Radio Society of Great Britain. Official HF. Contest Results.
Results. RSGB Commonwealth Contest 2007
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The full writeup for 2007 together with a vast amount of background information, statistics and photographs related to the Commonwealth Contest may be found at www.beru.org.uk SOAPBOX: 2E0CVN Vry vry slow!! Nice to work the DX shame there wasen't any good condx! Nice to work VK/ZL on 40m. Only hear 1 ZB2 and could never find him CQ'ing :-( 2E0KOP Great fun again. Looking forward to next year. I'm getting used to SD for contesing, still the best for the Commonwealth Contest. 9J2BO IC746 + Drake LV4 ... 350W 3-ele Tribander + sloping dipole (40M) + inverted vee (80M) 9M6XRO Enjoyed the Contest but very slow towards the end. I had fewer calls from non-Commonwealth stations this year but still had to work the more persistent ones to get to the weaker BERU stations calling me! Pity to hear Commonwealth DX on CW but not taking part! E51PJT Disappointing result , very few Gs worked , poor LP but the main problem was a violent tropical storm which detuned the antenna on 80 and 40 and increased QRN and the audible roar of huge waves breaking on the reef. Watch out for flying coconuts! Rig K2 100w Butternut vertical on beach. Story at www.beru.org.uk. G0IBN SD is great. Too busy at work to do it in earnest unfortunately G0IVZ Nice to be back in Beru after a couple of years layoff. G0MTN Just playing - club's radio rally so no time (or energy!) for serious effort this year. Windom at 15 feet. G0RDO Some great DX and SD logger worked wonderfully G0UKX Using 50watts struggled for contacts. SDC worked perfectly once again. Good to hear the ZL ZS 7Q and VK stns with good sigs G2AFV Have used SDC for many yrs. Nice to hear old friends again G3BJ Excellent contest - helpd no doubt by the team event G3GLL SDC and winkey worked ok. Condtions not too good and local noise high. Enjoyed the contest as usual ! G3HEJ Great learning 'Post-Contest logging' with SDC, but paper-logged during 'Test' G3HKO Pretty poor effort this year. Conditions poor - roll on sunspots. G3KKP Hard going hence early QRT ! G3KMY First time I have submitted a log and regretted not achieving a greater score. However I still enjoyed taking part. Heathkit HW-101 and G5RV G3KZR Tough in the middle of the night but picked up nicely on Sunday morning. I equalled my highest QSO count from 2003. What happened to GB5CC this year? G3LET Made a complete mess of 20m - missed so many easy bonuses. Just too late on 10 - 9J2BO and some others were just fading out. 80 and 40 generally good and 15 showed definite signs of recovery over last year. The Team Competition was very effective in stimulating interest. Could it become permanent? G3LHJ Very hard going this year but good fun - some very good ears needed this year.- nil on 10M. G3LIK Conditions were fairly good this year. Tried to get a good nights sleep too. Always at the back of a queue using 100w and wire ant. Always great fun G3NKS Good condx on 40m Sunday morning; delighted to work VK and ZL with my 66ft doublet at 15ft - and 100w. G3RFH Seemed to be a lot of one-way propagation - I could hear them but they couldn't hear me. Very good under poor conditions.12AVQ vertical performed very well. G3RSD Used SDC for logging. Thanks Paul G3RWF contest curtialed when my daughter had baby at 0040. Used SD - no probs G3TEV Kenwood TS850SAT + H/B Linear - 400w. 132' very bent inverted vee doublet G3TJE 12hr 100w entry - claim for 70 band call areas. Slow but enjoyable! G3TKK Amazed at contacts achieved on LF bands FT-1000MP Linear Amp 300W A3S at 35 feet W3DZZ for LF as inverted V from tower G3UFY RIG - FT1000MP + FL2100Z. ANTENNAS - Tribander + loops G3VDL Homebrew 60W input - Longwire + dipoles G3VYI Good DX condx but low signal strenghths except on 40M. Always enjoy BERU !Good ops and no QRM ! Not much on 10 or 15 no sunspots. Good on 80 / 40 ! G3WRR Conditions not great. Some of the usual countries (ZF 8P 6Y etc) absent - or at least not heard by me. Used SDC (in conjunction with Winkey) - like it! G3WYW Not able to allocate enough time to the contest but enjoyed the QSO's I had. More planning next time! G3XMM Only on for short periods but good fun nevertheless. Condx better than expected especially on 40 metres. G3YEC Started slightly late due to shopping!! Suddenly could do no wrong on 40M at approx 0630 one call amongst the masses and "they" answered G3YMC Just a small entry. With my QRP setup I can never make a real impact on this contest but it is always nice to hear countries