I was able to put together a “Restricted” single element unassisted entry thanks to Peter M0RYB’s very kind offer of hospitality, while he also entered from his /P location about 10 minutes away.  All worked out very well but I certainly agree on the points made by others on the LF bands and the inevitable lean hours after midnight.

With an OCF dipole (all bands) plus sloping standard dipole for 40m and 100w (K3), I didn’t do a lot of CQ’ing but many thanks to Dave and Nigel, who managed to find me on two of those occasions.  I sought in vain for you on the other bands Nigel but only ever heard you on 10m.

I was also delighted to hear G3’s LDI and KMQ batting away successfully but I’m sure there were others of a similar vintage still unprepared to give up on BERU!

I did just manage to last out the full 24 hours but with comparatively little to show for it after midnight, so I engaged in (generally fruitless) auto-CQing for many of the small hours.

As usual, logging was with SD, one reason being that Paul can always be relied upon to do a proper job on BERU, with its idiosyncratic scoring system and, this year, so many rule changes.  We also share the same opinion of “Assisted” operation, which SD has never supported.

Results:

80m   14   QSO’s  14    Bonuses

40m   40   QSO’s  34    Bonuses

20m   51   QSO’s  41    Bonuses

15m   73   QSO’s  51    Bonuses (2 dupes)

10m   27   QSO’s  25    Bonuses

Claimed score:  5195

Note that SD does not differentiate between HQ stations and other bonuses as they are both scored identically.

Thanks especially to all the travellers, who once again added so much interest and excitement to this event.

73 Peter G3LET

I was interested to see if the new rule that allocated each UK region as its own call area would change the feel of this event. There’s no doubt that GW participants are in a big minority compared to England and even Scotland to a lesser degree, and that ought to make me more popular to the DX.

From memory the contest this year felt like any other when running the same category. Always a painfully slow start (still trying to understand why;-) with the usual ‘death by unanswered CQs and already-worked callsigns’ in the early hours of Sunday. I felt conditions might have been impacted by the solar geomagnetic activity that caused the aurora notification app on my phone to ping a couple of times overnight and lead to occasional difficult echoing on signals. 80m didn’t seem great but did give me three greyline ZLs. Best band here by a long way was 15m with 38% of my QSO total. I worked a few 5-banders including ZF2CA and G4SGX/6Y (just like last year!) and 4-banders included 5Z4VJ, 8P9YI, VP8TXF, ZL/G4BUO and ZL6HQ. It’s nice in this contest that you rarely annoy anyone CQing on Sunday to ask them to move. Mike 8P9YI bit my hand off but sadly I couldn’t copy him on 80 at the time although I knew he was there, and the same for Dave ‘BUO on 10m. There were some grin moments too like finding Don G3BJ on 40m working 9V1YC and successfully working James moments later by moving to the nearest clear frequency and CQing. It’s a tactic I find has a good hit rate and this was made sweeter by coming across a huge pile-up a short time later and finding James underneath it. I smiled and moved on.

Last year I was also 24 hour HP unassisted but how much reliance can be given to comparisons is a moot point. There are rule changes which hopefully improve the attraction; certainly there seemed lots of VE activity and unfamiliar callsigns this year with an increase in VE Qs from 62% to 67%. I worked 30% more QSOs overall this year and unique calls went from 110 last year to 156. My shack and mental acuity haven’t improved and no-one is shouting about how amazing conditions were this weekend so maybe we GWs *are* more popular now?  

Thanks for all the Qs and an appreciative shout-out for the travelers. See you next year, inshallah…

73, Stew, GW0ETF

 BAND QSO DUP BONUS HQ POINTS AVG
———————————
   80  26   0    16  6    230 8.9
   40  56   1    28  9    525 9.4
   20  84   0    40  8    805 9.6
   15 121   4    45  9   1175 9.7
   10  42   0    19  9    385 9.2
———————————
TOTAL 329   5   148 41   3120 9.5
=================================
       FINAL SCORE:  6 900

K3/Gemini HF-1k (800-900w)
Hexbeam, 40m single vertical, 80m dipole at 14m
DXlog

Like a football match this was a game of two halves. Last year I managed 289 QSOs in 24 Hrs, so with the prediction of more overseas participation I thought 350 was a good goal for this year.

