On Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th April 2022, I was allocated the special call of VK90ABC for a second go around. Marija and I used the call back in February. VK90ABC is a special call to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

I had a bit of a sleep in on Saturday morning so I didn’t get out to the shack until about 9.00 a.m. local time. That left me 3 hours to play on the radio before heading off to my grandson Flynn’s 1st birthday party.

Most of my activity on Saturday morning was on the 10m band where I logged 29 stations from the USA, New Zealand, Costa Tica, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Asiatic Russia. I then moved to 40m where I logged 29 Australian stations. I then headed to 20m where I logged 7 stations from VK2, VK4, New Zealand, and England. I was quite amazed to work Fred G0EHQ in England at 0214 UTC on 20m on the long path.

It was time to jump into the shower and head off to Flynn’s birthday party.

I got home from the party at about 5.00 p.m. local time. After arriving home I had a bit of fun on 20m on the long path, working a number of stations in Europe and the United Kingdom, and the USA on the short path.

During Saturday evening I logged some VK stations on 40m and 80m, and then had a lot of fun working a stack of USA stations on 20m on the short path.

By the end of Saturday I had 278 QSOs in the log, including 35 different DXCC entities.

On Sunday morning I kicked off on the 10m band once again, where I worked a number of North American stations and about 100 Japanese stations. The band conditions on 10m were terrific.

Below is a video of the pile-up I had going into Japan on 10m.

On Sunday afternoon I worked a very big pile-up on the long path to Europe. Below is a video showing the pile-up as heard in my shack.

And here is a video taken by Peter VK3YE in Victoria who was listening in to me in Victoria.

All up over the 1 & 1/2 days, I logged a total of 770 stations which included 57 different DXCC entities.

The majority of my contacts were on the 20M band as the graph below shows.

I worked the following countries:-

• Asiatic Russia
• Australia
• Austria
• Azores
• Balearic Islands
• Belarus
• Belgium
• Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Bulgaria
• Canada
• Canary Islands
• Ceuta & Melilla
• China
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• England
• Estonia
• European Russia
• Federal Republic of Germany
• Finland
• France
• Greece
• Hungary
• India
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Marshall Islands
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Northern Ireland
• Norway
• Panama
• Philippines
• Poland
• Portugal
• Republic of Korea
• Romania
• Scotland
• Slovak Republic
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• Trinidad & Tobago
• United States
• Wales

The map below shows my contacts around the world.

Conditions on the long path (LP) on 20m on both Saturday and Sunday into Europe and the United Kingdom were excellent. The short path into Europe was virtually non-existent.

The map below shows my contacts into Europe and UK on the LP on 20m.

I made just a handful of North American contacts on 40m. The majority of my USA and Canadian contacts were on the 20m band and the 10m band.

The map below shows my North American QSOs.

There was a very nice opening on 10m on Sunday morning to Japan, with nearly 100 Japanese stations logged. The map below shows my 10m Japanese QSOs.

I logged a total of 176 VK stations and 14 New Zealand stations over the 2 day period.

THANK YOU to everyone who called.