which are not that often on the air. Why are the so many VK stations around this weekend and we never hear them at any other time? G3YYD Not a full effort as had too many family activities to work around. Very enjoyable always of course get called by a few russians and Italian who do not understand so I just give a 599, 73 and move on. G3ZGC I used SD for logging - it's great. Poor conditions for simple antennae G4BUO Good to have the team competition raise the level of activity at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. Delighted to hear my mate ZL2iFB on 80m short path a little before my sunset. G4CWH Antenna array caused neighbour to rat on me to local planners. Planners decided as it was temporary they didn't think it warranted further action. Phew. Still trying to master the art of maximising 12-hour scoring rate G4CZB Best ever score on 80m despite only 100W this year - waterlogged garden may have helped! Band noise low, signals strong. Where was GB5CC? G4DBW Yaesu FT 857 100 watts pep. Antennae G5RV dipole on 80 and 40. Rotary Dipole on 20/15/10 Delighted to hear signals on 10m and 15m Tried desperately to stay awake for Sunday monring sunrise - but dozed off - maybe next year !!!! G4DDL Conditions not too good for stations with basic antenna. Some mistakes in there I suspect as QRM high especially from EU stations calling the BERU DX during QSOs. Still some nice ones worked and I enjoyed hearing DX! G4DDX I was surprised at the number of ZL and VK stations All were weak but able to work all I could hear. Very enjoy able. I hope this entry makes it this time. G4EBK Operated for 13 hrs. Thanks to all the DX stns who replied to the puny signals from my HF dipole antennas at 16 Ft high and LF dipoles at 30 Ft high. G4EHT Never entered BERU before, found 20m hard going but 40m seemed very good to VK/ZL. TS570DG, 80W and small doublet bent like a 'Z' around tiny garden. G4FAL Personally I blame the Victorians; if their imperialist ambitions had played out a bit closer to home, then this contest would have been a damn sight easier. On the other hand, is it coincidence that we are communicating to some of the most inviting places on the planet? My claimed Band-Call area number is 77 and it would be nice to have a certificate if this is verified, as I only got to 65 last year! Thanks G4FKA Restricted 24 hour section. Eligible for John Dunnington Trophy listing (but won't win it of course!). Equipment IC-756 ProIII, 100w, 2 single element antennas - 10m wire vertical and 30m wire inverted V wire doublet. Third entry - similar QSO to G4FOC Used SD for logging. Where was GB5CC? Need someone who wants to operate. Poor show. G4OBK Glad I managed to make an appearance in the 70th BERU G4RCD Thoroughly ejoyed this contest. Some great DX worked, and the 12 hour section allows operating to fit around other things, though the chosen 12 hours maybe should have been different to maximise QSOs in certain areas...... G4WGE Logging of 3 of the 4 contacts with V25XF messed up due to a combination of rig, PC, operator and SDC. ZL and VK just audible - a first for this QTH and with this setup GI4BQI RIG - IC756 PRO 3 ... 100W. ANTENNAS - DOUBLET at 35' GM3CFS KENWOOD TS570DG - 100W. 66M LONG WIRE @ 30'. Much better conditions on 21MHz this year but still heavy going with only a single wire antenna. Lots of activity & the ZLs on 7MHz were a pleasant surprise. Some good DX worked but where was GB5CC. Only heard them on 14MHz very weak ... last year worked them on 4 bands! GM3JKS This was only a casual operation. SD performed flawlessly and extremely well GM3POI Pity about the Condx plus also had a 40m antenna problem. Overall I think activity was up and perhaps the Team idea should stay GM3SEK It's a real challenge to pick the *best* 12 hours - I hope to be better at that next year. FT-1000MP, PA Antennas OB6-3M (20-15-10), 40m GP, 80m very low dipole (and it shows) GM3WOJ Enjoyable contest, but annoyed that I didn't work 5W0RE who was 599 ! GW4BLE Nothing too serious, just a token 70-odd contacts! Use as check-log if you wish. GW4HBK Enjoyed some good DX, did about 16Hrs. Slow but fun. SD is the best free software. Need a better antenna for 80, heard some gud DX but could not work them. GW4MVA Nice to work VP8NO for DXCC#295 ! J88DR IC7000, SB200, 3-EL yagi at 35FT, R8 vertical, 3.5 & 7 MHz dispoles. Much more activity this eyar. Did not hear VK6 at all M0AJT Really enjoyed it. When else can you work so much choice DX in 24hrs. A bit slow at times but the quality of DX more than made up for that. How about club teams next year