The weekend just gone (Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th) saw the running of the 2020 Remembrance Day (RD) Contest here in Australia.

This contest commemorates those amateur radio operators who died during World War Two, and is designed to encourage friendly participation and help improve the operating skills of participants.  The RD Contest is held on the weekend closest to the 15th August, the date on which hostilities ceased in the southwest Pacific area.

The aim of the RD Contest is for amateurs to endeavour to contact amateurs in VK call areas, ZL and P29 on all bands except WARC bands.  Modes allowed are voice, CW and RTTY as per the era remembered.

More information can be found on the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) website at……

https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/rdcontest/

The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced by Japanese Emperor Hirohito on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close.

I ran my Yaesu FT-857d, 30 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole for the Contest.  I was operating from my back verandah overlooking the paddocks.  The antenna was inverted vee configuration, just 7 metres at the apex, with the ends tied off low to the ground.

The contest commenced at 0300 UTC on Saturday (12.30 p.m. South Australian local time).  First in the log was Mark VK3MDH.  I remained on 40m until about 0517 UTC, logging 112 stations.

I then moved to the 20m band where I logged just 5 stations from VK4 and VK6.  Conditions appeared to be quite poor on this band.

I moved back to the 40m band and logged about 58 stations.  I remained on 40m until about 0732 UTC when I moved to the 80m band.

I logged about 87 stations on 80m until I decided to call it quits for the evening at about 0955 UTC (7.130 p.m. local time).  I headed off inside for a glass or two of red and to watch the AFL.  I had logged a total of 263 contacts on day one of the RD.

I had a bit of a sleep in on Sunday morning but was back on the radio by about 2322 UTC (8.52 a.m. local time).  I started off on 40m, with VK2TTL first in the log for day two.

I logged 88 stations on 40m, before trying the 20m band.  Band conditions on 20m didn’t seem to be much better than Saturday, with just 10 stations logged from VK2, VK4, and VK6.  I cannot wait to get my 5 element bean back up in the air.  It was hard going with just 30 watts and a piece of wire.

I logged a further 41 stations on 40m until the end of the contest at 0300 UTC.   My final contact was with John VK7FJFD.

I ended up logging a total of 402 contacts, which I was quite happy with, considering my operating conditions and that I had not burnt the midnight oil.

The vast majority of my contacts were in to VK3 (Victoria), followed by VK2 (New South Wales).  I didn’t log a single New Zealand station during the Contest, and only heard one ZL station working another VK.

The vast majority of my contacts were on the 40m band – 299 QSOs.  This was followed by 80m with 88 QSOs, and 20m with just 15 QSOs.

MANY THANKS to everyone who called and GOOD LUCK to everyone who took part in the 2020 RD Contest.

 

 

 

References.

Wireless Institute of Australia, 2010, <https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/rdcontest/>, viewed 19th August 2020.

Wikipedia, 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan>, viewed 19th August 2020.