Last weekend (Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th March 2018) I took part in the CQ World Wide WPX Contest.  The WPX Contest is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working all prefixes. Held on the last weekend of March (SSB) and May (CW), the contest draws thousands of entries from around the world.

My equipment was a Yaesu FT-2000, 100 watts and a TET Emtron TE-53 tri bander on 10, 15, & 20m, and my home brew 40m 1/2 wave dipole for 40m.

I found band conditions to be very poor.  Long path propagation to Europe on 20m was very poor.  The majority of my contacts were made on the 15m band.

• 10m – 7 QSOs
• 15m – 106 QSOs
• 20m – 79 QSOs
• 40m – 60 QSOs

I did not hear many South American stations, and those that I did, I was unable to get through to.  This included a Peruvian station on 40m.  That would have been a new country for me.  Nor did I hear many African stations.

But admittedly I did not make it an all nighter on either night during the contest.  So I probably missed the best time for the Africans on the short path to Australia.

My final tally was a total of 252 contacts on 10, 15, 20 & 40m SSB, with a claimed score of 152,663 points.

I picked up a few new countries on 40m.  But I missed out on many other new ones, with my 100 watts and dipole just not making it.

Below is a map showing my contacts during the contest.

Below are my contacts in the Asian region.  The majority of these were made on 15m SSB.

Below are my contacts in Europe and northern Africa.  The European contacts were made on 20m long path and 15m short path.  The two Moroccan stations (CN2AA & CN3A) had huge signals on 40m

And finally here are my contacts in North America.  Most of these were made on 40m SSB during ‘our’ evening.  Some of the signals from the USA were huge.

So it was only a meager effort on my part compared to the big gun stations.  Those in Australia who I heard active and doing very well included VK4KW, VK2AU, and VK4QH.

Good luck to all in the 2018 CQ WW WPX Contest

The John Moyle Memorial Field Day (JMMFD) is held annually in March in memory of the late John Moyle, VK2JU.   The aim of the JMMFD is…..

“The aim is to encourage and provide familiarisation with portable and field operation, and provide training for emergency situations. The rules are therefore specifically designed and focussed to encourage field operations.”

For those who might be interested to read some history behind the man, in whose name the field day is named, you might find one of my previous posts interesting.  It can be found at…..

https://vk5pas.org/2016/03/20/john-moyle-memorial-field-day-2016/

There are a number of photographs there of John Moyle and lots of interesting history on this gentleman.

I normally head out into the field to a park and operate portable for the JMMFD, but unfortunately this year I had to work dayshift on the weekend.  I was hoping to get out into the field on Saturday afternoon, but Saturday was rated as extreme for the potential of bushfires, so I decided to stay home.

I handed out a few numbers from home, going between the shack and the living room to get an update on the South Australian State election which was held that weekend.  I made a total of 78 contacts, all on 40m, with a claimed score of 108 points.

As of today (28th March 2018), a total of 124 logs have been received.  This includes fifteen (15) logs from South Australia (VK5).

Good luck to everyone who took part in the 2018 JMMFD.