maybe 3 or 5 man teams as in AFS. M0CNP First time entry. Found the going hard as very few signals were available in the abysmal propagation M0PCB This was the first time I've entered BERU and it was AWESOME! Only made 45 QSOs but definitely a quality contest. Not a huge score for around 14 hours s&p, but 4 all time new countries a rake of new band/mode combos. It's all good. 80M was tough as with the new doublet antenna wasn't able to crack the pileups but did work VO1. A couple of stations got away, notably VP8NO and VQ9LA must just have been that little bit too weak with them. Nice to work some great DX on 40M, never been able to do that before, was definitely worth getting u at 6am on Sunday for the Vks and ZL's. Used SD for the first time, quite impressed at the ease of use, though I was doing the rig and key control ;-) I had a blast, my housemates will think I'm crackers! Will be taking part next year for sure. MM0BQI Had planned to do the 24 hours from a tent on a local cliff top but the weather man convinced me that was madness! Great fun and FB DX to be worked. Conditions not great but the thrill of working VK/ZL on 40m makes up for it! CU all next year. P3J Nice to see lots of activity especially from the UK. Nice increase in score over last year, but so did many others! V25XF Great fun operating BERU from Antigua. Getting familiar with a new station and location only hours before the contest can be challenging. The V25XF callsign was issued only a few hours before the start of the contest. Working volumes of G's on LF was great. Only one QSO on 10m. Took an unscheduled three-hour nap during the early evening but fortunately woke up in time for the main UK opening on 80m. And yes, I'd like to claim a 70 BCA certificate (90 BCAs worked). VA2WDQ Yaesu FT-102 ANT Vertical - Butternut HF2V VA3DX Dismal conditions at times VA3NR Mark-V at 100watts & Butternut vertical. VA3RKM K2, 5 watts, dipoles and vertical. My first BERU. Thanks for working a tiny signal! VE1AI My version of Wite Log did not score this correctly. I appologize for any inconvenience this may cause. I wanted to send in the log in anycase. VE1EP Conditions were spotty. Nil heard on 10M. Few very weak signals on 15M. Good brief opening on 40M to ZL/VK. My age is 91 years. BERU is still my favourite contest. VE1LS I moved into an apartment and with antenna restrictions. I was unable to compete as in past years. The Commonwealth Contest is the oldest and still the BEST. VE2AYU Special thanks to contest manager and all participants for a very enjoyable and rewarding contest. Propagatipon conditions provided no openings on 10 and only a few on 15; mainly with EU. Equipment: YAESU FT 1000MP Mk V, Homebrew Linear, CT logger. Antennas: 20 - 15 TH7 at 75 ft, 40 - 80 Dalta at 75 ft. VE2CWT IC-756PROIII + G5RV. Operated 3.5 hours. 73 CU next year for more VE2FFE TS-440S, R-5 VERTICAL, TRAP DIPOLE VE2FUA Member, Canadian team in Commonwealth Team contest Band-Call Areas: 93 (+13 HQ Band-Call Areas) - please send certificate. VE3EJ 119 Band Call areas claimed. VE3EZP With foF2@2.15/MUF@6.5MHz at start & end it was tough slogging;even fixing WS19 12ft whip in 2ft snow/ice & half gale!But BERU as always was a blast;3hrs kip at"lowprobably lost me personal best but anno domini won! Next year 5 acres and a Rhombic(in place of Mule)will win! VE3FH TS-940S 100W Output. 80/40 Dipoles. 20/15/10 R5 Vertical VE3HX Member of Canadian cricket team. Wonderful to hear so many familiar calls but also wonderful to hear many new ones VE3KI Member, Canadian side in Commonwealth Team contest. Band-Call Areas: 80 (+12 HQ Band-Call Areas) - please send certificate. I started out the contest with a substantial deficit in the sleep account, so I fell 3 hours short of the full 24. Thanks to Don VE3RM for the use of his station. It's quite a change from my own TS-850 and vertical! Radios: FT-1000MP + 4CX1000, TS-940 + Alpha 76 Antennas: Skyhawk (tower 1), TH5 & 402CD (tower 2), 80m dipole + Beverage VE3LZ I was amazed at DX worked with 100 watts and low 80 met first time using SDC alot of fun as you go VE3OSZ My first real try at the BERU. 80m was my best band. VE3QAA Great contest - I hope the club competion continues. I finally realized that "cricket" does not refer to the insect sound of CW in a contest but rather is a game played by Brits - a form of Baseball but without rules. Do they really drink tea between innings? VE6LB Had logging problems (clearing NRs) for the first 30 Qs due to finger problems on my part. Low acitivity on the low bands at my AM. Ran multi-op as I wanted to use