Interesting to read all the comments about this year. As a well medicated 87 year old with a stuck beam (60deg) I was going to try enough hours to make 100 plus QSOs but this year failed to do this due to the contest logging program locking up and  having to switch to contest mode and hand keying on my station logging program. A few booboos with that but allowed me 56 QSOs with most of the main players and ‘exotics’ on one band or another. I then failed to get on for UK morning session which has always been a fascinating period.

Overall, some signals from all parts were exceptional (worked the RAC stations right across Canada  easily on 15 off the side of the beam) but the general impression was that activity and/or condx were down with auroral effects.

Sorry not to find VK6VZ or 9J2BO. I hope both are OK.

With regards to inter G working and spicing up G for other entities, I may have misunderstood the new regulations with regard to call signs but it seems to me that G stations are much freer to interpolate an extra letter in the prefix. If this is so perhaps the contest committee could look at splitting England into the usually understood regions (SW, SE, Mids, NE and NW) and designating an extra letter in the prefix for each one. This would make it more interesting for everyone. 

I hope to do a better job next year along with a better contribution from the propagation gods and the status of the station

Ian G3KZR

Hi Bob

A belated report from M5O (G3LET) after the return trip from Suffolk, where I was very kindly hosted by Andy M0NKR at his excellent station in Brandon.  I also spent much of yesterday fixing my sister-in-law’s bath/shower, which had commenced leaking buckets of water through her living room ceiling (I had stayed with her on the Friday and Sunday nights).

My own BigIR and 66 ft vertical are still languishing in the long grass of the paddock following Storm Eunice, remaining unrepaired due to some sailing commitments and other issues over the past 18 months.

Anyway, I managed to last the full 24 hours, albeit with rapidly diminishing concentration levels after midnight.  Hence, I will have significantly missed out on the usual morning LP openings.

Nevertheless, it was good to participate from the UK as opposed to various overseas sorties in recent years.

So this was by no means a competitive entry, with no attempts to move anybody, largely because the valve PA at Andy’s station requires several seconds of high power tuning, which is both time consuming and somewhat anti-social.

Most of my time was spent tuning, CQs producing mainly VE3s on the occasions they were tried (mainly when fatigue was setting in)

I ended up with 284 QSOs plus 3 dupes and a claimed score of 5440, pretty mediocre.  One highlight was hearing Gerry G3KMQ batting away.  Gerry did sterling service for several months copying my weekly log for QSL purposes in the early 1960’s during my VP8 operation.  He must be or at least approaching his 90’s by now.

Less welcome were the minimum of 4 other contests that now share the BERU weekend, however one of these did attract some Commonwealth stations who weren’t interested in BERU but made themselves available, albeit without the correct exchange.

Quite how long BERU can continue in it’s present form I am uncertain, with activity now largely limited to the “old” Commonwealth, the rather artificial HQ stations and a diminishing band of ex-pat travellers.  I have previously suggested the possibility of combining with the REF event, which shares many features with BERU, but whether historic rivalries could be overcome remains to be seen.  We have been comparatively lucky with propagation the last couple of years; let’s see whether this event can survive the next sunspot minimum.

Cheers and thanks to all for the QSOs!

Peter G3LET (M5O)

Hello Alan and all

I agree with your comments below.  I was really a-buzz after the first night with great rates the first 3 hours but then it sure turned “south” (as they say in the northern hamisphere) .  LOL

My score was so “ordinary” that I hesitated to post it to the group but here it is.

Still some good runs in there and I was happy the station seemed to be in top form and Murphy was QRU here.

