ZD7XF - St Helena - Commonwealth Contest - BERU - March 2012
Nigel G3TXF operated as ZD7XF from Saint Helena for the 2012 Commonwealth Contest (BERU).

Previous Commonwealth Contest (BERU) operations were:

VP2MXF (2010), 6Y8XF (2009), VQ5XF (2008) and V25XF (2007).

Five year BERU QSO, claimed points and bonus points summary: BERU score summary.

For more details on the Commonwealth Contests see Bob G3PJT's excellent information-packed BERU website.

The results of the 2012 Commonwealth Contest are on the RSGB's Contest Committee web-site.

QSL via G3TXF
The RMS St Helena is (until a new airport is opened in 2015) the only means of public transport to get to St Helena (ZD7).
BERU 2012 notes :
Operated BERU for nearly the whole 24 hours, with just two short 20 minute snoozes. Located at 15 deg south in the Altantic, St Helena is a bit far from the two main areas of Commonwealth Contest activity (UK and VE), and particularly from western VE.

However the excellent north-south path into the UK enabled the QSO total on 10m to exceed 350 QSOs. But down on 80m it was a struggle to be heard much of the time, except for a fine opening to the UK at just before sunrise (0625z) on St Helena.

Used horizontal wire dipoles on 10m, 20m and 80m, and a quarterwave 40m vertical on both 40m and 15m. The greater rarity of ZD7 made it more difficult than usual (i.e than from the Caribbean) to keep the non-BERU callers under control.

Once again there were many UK stations worked who seem only to make an annual appearance on the bands during BERU. Working these stations is all part of the fun of BERU!
The St Helena flag flying at the top of the mast on the RMS St Helena as the ship approaches Jamestown, St Helena. The houses seen at the top of the cliff are in Half Tree Hollow.
The station used by Nigel ZD7XF for BERU 2012 was a Kenwood TS-590S and a small Tokyo High Power HL-550FX amplifer. The ground in front of the antennas at the Two Gun Saddle QTH on ZD7 fell away rapidly affording a good take-off to towards the north.
The first hour had the highest QSO rate (90). It went down-hill from there. However, unlike in previous years, QSOs were made in each of the 24 hours of the 2012 Commonwealth Contest.
Four separately fed wire antennas were used by ZD7XF in BERU 2012: 80m dipole, 40m/15m vertical, 20m dipole and a 10m dipole.
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