packet and hi-power but didn't work want to work 24 hrs. no propagation on 15 or 10 here and very low level of activity on 20. Likely my last BERU for a while. Not worth the "in front of the radio" time for the number of Qs. VE7NS Happy to work VP8 on two bands. The SDC program worked flawlessly for me VE7UZ IC765 + G2DAF AMPLIFIER - 750W DC INPUT. VE7VF FT 1000 Mk5, TH7 Tribander, 80m Loop. VK2AEA IC7400 + 300W, TB + invV 80/40 VK2AYD 80 heavy storm QRN. 10m totally dead. First time using SD. Great but couldn't key TRX! So all hand keying. Lots of SD learning by next year. Tried hard to make up for missing last years comp but poor conditions beat me. VK2BJ 80m ggood conditions and best ever score - but it would have been even better if P3J and V25SX had been able to hear me 40m was quite good 20m poor 15 useless and 10 ! SDC performed impeccably as usual. VK2NU My best entry yet but 20-15-10m were very poor. The team comp was a great idea elecraft K2, Vertical antenna and FL2100z VK4BUI Always a friendly contest and this year the cricket team aspect added interest. SDC by EI5DI worked like a charm VK4TT G'day to all other Ops. Used SD programme worked first class VK5HO 100W, dipole on 14MHz, whip on 7MHz VK5UE Only had time for a few contacts but had good time. Used EI5DI software for the logging worked well VK6AJ No complaints - just pure enjoyment. FT-990, 6-el Log Periodic up 10m, 49m Dipole VK6BN Good to meet old friends. More VK activity would have been welcome. I am new to SD but had no problems with it and enjoyed VK6HG TS570, all band doublet VK6LW First serious effort since 2003. Low sunspots seemed to force more people onto LF. 40 was excellent from here. The team concept seemed popular and maybe increased activity. FT1000MP, 2 ele quad 40 to 10m, Dipole 80m. VK6RZ 100 watts, Butternut HF6V. Only QRV for 2 hours VK6VZ Greatly enjoyed the team contest but was restricted to the Open 12-hour section owing to family events. 40m was the 'bread and butter' band while 80m and 15m were the next best respectively. Someone seemed to have turned off the SP and LP to the UK on 20m! Please repeat the team event in 2008! VK7RO TS-930 + INVERTED V VK8AV enjoyed contest with limited facilities VO1AU Thanks to Gus VO1MP for loaning me his excellent station. Thanks to Paul VO1HE for helping sort out pre-contest PC problems. Although I didn't work enough, the VK and ZL activity was noticeably up. BERU remains my favourite contest. EI5DI's SDC worked very well, and I was able to do SO2R properly for the first time in BERU. I must do a better job of finding bonuses. VO1RAC Not as good as 2 years ago but better than last year. The amp sure helps and getting up for the start of the contest paid off in Pacific bonuses. Loads of fun. The team thing this year was a nice touch and may be something to consider for future years. I was disappointed that there weren't many HQ stations on. The more densely populated areas should try to activate an HQ station VO1TA Always a lot of fun Condx did not seem to be all that VP8KF Moved ~3 miles out of Stanley, the QTH I was staying at with 3 element SteppIR and BigIR vertical was only 200m from VP8NO, at that distance even two K2's would have struggled !!! VP8NO My biggest effort yet though still more to do The team contest adds an interesting new element to the contest and I hope it continues. See you next year! SDC did its stuff as usual VQ9LA Not much time for the contest but had fun anyways. VU2BGS glad that my small station was hrd by many !! condx not very good. VU2LYX Enjoyed taking part again in BERU. ZC4LI Thanks to all concerned in running the contest. ZL1ANH First BERU, some surprising DX and very enjoyable. ZL2AZ First two hours had great conditions, after that it turned to custard. In spite of conditions, score slightly ahead of 2006. Not many runs of G's on 20 or 40 metres. GB5CC never even heard or worked. Rig FT1000MP MarkV Field plus FL-7000 Amplifier, 400 watts PEP output. Antennas All band centre fed Inverted Vee plus 3 element triband yagi 10-15-20 metres. ZL2BSJ As a first-time Commonwealth Contest participant, I I was impressed by the large number of UK stations roaming the the bands. In the absence of the Eu wall, most most were easily workable, even with my ground-mounted, 5-band vertical. I'll be back next year for more 7Q, V2 and VP8 :-) ZL2iFB My first BERU entry from ZL and first QSOs on the new beam. Condx poor for me, especially on the high bands. No Africans in the log, thanks to lumps in the local terrain. Numerous BERU stations to work though – I guess the cricket