One of only few travellers this year…
The BA flight get in around 5pm, except on Thursday, so I arrived on the late Cayman Airways flight Thursday from Miami (avoid!…) leaving all of Friday to get ready. However, the complexity of a modern remoteable contest station is such that you need help and driving lessons to get it going and to remember how to use it. I had I forgotten how much and to also include my remote instructor’s day duties in this timetable. In the end all was fine by 9p.m. local (02:00 UTC), but note to self – arrive late Wednesday next year….
I revised again why I seem to get behind the Big Canadians by the second hour and determined to make big efforts to fix this. The new plan was to work 80 to VE for a little at the start, then 40 to join the VK/ZL throng until moving to 20 for G earlier than has been my habit, this time by 10.45. It appeared to work this year and I was for the first time not running to catch up. Strategy or propagation? Probably both.
Propagation mostly seemed relatively normal from here at this time in the cycle, with 10/15 usually better than 20. One or two very distorted HF signals which needed slowing down for. However, the 80m midnight run to G was weak and watery with a medium topping of tropical QRN. Fortunately, much better in the morning although very few VK/ZL. Band hopping is still sometimes dependent on the other guy’s CW reading fears; if I can get them over this then its antenna dependent. I managed a couple of 4-band strings which is the true fun of this event. And I always kick myself for missing a few, mostly by bad timing when popping the question.
There was the normal run of pesky callers just ignoring BERU and the fact we are in some kind of hurry. That in particular comes over as rude.
The rise of the noise floors continues and instantaneous antenna choice was more often dictated as much by this as anything else. More beverages have been fitted here for this reason, although none to the West yet.
I have finally got the catering right, with just the right number of sandwiches, yogurt pots, bananas and mini tomatoes to last me through without left-overs. It was a medium year for the micro-ants who given the chance would be all over the used plate and which must be washed up immediately.
The 90-minute nap (advice from Gary ZL2IFB) at 02:00 UTC seems to work, with occasional falling asleep at the wheel at other times. Balanced eating (viz. not too much at any one time) seems to help the most with this.
Activity is our challenge as others have commented. The data mining exercise to non-BERU active contesters resulted in over 300 emails landing without bouncing and including about 25 VUs. It sounds like a few joined in; it will be interesting to scan the final published logs to see how many. But how to encourage more from South Africa, 9M and everywhere else? A question for the student. I hope Brian 9J2BO is ok?
Our traveller numbers are well down, from what I have established, mostly for personal reasons and saying ‘next year’. But we could certainly do with some fresh young intrepids.
Band Qs Bonus HQ
80 81 11 5
40 192 49 11
20 204 46 12
15 221 44 12
10 170 42 10
872 Qs, 9145 DxLog points.
73, Colin ZF2CA/G4CWH/M3E