March 1, at the 8P9Z cottage in the hot afternoon sun. No sign of any life, just a note on the door. ‘Hi Bob, sorry to miss you. This is Tom’s ‘ sleep time’ so please don’t disturb him – me, I am down at Mullins Beach – my favourite place while he contests.’ Signed Tom W2SC/8P9JG/8P5A and Kathleen KA1JJR.

March 4, back at the 8P9Z cottage to meet Tom and Kathleen. ‘How did you get on, Tom,’ says I. ‘Oh, only 8200 Qs, probably be second.’ ‘How much sleep did you have?’, ‘About 15 minutes ( in 48 hours) !’ I realise my 24 hour effort would sound a bit wimpish. I perhaps should add that this was 48 hours of 2 radio contesting in the ARRL SSB.

March 5, at the Barbados Ministry of International Trade and Business. ‘Can I renew my amateur radio licence, please ?’ ‘ Certainly, have you got your licence document ?’, ‘Yes here it is’. ‘That will be $40 BDS, please’, Stamp, stamp, a few signatures and 5 minutes later I have my 8P9IF call renewed for a year and ready to go. Now that’s what I call service!

I had of course prepared for BERU with my customary attention to diet and exercise, 6 days of rum punches (the liquid sort) and much reclining in 28C sunshine. Seasoned contesters know that such preparation is vital if one is to have any chance of success.

March 6, at the cottage. Tom left the cottage in very good order, no sticking rotators, an amplifier which worked, no equipment problems at all. All I did was take my laptop, key and Kenwood interface.

March 8, time for setting up the station, 850SAT, AL80, and lots and lots of antennas, TH7, TH6, 5el 10m, 3 el 40m , dipoles and slopers for 80m. And even a top band dipole if I was bored. Time too for a quick play at pileup handling and then back to the beach and the bar.

March 9, 0530 local and it’s dark outside, all the sensible world is asleep. Still I could have put our towels on the best sun loungers, not even the sun worshippers were up that early. Whose idea was it to move the start time 2 hours earlier?

0550Z, at the cottage, not a soul stirring, just a few folks walking along the lanes to work. Turn on the gear and start to check, 10 nil, 15 nil, 20 a few stations, 40 aha, some VEs and Ws, 80 nil. This doesn’t look too promising. Decide to kick off on 40 as at least I will have a big signal there. Perhaps I should have stayed in bed.

1000Z. Bang ‘ CQ BERU’ all over 40 so quickly get as many VEs as I can find in the log before charging off to 20. Nil on 80m – still plenty of time for that later. After about and hour or so start to hear the Gs and quite quickly all the bands start to open up. I have to admit being somewhat dismayed at the serials being given out tho’. Console myself that at least I will have lots of propagation later.

Gs, Gs, Gs for 30 minutes then back to 40 before it dies. I think this was worthwhile as 80/40 are crucial if the bonus score is to be good, VK2, VK6, VEs all in the log.

Straight up to 10 for Gs and yet more Gs. 5B4, 9H etc. Down to 15 aha 9G , back to 10 for the bonus. Don’s already 191 to my 118 ! Even GB5CC is ahead of me. Back and forth between 10 and 15 gets me to 221 with 5B4AGC on 165 – that’s better but wonder if George is in restricted section.

1509Z, work 9H1ZA who gives me 293 to my 298. Better yet.

Back to earth with a bump at 1634 VE3EJ gives me 435 to my 380, still it’s only 55 Qs !

Back and forth, hop, hop, hop, 10, 15, 20 until Z24S calls for a nice bonus, can’t get him to move though.

1758Z, it’s that 9G5AA chap again, 536 to 426, this is getting to be a big hill to climb.

1900Z it’s getting to the time to squeeze the last G Qs out of 10 and 15. With a bit of luck I may have some propagation well into the evening.

Some ZLs coming long path (?) on 15 and then J88DR gives me 471 to my 501.

Soldier on, on 20 and 15, Gs, VKs, Zls, all on the same NE heading.

2049Z, J88DR gives me 495 to my 540. Still VEs on all three HF bands.

V51LK calls and QSYs for double bonus.

2154Z, still working Gs on 15 when up comes Richard 9M2/G4ZFE for another double bonus. A sneaky look on 40 gives me a triple bonus from 5B4AGN.

2230Z, time to spend 15 mins on 40 to catch the Gs before they go for their Horlicks.

Followed by a bit of searching on 15 when who should I find but G4BUO sending slowly and having a QSO ! A QSO, with whom I wonder? Aha, 4S7EA of all people! Wait patiently and give him a call, back he comes for a very nice bonus.

Cruise over 20 on the way to 40 for 9H1ZA for 736 to my 685. He is getting away from me again.

2355Z, down to 80 to catch the Gs who have now finished their Horlicks and are thinking it might be time for bed. Nice little pile up. VE3EJ gives me 749 to my 720. Well caught up a bit.

0033Z, 9G5AA gives me 699 to my 745 !

0228Z, 9H1ZA 853 to my 820.

0240Z, ZL2BR gives me, and him, a triple bonus.

0320Z, and a nice 15m opening to ZL and VK starts to fill in some more bonus slots.

I was now entering a difficult part of the contest when potentially all bands, 80 to 10, were open to somewhere. So I just moved from band to band, a CQ here, some hunting and pouncing there.

From about 0530Z 80 and 40 were open quite generally with good quiet conditions and this continued until 0730Z when they just died.

For the last 2 and half hours 20 and 15 kept me awake, just. Until I was jerked into full consciousness by ‘HN0/ ‘. No it’s 5N0/G3SVW for a great bonus. I wasn’t awake enough to ask him to QSY though!

I jogged through to 0958Z for my last contact with G3XYV.

I use Writelog so I didn’t have a running score so I was a bit taken aback when I realised later how close I had come to 10000 points. I ended up with 1020 good Qs and 9860 points claimed.

Great contest, good location and plenty of activity.

See you all next year.

PS. The 5 banders were 5B4AGC, 5B4AGN, 9H1ZA, G0IVZ, G0KBL, G3HLU, G3GLL, G3IAF, G3JJG, G3JJZ, G3KMQ, G3KZR, G3LET, G3LIK, G3LZQ, G3MXJ, G3VDL, G3VYI, G3WPH, G3ZGC, G4BUO, G4CZB, G4IIY, G4KTI, G4TSH/P, GB5CC, GW3HGJ, GW3KDB, J88DR, VE1ZJ, VE2ZO, VE3EJ, VE3IAY, VE3QAA, VE3VHB, VE7CC.

PPS. That 160m dipole. I did put out a call on 160 and was just heard at 339 by Bob, G3PLP.

PLEASE NOTE THE STATION IS NO LONGER OPERATIONAL