competition has had the desired effect. TS850, LK550, 3ele Yagi up 9m for 20/15/10m, rotatable dipole & GP for 40m, dipole at 20m for 80m ZL3NB Despite Propagation enjoyed the competition! ZL4BR Activity from ZL and VK was best for many years, thanks I believe to the team contest. At least 21 ZL's and 39 VK's were active ZL4OL First time in Beru, enjoyed the laid back atmosphere and team spirit. SDC was great for logging. ZL6QH Conditions were not good, possibly the worst that I have experienced since I started entering this contest from ZL6QH. Fortunately the poor conditions were more than offset by additional VK/ZL activity associated with the team contest. It turns out that the raw score of 6530 is the best that I have achieved since 2002, mainly due to the extra bonus points from VK and ZL stations. As expected for this part of the solar cycle, the 10M band was lifeless, although I was pleasantly surprised to find and work VE7CC at 2315z. The only other QSOs on this band were with local ZL stations. The 15M band was not much better with DX QSOs being limited to the South Pacific area, a few VE stations, VU2UR, and ZC4VJ (1st QSO in the log at the start of the contest). I could not find any trace of G signals. Even 20M failed to deliver this year. The short path opening to UK on Saturday night was not as good as usual and closed early. Neither the long path nor short path to UK opened properly on Sunday evening although I did manage to work a string of very weak G stations using ESP techniques! The path to North America was also marginal with only 20 VE stations making it into the log on this band. The good news is that the short path to Africa was open around 0530z and it was relatively easy to add 9J2BO and 7Q7BP to the log. Most of the action was on 40M. The first QSOs with UK via the short path on Sunday morning were with GM3POI at around 1505z and then with G4BUO a few minutes later. I did hear ZS/G3LZQ with a weak signal around 0530z but unfortunately he followed a QSY request to 80M before I could attract his attention. Conditions on 80M were fair but plagued by strong atmospheric noise which made it difficult to copy weaker signals. Some of the better catches were V25XF, VP8NO, VP8KF and J88DR. The Sunday evening long path to UK is normally more reliable than the morning short path, but this year the morning seemed to be more productive. I ended up logging 18 G QSOs in the morning and only an additional 8 in the evening - GM3POI was first in the log around 1635z. The poor conditions on the high bands made for slow going during the day and I found myself dozing off on several occasions. Jet lag from a trip to EU a few days earlier did not help! Anyhow it was a still a lot of fun and I hope to be back for more in future years. However I may not be active next year as it is very likely that ZL6QH will be QRX while a wind farm is built on the site. Thanks to RSGB for running the contest, Bob G3PJT for initiating the team event, Frank ZL2BR for organising the ZL team, the Wellington Amateur Radio Club for the use of the ZL6QH station, and to everyone for the QSOs. Equipment: FT1000MP radio + Drake L7 amplifier (500W) + Writelog logging software. Antenna farm: 80M 1/4 wave vertical 80M sloping dipoles (supported from 40m mast) 20M 5 el yagi beams for NA and LP to EU 15M 5 el yagi beams for NA and EU 10M 6 el yagi beams for NA and EU Vee beams with 300m legs for NA, EU, LP to EU, and LP to NA (all bands) Rhombic with 200m legs, switchable between SP and LP to EU (all bands) See www.zl6qh.com for more information about the ZL6QH station. ZS3/G3LZQ As usual great fun but ZS is long way from everyplace. Great location 29.2878S 16.8798E on beach front. No power for 1st 2-hrs utility board switched it off. Q's died once EU/NA got together. Knew ZS3 was rare on CW but pile ups something else after contest QRN on 80m made copy difficult except for predawn period. ZS4JAN FT1000MP,5 band dipole up 7m. My first try in Beru contest,see you next time ZS6AAA (ex ZS1AN) I was initially planning to operate as the South African headquarters station ZS0HQ. However a bad cold convinced me to operate in the Open section instead so that I could retire with honour after 12 hours. Band conditions were poor to fair, with lots of noise on the low bands. However I was able to run on 15m much of the time it was open, and sometimes on 20m. As a consequence, although I worked lots of stations, I still only managed 35 band call areas, which hurt the score a bit. Perhaps I'll try more S&P next time. |
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