On Sunday 6th, Monday 7th, and Tuesday 8th February 2022, Marija VK5MAZ and I were fortunate to be able to use the special event callsign of VK90ABC, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
On 1st July 1932, radio announcer Conrad Charlton sat alongside then-prime minister Joseph Lyons and announced:
“This is the Australian Broadcasting Commission”.
On Monday, we had other commitments for the morning and early afternoon, so we had a late start that day. But over two and a half days we made a total of 1,044 QSOs on 10, 15, 20, 40, & 80m SSB. ur first contact was with Fran YB9YSS in Indonesia. Our final contact was with Gordy W5AZ in Louisiana in the USA.
We made the following QSOs on the various bands:-
- 10m – 36
- 15m – 27
- 20m – 670
- 40m – 246
- 80m – 65
Unfortunately, 10m was not as good as it had been about a week before, but we still managed to make 36 contacts there into VK2, VK4, VK5, and VK7.
I have not heard any significant amount of Japanese or South-East Asian stations on 15m for some time, and the trend continued over the three days we had the call. Just 5 JA stations made it into the log. We logged 27 stations on 15m from VK2, VK4, VK5, VK7, VK8, Japan, New Caledonia, New Zealand, USA, and Wallis & Futuna. Working Jean-Gabriel on Wallis & Futuna in the Pacific was a real bonus.
The ever-reliable 20m band provided us with numerous DX in the log. This included Europe and the UK on both the long path and the short path. There was also a nice opening to the USA on the short path on Monday evening.
Of course, 40m proved reliable for contacts around Australia, but generally only late in the afternoon. We found 40m a real struggle during the mornings and early afternoon. The 40m band provided us with some nice DX. We worked the following DXCC entities on 40m:- VK1, VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5, VK6, VK7, Belize, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Costa Rica Ecuador, Jamaica, New Zealand, Panama, Puerto Rico, & USA. Paul V31AX in Belize in Central America was a nice contact on 40m.
The map below shows our contacts around the world.
We worked a total of 64 different DXCC entities:-
- Asiatic Russia
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Belize
- Brazil
- Brunei Darussalam
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Canary Islands
- Corsica
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- England
- Estonia
- European Russia
- Federal Republic of Germany
- Fiji
- France
- Georgia
- Greece
- Hawaii
- Hungary
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Northern Ireland
- Oman
- Panama
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Romania
- San Marino
- Sardinia
- Saudi Arabia
- Scotland
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Slovak Republic
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Ukraine
- United States of America
- Wales
- Wallis & Futuna
We were very fortunate to experience some nice opening to Europe and the United Kingdom on the 20m band on both the long path and the short path. Long path conditions were not so favourable on Monday afternoon here in VK5, but on Tuesday afternoon they were excellent. We had quite a significant pile-up going.
The video below shows the pile-up on Tuesday afternoon on the long path on 20m.
On Monday evening there was a nice opening to North America on 20m, with 48 stations from Canada and the USA making it into the log.
The map below shows our contacts into North America on 15m, 20m and 40m. Just the one USA station on 15m, seventeen on 40m, and the remainder on 20m.
Of course, 40m proved reliable for contacts around Australia, but generally only late in the afternoon. We found 40m a real struggle during the mornings and early afternoon.
- VK1 – 8
- VK2 – 99
- VK3 – 123
- VK4 – 74
- VK5 – 60
- VK6 – 46
- VK7 – 24
- VK8 – 3
We logged 26 stations from New Zealand.
THANK YOU to everyone who called. Also, thanks to Chris VK3QB for giving us the opportunity of using the special event callsign. We had a terrific time.
VK5PAS 