The overall reception of the Voice of the Martyrs was fair. This was due to the apparent deliberate ‘jamming’ of the signal. The World Radio TV Handbook reports jamming in parts of the target area, and this appears to be what I experienced.
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Below is a video showing my reception of the Voice of the Martyrs.
During the recent 2023 Oceania DX Contest, I made an exciting contact on the 20m band. It was with Erik KL7DYS who was aeronautical mobile in a Boeing 737. He was flying across the USA from Atlanta Georgia to Seattle in Washington.
I stopped contesting to have a bit of a chat with Eric.
Eric was at 32,000 feet flying over Tennessee in N924AK.
Erik’s signal was excellent. Erik advised he was using 400 watts and an antenna on the vertical stabiliser of the aircraft.
I have worked a number of aeronautical mobile stations over the years, but this was the first time I had been called by an AM mobile station during a contest.
Thanks for the QSO Erik. It was great to have a chat with you.
The 2023 Scandinavian Activity Contest was held from 1200 UTC Saturday 14th October to 1159 UTC on Sunday 15th October.
I spent Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon on grandpa duties, but I did manage some time in the contest late on Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening.
The contest aims to promote amateur radio activity in Scandinavia and encourage amateur radio communications between Scandinavian and non-Scandinavian amateur radio stations.
Scandinavian Prefixes.
Svalbard & Bear Island: JW Jan Mayen: JX Norway : LA – LB – LC – LG – LI – LJ – LN Finland: OF – OG – OH – OI Aland Islands: OFØ – OGØ – OHØ Market Reef: OJØ Greenland: OX – XP Faroe Islands: OW – OY Denmark: 5P – 5Q – OU – OV – OZ Sweden: 7S – 8S – SA – SB – SC – SD – SE – SF – SG – SH – SI – SJ – SK – SL – SM Iceland: TF Greenland is included as a Scandinavian prefix, although it is located in North America.
I ended up with 83 QSOs and a claimed score of 3,735 points. The claimed results on the website show that I am leading my category at this stage – Single Operator All Band Low Power.
Most of my contacts (46) were on the long path on the 20m band, followed by 19 QSOs on the 15m band, and 18 QSOs on the 10m band.
Thanks to everyone who called and thank you to the contest organisers.
On 18th September 2023, I tuned in to VMC – the Bureau of Meteorology Marine Weather HF service transmitting on 2201 kHz from Charleville in Queensland.
The 2023 Oceania DX Contest was held on the weekend just passed, Saturday 7th October 2023 from 0600 UTC, to 0600 UTC on Sunday 8th October 2023.
I entered into the Single Op All Bands Low power category. I ran the Yaesu FTdx101MP and 100 watts during the contest. My antennas were the 5-element tri-band yagi @ 50 feet and the 40m rotatable dipole @ 55 feet.
I made 785 QSOs with a claimed score of 859,500 points.
The majority of my QSOs were on the 20m band (385), followed by 10m (196), and then 15m (125).
I worked a total of 61 different DXCC entities during the contest:
Alaska
Argentina
Asiatic Russia
Australia
Austria
Belarus
Belgium
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Corsica
Costa Rica
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
European Russia
Federal Republic of Germany
Fiji
Finland
France
Greece
Hawaii
Hong Kong
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Japan
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madeira Islands
Mexico
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Northern Ireland
Norway
Oman
Philippines
Poland
Puerto Rico
Republic of Korea
Scotland
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United States
Wales
West Malaysia
The map below shows my contacts around the world during the contest.
I went to bed at a respectable time on Saturday night, about 11.30 p.m., and didn’t get back into the shack until about 8.30 a.m. on Sunday morning.
I was down about 200 QSOs from last year when I won the category. Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun again this year and I would like to thank everyone who called me, and thank you to the organisers of this great Contest.
VK5PAS 