I took part in the Remembrance Day (RD) Contest over the weekend. It also coincided with the very first sleepover of my little grandson Flynn. But thanks to my wife Marija, I got on air whenever possible.
I made a total of 812 QSOs with a claimed score of 974 points. Contacts were made on 20, 40, & 80m SSB.
The majority of my contacts were on the 40m band. The graph below shows my QSOs per band.
The graph below shows my contacts per State/Territory. The significant majority were into Victoria (VK3). It was really pleasing to get so many contacts into Western Australia (VK6).
Saturday afternoon on 20m was a write-off for the contest, as I was swamped with calls from Europe and UK, and worked a bit of a pile-up. Unfortunately, contacts outside of VK, ZL, & P29 do not count for the RD Contest.
The map below shows my contacts, both RD and DX contacts.
The map below shows my long path 20m contacts into Europe/United Kingdom on Saturday afternoon.
The map below shows my contacts around Australia and New Zealand during the contest. There was not a huge amount of ZL participation that I experienced. I logged 20 ZL contacts.
Whilst working VK and ZL on 40m on Saturday evening I was called by a station in Peru in South America. That was a real surprise.
Thanks to everyone who called. Although a long way off the leaders I had a lot of fun.
I will be attending the AREG Car Boot Sale with Adam VK2YK. We will be manning a table promoting the WWFF program.
As an official ARRL DXCC card checker, I will also be checking ID for people who wish to get up and going in Logbook Of The World (LOTW), and I will also be checking any QSL cards for ARRL awards, e.g. DXCC.
If you do wish to have ID sighted, or have QSL cards checked, please ensure you have completed the appropriate paperwork.
Yesterday (Sunday 31st July 2022) was National Tree Day. The VKFF Team had organised a special day to celebrate National Tree Day, with a special certificate on offer for all VKFF activators who activated a park.
Planet Ark’s National Tree Day started in 1996 and has grown into Australia’s largest community tree planting and nature care event. Each year about 300,000 people volunteer their time to become involved.
Since 1996, a total of 26 million trees have been planted by 5 million volunteers, with 10 million hours of time volunteered.
I headed out to my local park, the Bullock Hill Conservation Park VKFF-0873, which is located only a few kilometres from my home.
Above:- Map showing the location of the park. Map c/o Google maps
I spent about 4 hours in the park from 0400 – 0800 hours UTC. I operated on the 20, 40, & 80m bands. I made a total of 145 QSOs which included 17 x Park to Park contacts.
There was a nice little opening to the DX on 20m, with a total of 25 DX stations logged. The following DX countries were worked on 20m:-
England
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
New Zealand
Poland
Slovenia
Spain
USA
My Park to Park contacts were with the following:-
40M
David VK5HYZ/p (Belair National Park VKFF-0022)
Peter VK3PF/p (Traralgon South Flora Reserve VKFF-2465)
Ross VK3NRB/p (Traralgon South Flora Reserve VKFF-2465)
Paul VK2PCT/p (Yellomundee Regional Park VKFF-0558)
Gerard VK2IO/p (Rouse Hill Regional Park VKFF-2784)
Mark VK4EMP/p (D’Aguilar National Park VKFF-0129)
Peter VK3ZPF/p (Churchill National Park VKFF-0621)
Mark VK4SMA/p (White Rock Conservation Park VKFF-1676)
Scott VK4MGL/p (Spicers Gap Road Conservation Park VKFF-1651)
20M
Scott VK4CZ/p (D’Aguilar National Park VKFF-0129)
Peter VK3ZPF/p (Churchill National Park VKFF-0621)
Scott VK4MGL/p (Spicers Gap Road Conservation Park VKFF-1651)
Mark VK4EMP/p (D’Aguilar National Park VKFF-0129)
Mark VK4SMA/p (VKFF-1676)
The weather was pretty average, and towards the end of the activation I had to escape to the vehicle. By the time it came to dismantle the antenna, the heavens had opened up and I was totally soaked. Fortunately it was a very short drive back home, and straight into a hot shower.
Thank you to everyone who called, and thank you to all of the VKFF activators who headed out to celebrate National Tree Day.
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
VK5HYZ/p (Belair National Park VKFF-0022)
VK3PT pedestrian mobile
VK3PF/p (Traralgon South Flora Reserve VKFF-2465)
VK3NRB/p (Traralgon South Flora Reserve VKFF-2465)
VK5PAS 