Pre contest dinner in Cypus left to right 5B4AHJ, 5B4AJT, 5B4AGN, 5B/G3VHI and 5B/G3TXF (Tnx G3TXF)
Higher solar numbers in 2023 changed band activity dramatically with proper widespread openings on 15 and 10M but sharply reduced propagation on 80m and to a lesser extent 40M.
Overall activity shows the number of entrants is stable in all regions, much the same as the past few years. Number of logs was slightly up on previous years and it might be that there was more activity from casual participants who did not submit logs. Log analysis may show this later on. The following call areas were active but did not submit logs: 5H, 8P, 9J, 9M, 9V, 9Z, AP, C5, S7, V3, V5, VK8, ZB, ZS1, ZS5 and ZS6.
and by section, some growth in the Open section otherwise pretty stable.
Propagation
Despite there being some sort of minor disturbance at the start of the contest the indices were really pretty favourable for the most part. Its only to be expected that as the sun enters the more active part of the solar cycle that there will be short term changes in propagation. On 20m and to a lesser extent on 15m there were some interesting, if short term, openings long and short path.
10m. 10 has definitely moved out of last years ‘spotty’ phase. As soon as the sun came up across the Commonwealth, 10M just lit up with stations, often at very high signal strengths. True 599 or stronger signals from all directions.
15m. In some respects 15m was even better and I suspect it might have been open to somewhere for most of the 24 hours. Lots of 15m multipath and backscatter.
20m. LP and SP on VK/ZL at the same time. Lot of antenna turning on the weaker signals.
40m.Well you cant have everything, and 40 was certainly quieter than last year
80m.There seemed to no UK-VK opening at UK sunset this year and only a few, 2?, UK-ZL QSOs at UK sunrise either. Only the most well equipped or sited stations made such contacts.
Open SO Unassisted:
The Senior Rose Bowl is awarded to the leading station in this section. This year it is awarded to Ron CF3A (VE3AT). Ron last won the trophy in 2020 and has been runner up in 2021 and 22.
In second place is last years winner Colin ZF2CA (G4CWH) operating from Cayman at the ZF1A superstation seen below with ZF1EJ.
Here is a pic of the operating position at ZF1A
Third placed station was VE3JM
The Colonel Thomas Rose Bowl (Leading UK & CD) is awarded to Justin G4A (G4TSH) ‘Nice conditions on the high bands countered by terrible conditions on 80m All the VE’s on 80m were skew path from the SW to me. Problems with 4sq not working properly for first half of the night probably contributed to my poor performance on that band. Good LP opening most of the night to VK/ZL on 20 & 40m.’
The Ross Carey Rose Bowl (Leading UK & CD 12 hour) is awarded to Andy G4PIQ
The VP8GQ Trophy (Leading non-UK 12 hour) is awarded to Alan 9G5XA (G3XAQ). ‘Here’s a couple of snaps of the home made triband portable Moxon HF beam, plus one where a violent storm blew the mast over from its clamps on the balcony railings and nearly put paid to my appearance in BERU!’
5V4VJ
Restricted SO Unassisted:
The leading Restricted station and winner of the Junior Rose Bowl was VE3BR
And the John Dunnington G3LZQ Trophy (Leading UK & CD) is awarded to John, G4CZB
In third place was 9H1PI
Open SO Assisted:
The Rosebery Shield awarded to the leading Assisted station is awarded again to John VE3EJ
And in second place is Dave VE3KG ‘What an amazing BERU! I haven’t heard conditions like those in many years. Eighty seemed poor, and 40m was a little poorer than usual, but the phenomenal openings on 10 and 15 more than made up for it. I made several QSOs with ZL and VK on 15m after local midnight!’
Restricted SO Assisted:
1st – VE3MGY
2nd – G3PHO
3rd – G3RLE
Open remote:
1st – VO2AC
2nd – VE4CDX (op. VE1RM
VE1RM suggests some areas for clarification with regard to remote operation He commented ‘I am very happy the committee has set up the remote categories. I still think the wording needs some clarification, as it is a bit difficult to really understand what category you are in. I’m licensed to Nova Scotia with VE1RM, I’m the trustee of club call VE4CDX, I was using the station of VE4YH, and I was operating from NH in the United States. All good!’
Multi-operator:
1st – VE9ML (VE9ML and VE9BK)
Team competition:
1 Australia 1 VK6T 8887 VK2BJ 8038 VK2GR 7521 VK4SN 7220 VK6VZ 6716 38,382
2 World Travellers Plus ZF2CA 9275 5Z4VJ 7240 9G5XA 5330 6Y5HN 5040 5B/G3VYI 3250 30,135
3 Australia 2 VK1A/4 9010 VK2PN 5000 VK7BO 4895 VL6M 4859 VJ3A 4779 28,543
4 Grimsby Mariners G3TBK 6920 G3SJJ 5420 G4EBK 2220 G3VIP 2130 G4LPD 2020 18,710
5 Quake Contesters ZL3AB 5184 ZL3P 5049 ZL3GA 4287 ZL2RX 3579 ZL4RA 461 18,560
5W QRP:
Conditions were much more helpful to the 14 QRP stations who entered. The Lilliput Cup is awarded to VE3KI (1st unassisted)
And in 2nd place Bill GM4M (GM4UBJ)
1st assisted was G4BUE and 2nd assisted – VE3DN
But pride of place in the QRP section should go to Peter VK3YE for his BERU on the beach Youtube video . One of the best on QRP fun. And listen to the strength of those long path signals and dont you wish your noise floor was so low!
Headquarters Stations.
There were a total of thirteen HQ stations with the greatest number (six) fielded by Australia followed by five from the UK & CD and two from Canada.
In addition to GB5CC,operated by Graham G4FNL above, the other UK & CD HQ stations used the call G5WS with or without a regional indicator. G5WS being operated by Don G3BJ. Just over one hundred years ago this callsign was used for the December 1922 series of transatlantic tests which resulted in the RSGB station (G)5WS being the first to be heard from Europe in Canada and the USA. You can read about VK1WIA portable trip ( see GB5CC reports!), VK5WIA here and VA2RAC here. Thanks to all the operators for providing valuable bonus points, for many on all five bands.
Travellers
This contest always attracts a number of travellers, often to Commonwealth Call Areas with low populations. Although recent travel restrictions are now almost gone, there is still often a huge effort required to get a station on the air and operate it successfully so a vote of thanks to all the travellers this year namely Colin ZF2CA (G4CWH), Alan 9G5XA (G3XAQ), Nigel 5B/G3TXF, Mike 5B/G3VYI and an unexpected but very welcome traveller Pete V4/G0TLE. Commonwealth Traveller Certificates are awarded to Nigel and Mike.
Commonwealth Medal
The Commonwealth Medal is awarded to Phil ZL3PAH, this year participating as ZL3P.
Adjudication
Logs submitted were overall of a high standard with a low mean error rate but with many weak signals, callsigns and received serial numbers were sometimes logged incorrectly. Entrants are reminded that UK & CD stations may not work each other for points, although there is no additional penalty, it just wastes time. The HQ station GB5CC, a regular participant for many decades, appeared as ‘G6HCC’ in a few logs. A lot of points were lost mis-copying the H2 prefix from Cyprus and not logging the ‘HQ’ suffix where sent will also appear in quite a few UBN reports. A full list of HQ stations active usually appears on this website before the start of the contest.
And thanks to you John for turning these results round so quickly.
Next Year will be the 87th contest. Note the date 9th and 10th March 2024.
Commonwealth Contest 