to go with a higher serial than me. We made it on a couple of bands in the end.

The K index was 3 when the contest started and it rose to 5 so I was surprised
how good 15m was at the end of the contest into G, and that helped boost the
score a little. Lack of experience from here may be the reason I only worked two
Gs on 10m, both on Saturday – thanks Alan G3XAQ and Martin M0BCT.

Having seen Holger’s log from 2012 I was looking forward to the LP opening to
G on 80m but it turned out to be very hard work. Right at the end of the opening
exactly at my sunset the signals came up to a good S9 for about a minute but
most of the time there was slow deep QSB making copy difficult so I needed lots
of repeats.

Fun to work so many friends from ZL, thanks for all the QSOs. The question is, where do I go next year?

Flex 6600M + amplifier
DXLog

Stacked 4-band yagis at 10m and 18m on sloping site

80m 4-square