Last night (Saturday 17th July 2021) was the 2021 Trans Tasman Low Band Contest. The aim of the contest is……

“to encourage Low Band activity between VK and ZL.”

Only contest bands 160, 80, and 40M are allowed with SSB, CW and Digital (RTTY OR PSK).

The contest ran for a 6 hour period, from 0800 UTC until 1400 UTC.

Participants who take part in the contest receive a participation certificate. From 2018 this contest is an official Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) Contest and will count towards the Peter Brown Contest Champion Awards.

I completely forgot about the contest and didn’t get out into the shack until about 40 minutes into the contest.

I made a total of 174 contacts during the contest and a claimed score of 1,715 points.

My first contact was with Alan VK4SN. My final contact was with Rob VK2MT.

Almost all of my contacts were on the 80m band. In fact of the 174 contacts, 159 were on the 80m band. I made just 15 QSOs on 40m into VK2, VK3, VK4, VK6, & VK7.

During the contest I logged just 5 New Zealand stations: ZL1RQ, ZL3VZ, ZL4U, ZL2FE, and ZL4RMF.

The contest was split into 3 x 2 hour blocks. I found the middle block to be extremely difficult, with signals way down compared to usual. I was going to give it away, but decided to persevere, and I am glad I did, as the 80m band really improved dramatically during the last 2 hour block.

THANKS to everyone who called.

References.

WIA, 2021, <https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/transtasman/>, viewed 18th July 2021.