Best to all

73 Steve

                    RSGB Commonwealth Contest – 2024

Call: VJ3A

Operator(s): VK3JA

Station: VK3JA

Class: SO-Open-24 HP

QTH: Rural Melbourne

Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:

Band  QSOs  Bonus Pts

———————–

  80:  10      250

  40:  68      995

  20:  154    1370

  15:  60      515

  10:  45      625

———————–

Total:  337    3755  Total Score = 3,755

Club: VK Contest Club

Hi Bob,

Good to work you on Conditions here were really disappointing – I had been expecting much better.  Here in NZ BERU starts at 11pm and that is well past my bedtime these days so I decided to have an early night and start earlyish.  After a very necessary strong long black (coffee) I was actually ready to go at 17:50z.  Checked 15m, made a couple of Qs with G but not much going on so down to 40m and my first VK then onto 20m for the next hour with a run rate of about 1Q/min and mostly G but very surprised and pleased to work ZD7BG and 9H1CG.  Then switched to 15m with a good run of G & VE.  For the next couple of hours on 10/15/20m I worked a steady stream of G/VE/VK then time for a one hour break and more coffee and breakfast.  More of the same on 10/15/20m but the run rate was well down.  Nice to work G4SGX/6Y.  By now the run rate had really slowed down and didn’t pick up again until 05:00z when 40m opened here to VK/VE and G.  The signals on 40m were extremely distorted here, far more than normal in the early evening,  and I note that many ops were not even waiting for an exchange repeat but were just sending it several times.  There will be many busted Qs I think during this period.  I finally pulled the plug at 07:30 having decided I would put in a 12 hour assisted high power log.  Sadly nothing heard here on 80m but I really didn’t give it much of a chance.  I never my band planning quite right but always promise myself that next year I will do better.

My sincere thanks to the HQ stations and travellers without whom BERU would be a total slog.  Maybe it is time to look at the scoring?  I do think it is illogical that UK cannot work itself but VE/VK/ZL can work others outside their own call area, (although from a ZL perspective there are so few taking part here that this doesn’t really make any difference).  Again from a ZL perspective 5 points for a contact with G after the first 3 Qs on a band is a lot of effort for a poor return – we are better off working as many call areas in VK/VE as we can.  However the HQ stations definitely balance some of this out.  Maybe it is time for different UK countries to be able to work each other (but not themselves) and to count in the same way as VK/VE/ZL call areas.  And for the rest of us to get points for each UK country worked.  I haven’t thought about this too much and would not want to alter the flavour of BERU which as we all know is very addictive, which I guess is why we keep on coming back.  I offer this suggestion only as a possible way of enhancing activity, and am interested to hear what others think. 

My score from N1MM …

Band     QSOs     Pts  Cty  Sec  Pt/Q

     7      50     730   18    4  14.6

    14      74    1130   30    7  15.3

    21      64    1020   32    6  15.9

    28      43     795   26    5  18.5

Total     231    3675  106   22  15.9

Score: 3,675

Equipment

K3S + SPE 1k5 800W out (temp never got above 40C)

Ultrabeam VL640,  2 el on 40m, 3 el on 20-10m

73 Phil zl3p/zl3pah

For the Commonwealth 2024 Contest (BERU) I was very kindly hosted by Chris G0DWV at his excellent station in Norfolk.

I’m not sure that I made the best use of his gear though. It takes a while to get familiar with a station and it’s set up – and I simply didn’t allow enough time to do that.

I thought that condx were pretty average and that activity levels were very much down on previous events. I was in the unassisted / 24-hour section. The SFI on Friday evening didn’t look too good and the k index was above 2, if I remember correctly.

It’s been a while since I was operating as a plain old G – and I’d forgotten how slow it can be. I was determined not to fall asleep during the night. I just about managed that aspect OK – but there were many times when I wondered whether I was making the best use of my time on the bands. Chris has a great set up – an Optibeam 17–4 at 100ft plus a separate tower with a 2el 40m Yagi, and yet another tower with a C31 Yagi, and also he has a 4 square on 80m, with beverages on receive too. So, I had all the gear I could want but I just didn’t seem to make it work as well as it should. So, I fear that operator efficiency was the problem. I apologise to Chris for the lack lustre performance on my part. Perhaps, I can try again next year?

Anyway, here are my numbers (I used N1MM which seems to calculate the score almost correctly – but I separately totted-up the score below – hopefully without errors – to enable you to see how my score compares.)

I had thirteen 5 band and twenty-one 4 band QSOs.  My grateful thanks to all the HQ stations from the UK, Canada and Australia and to EVERYONE who I worked in the contest.

73 Graham G4FNL