At about 0916 UTC on 11th May 2024, I tuned in to Taupo Marine Radio, New Zealand, broadcasting on 6224 kHz.

At about 0912 UTC on the 11th day of May 2024, I tuned in to the Bureau of Meteorology’s marine weather HF radio service VMW broadcasting from Charleville, Queensland, on 6507 kHz.

VMC broadcasts for: Coastal Waters areas off Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania; and High Seas for the Northern, Southern, North Eastern and South Eastern high seas areas.

More information can be found at…….http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/radio-sat/marine-weather-hf-radio.shtml

At about 0912 UTC on the 11th day of May 2024, I tuned in to the Bureau of Meteorology’s marine weather HF radio service VMW broadcasting from Charleville, Queensland, on 8176 kHz.

VMC broadcasts for: Coastal Waters areas off Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania; and High Seas for the Northern, Southern, North Eastern and South Eastern high seas areas.

More information can be found at…….http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/radio-sat/marine-weather-hf-radio.shtml

At about 0910 UTC on the 11th day of May 2024, I tuned in to the Bureau of Meteorology’s marine weather HF radio service VMW broadcasting from Wiluna, Western Australia on 8113 kHz.

VMW broadcasts for broadcasts for the High Seas for the Northern, Western and Southern high seas areas, and Coastal Waters areas off South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.

More information can be found at…….http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/radio-sat/marine-weather-hf-radio.shtml

At about 0906 UTC on the 11th day of May 2024, I tuned in to the Bureau of Meteorology’s marine weather HF radio service VMW broadcasting from Wiluna, Western Australia on 4149 kHz.

VMW broadcasts for broadcasts for the High Seas for the Northern, Western and Southern high seas areas, and Coastal Waters areas off South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.

More information can be found at…….http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/radio-sat/marine-weather-hf-radio.shtml

Received in the mail my plaque for the 2023 Oceania DX Contest – 1st place in Australia.

Thank you to everyone who called me during the contest.

And a big thank you to the Oceania DX Contest Committee and to Martin VK7GN, the sponsor of the plaque.

Received in the mail. First place certificate for the 2024 John Moyle Memorial Field Day.

Thanks to all who called and thanks to the organisers of the event.

Very pleased to have come 1st in Australia and 5th in Oceania in the 2024 CQ World Wide WPX Contest.

Thank you to everybody who called and thank you to the contest organisers.

Between the evening of Sunday 23rd June 2024 and Wednesday 3rd July 2024, I was allocated the special callsign of VI60IOTA to use on SSB. The callsign is to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Islands On The Air (IOTA) program.

Paul VK2HV was allocated the caIl over the same period for data, while I had the call for SSB.

I made a total of 2,122 QSOs, with 70 DXCC worked. I worked 41 out of 50 USA States and 24 out of 40 Zones worked.

The map below shows my QSOs.

• 10m – green pins
• 15m – light blue pins
• 20m – orange pins
• 40m – red pins
• 80m – dark blue pins

Above:- My contacts whilst using VI60IOTA.

The Top 10 countries worked were as follows:-

• Australia – 539
• United States – 233
• Italy – 202
• England – 134
• France – 113
• Federal Republic of Germany – 110
• Spain – 92
• Belgium – 63
• Poland – 61
• Netherlands – 56

The majority of my QSOs were on the 20m band

• 10m – 75
• 15m – 113
• 20m – 1,532
• 40m – 342
• 80m- 60

20m long path to Europe/UK during the afternoon was excellent. There was also an excellent opening on 15m long path into Europe one afternoon. The map below shows my European/UK contacts.

Above:- Map showing my European/UK QSOs.

The short path to North America on 20m during the evening was very disappointing. There were no big openings like I experienced whilst on Flinders Island back in February. even a few weeks prior I was working North America during our evening with very strong signals, but that was not to be this time. I did however work some USA & Canada during the evening, however, North American signals on 20m were stronger during our afternoon.

The map below shows my North American QSOs.

Above:- Map of my North American QSOs.

The majority of VK & ZL stations were worked on 40m & 80m.

Above:- Map showing my VK & ZL QSOs.

Thanks to Grant VK5GR for giving me the opportunity to use the call, and thank you to everyone who called me.

On Saturday morning, 20th April 2024, Chris VK5FR and I headed out again to do some park activations whilst on Flinders Island. I dropped off Chris VK5FR at the Heritage Agreement VKFF-4307 and I drove down onto Gem Beach to activate the Investigator Marine Park VKFF-1717.

I was hoping to get a few more FT8 contacts in the log.

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK5FR/p (Heritage Agreement VKFF-4307)
2. Vk3PF
3. Vk3KAI
4. VK3VIN
5. VK4HNS
6. VK3OF
7. Vk4CZ
8. Vk3SPG
9. VK5PE
10. VK3OB
11. VK3GJG
12. VK6DS
13. VK3SO
14. VK3SFG
15. VK5GY
16. Vk3HJW
17. VK6TWJ
18. VK5FD
19. VK3APJ
20. VK3CEO
21. VK3AWA
22. VK3UP
23. VK2VAR
24. VK2GOM
25. Vk2IO
26. VK3MB
27. VI60IOTA
28. VK5MAZ
29. VK5TUX
30. VK5HMV/m

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

1. VK4HNS
2. VK4ALE

I worked the following station on 20m FT8:-

1. VK2NJP