Over the past weekend (Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th August 2021) I took part in the annual Remembrance Day (RD) Contest.

The RD Contest “commemorates the Amateurs who died during World War II and is designed to encourage friendly participation and help improve the operating skills of participants.”

The RD is held on the weekend closest to the 15th August, the date on which hostilities ceased in the southwest Pacific area. The aim is to make contact with as many amateurs in VK call areas, New Zealand (ZL) and Papua New Guinea (P29).

Below is a list of the WIA members who paid the supreme sacrifice….

Royal Australian Navy
J.E. Mann VK3IE
A.H.G. Rippon VK6GR

Australian Military Forces
C.D. Roberts VK2JV
J.D. Morris VK3DQ
J. McCandlish VK3HN
S.W. Jones VK3SF
D.A. Laws VK4DR
J.G. Phillips VK5BW
K.S. Anderson VK6KS

Royal Australian Air Force
F.W.S. Easton VK2BQ
V.J.E. Jarvis VK2VJ
W. Abbott VK2YK
G.C. Curle VK2AJB
T. Stephens VK3GO
M.D. Orr VK3OR
J.F. Colthrop VK3PL
J.A. Burrage VK3UW
J.E. Snadden VK3VE
F.J. Starr VK4FS
R. Allen VK4PR
C.A. Ives VK5AF
B. James VK5BL
J.E. Goddard VK6JG
P.P. Paterson VK6PP

Merchant Marine
N.E. Gunter VK3NG
R.P. Veall VK3PV

Last year I had just moved to my current QTH at Ashbourne and I did not have a dedicated amateur radio station set up, so I operated from the back verandah with my portable station. I made a total of 402 contacts running just the Yaesu FT-857d, 40 watts, and a 20/40/80 m linked dipole.

This year I had my shack all set up and tower in the air. I ran the Yaesu FT-2000, 100 watts, with the antennas being a 40m rotatable dipole, an 80m home brew dipole, and a 5 element tri band yagi.

I made a total of 870 QSOs with a claimed score of 1,038 points.

This year I operated from the start of the contest at 0300 UTC on Saturday (12.30 p.m. local time) until 0300 UTC on Sunday (12.30 p.m. local time) when I started to fall asleep at the radio & computer. I tried to stay awake as long as I could after 1.00 a.m. as points were trebled between 1.00 a.m. and 6.00 a.m. local time. But my eyelids didn’t win the battle. I went to bed at 3.00 a.m. and came back out into the shack at about 5.30 a.m. sneaking in a couple of hours of sleep.

The graph below shows my operating activity over the 24 hour period.

I operated on the 80m, 40m, & 20m bands on SSB, with the majority of my contacts being on the 80m band.

• 80m – 407 QSOs
• 40m – 373 QSOs
• 20m – 90 QSOs

The graph below shows my contacts on the three bands.

The map below shows my contacts during the contest around Australia and New Zealand. I wasn’t called by anybody outside of VK and ZL, with those contacts not counting for the contest. The highlight of the RD contest for me was to be called by Paul VK0PD at Casey Station, Antarctica. Sadly there were not a huge number of ZL stations participating. I logged 15 different New Zealand stations. I did not hear any stations from P29 land.

The map below shows my contacts around mainland Australia and Tasmania. The majority of my contacts were into Victoria with a total of 301 QSOs. This was followed by 156 into New South Wales.

• VK1 – 13
• VK2 – 156
• VK3 – 301
• VK4 – 93
• VK5 – 94
• VK6 – 106
• VK7 – 91
• VK8 – 0
• VK9 – 0
• VK0 – 1

Of the 870 QSOs, a total of 402 were different callsigns. In the RD, you could call the same station after a three hour period.

The graph below shows my contacts per State/Territory.

The map below shows my contacts around Victoria.

The map below shows my contacts around New South Wales.

The map below shows my contacts around Western Australia.

The Map below shows my contacts around South Australia.

The map below shows my contacts around Queensland.

The map below shows my contacts around Tasmania.

The map below shows my contacts into New Zealand.

The map below shows my contacts per band. The red markers are for 40m, the blue for 80m, and the orange for 20m. It was pleasing to be able to work New Zealand on 20, 40, & 80m.

The graph below shows my activity on the 80m band. I started off on 80m before it became dark and continued on into the evening. The 80m band was working beautifully, with lots of very strong signals. More importantly, was the absence of any significant status crashes.

Below is a screen shot of VK5BAR Ironstone Range Kiwi SDR showing the activity on 80m at 1.06 a.m. SA local time, showing all the activity with stations taking advantage of the treble points.

The graph below shows my activity on the 40m band. Once it was dark, I found 40m virtually unusable, with very few VK & ZL stations to be heard.

The graph below shows my activity on the 20m band. Contacts on this band were made into VK1, VK2, VK4, VK6, VK0, and New Zealand. It was very pleasing to work a total of 37 VK6 stations.

The screen snot below of the Croydon Victoria Kiwi SDR shows the flurry of activity on 40m just before the end of the contest on Sunday afternoon.

Thank you to everyone who called. I had a lot of fun.

References.

1. WIA, 2021, <https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/rdcontest/>, viewed 16th August 2021