For the first half, up to 1AM Sunday morning things were going very well, as expected the HF bands were now quiet, 80 and 40 were a little below par but producing QSOs. I had 336 QSOs in the log and was thinking that 400 might be a better total to shoot for. Then some time after 1 the bands switched off. A quick check of Space Weather showed the A index up close to 6 so I decided I’d take a couple of hours sleep. Back at the radio at 4AM but didn’t have another QSO until 04:41. Just 20 QSOs between 4AM and the end with none after 08:13. Conditions on HF never got back to the Saturday level. Perhaps a 12 hour entry next year. I finished with 352 good QSOs and 5 Dupes.  I haven’t checked the points total in the table below but am a little sceptical s others have reported problems in DXLog.

BAND   QSO   DUP   BONUS   HQ   POINTS   AVG

————————————————————

   80     31     1           18             9    275         8.9

   40     65     2           37             9    615         9.5

   20  101     1            51           12    975         9.7

   15    94      1            47          10    910         9.7

   10    61     0           34              7    575         9.4

———————————————————–

TOTAL 352   5       187           47   3350         9.5

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

FINAL SCORE:  8 030

Equipment was FTdx101D With ACOM 1k linear at 600W.  Fan dipole for 10/15/20/40 plus a 45m long wire for 80m, all antennas at 12m. Logging was DXLog

Thank you to the organisers and participants, especially the travellers.

Mike /G3WPH/G3P

Call: G4PIQ
Operator(s): G4PIQ
Station: G4PIQ

Class: SOAB-12 HP
QTH: JO02od
Operating Time (hrs): 11:40
OpMode: SO2R

BAND QSO DUP BONUS HQ POINTS AVG

80 43 1 24 9 395 9.2
40 59 0 35 9 555 9.4
20 79 0 40 7 760 9.6
15 82 1 43 8 790 9.6

10 62 1 30 8 585 9.4

TOTAL 325 3 172 41 3085 9.5

   FINAL SCORE:  7 345

2 x K3 + PAs, 1kW.
80/20m Inv-V Fan Dipole @ 20m – used on 80/20/10 40m Dipole Inv-V Dipole @
12m – used on 40/15.

I was feeling quite smug about my score this year for a few hours thinking I
must have absolutely killed the bonuses – but then I realised that we had
new rules this year with 10 points rather than 5 for different continent
QSOs – so all old records are out of the window.

As usual, I didn’t have full flexibility on operating timing so traded some
good operating times for quieter ones including having to shoot off to a
meeting 90 minutes before the end. Having K index hit 6 was not a good sign

• the LF bands were not in great shape overnight – especially 40m.

Some great QSOs and thanks to everyone who moved for me. Was nice to hear
some more activity from some areas.

Thanks to all the travellers for making the event what it is.

73

Andy

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

Class: SOAB-24 HP
QTH: South East NSW
Operating Time (hrs): 14:05

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
————
   80:   23
   40:   87
   20:  191
   15:  126
   10:   20
————
Total:  447  Total Score = 7,440

Club: VK Contest Club

Comments:

While the 10m band was open at the very start of the contest, the band did not open again for me during the contest. The 15m band was very good for the first 12 hours of the contest and stayed open well past midnight to the UK.  Very poor 15m band conditions for the last half of the contest. The 20m band was where the action was at my QTH. Very heavy QRN on the 80m and 40m bands from the remains of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Many thanks to the HQ station operators in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Finding or being found by the HQ stations is what makes the fun in this contest.  Also thanks to those operators of the exiotic callsigns in the Commonwealth Contest.

Only 14 hours at the radio desk for me as the bands were either not open or the QSO rates were extremely slow. 

73,

Allan, VK2GR