Marija VK5MAZ and myself had VK100AF for the very last time on Saturday 14th, Sunday 15th, & Monday 16th August 2021.

I had a short go with the callsign on Saturday morning leading up to the Remembrance Day (RD) Contest. I did not use the special event call for the RD, rather entering the contest under my own call. After a sleep on Sunday afternoon after the completion of the RD, I made a few more calls as VK10AF. Then on Monday I was in and out of the shack, jumping on air wherever possible. On Sunday evening Marija made a number of contacts on the 80m band.

All up, a bit quieter for us this time around, with a total of 160 QSOs in the log. The map below shows our contacts.

Very little DX was around this time around, with just 6 DXCC entities worked.

• Antarctica
• Australia
• England
• New Zealand
• Spain
• United States of America.

The majority of our contacts were around Australia and New Zealand, as can be seen in the map below.

We worked just 2 USA stations, one in California and one in Virginia.

We made just 2 contacts into Europe and the United Kingdom: John EA7BA in Spain and John G0OUF in England.

Thanks to everyone who called us.

Over the past weekend (Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th August 2021) I took part in the annual Remembrance Day (RD) Contest.

The RD Contest “commemorates the Amateurs who died during World War II and is designed to encourage friendly participation and help improve the operating skills of participants.”

The RD is held on the weekend closest to the 15th August, the date on which hostilities ceased in the southwest Pacific area. The aim is to make contact with as many amateurs in VK call areas, New Zealand (ZL) and Papua New Guinea (P29).

Below is a list of the WIA members who paid the supreme sacrifice….

Royal Australian Navy
J.E. Mann VK3IE
A.H.G. Rippon VK6GR

Australian Military Forces
C.D. Roberts VK2JV
J.D. Morris VK3DQ
J. McCandlish VK3HN
S.W. Jones VK3SF
D.A. Laws VK4DR
J.G. Phillips VK5BW
K.S. Anderson VK6KS

Royal Australian Air Force
F.W.S. Easton VK2BQ
V.J.E. Jarvis VK2VJ
W. Abbott VK2YK
G.C. Curle VK2AJB
T. Stephens VK3GO
M.D. Orr VK3OR
J.F. Colthrop VK3PL
J.A. Burrage VK3UW
J.E. Snadden VK3VE
F.J. Starr VK4FS
R. Allen VK4PR
C.A. Ives VK5AF
B. James VK5BL
J.E. Goddard VK6JG
P.P. Paterson VK6PP

Merchant Marine
N.E. Gunter VK3NG
R.P. Veall VK3PV

Last year I had just moved to my current QTH at Ashbourne and I did not have a dedicated amateur radio station set up, so I operated from the back verandah with my portable station. I made a total of 402 contacts running just the Yaesu FT-857d, 40 watts, and a 20/40/80 m linked dipole.

This year I had my shack all set up and tower in the air. I ran the Yaesu FT-2000, 100 watts, with the antennas being a 40m rotatable dipole, an 80m home brew dipole, and a 5 element tri band yagi.

I made a total of 870 QSOs with a claimed score of 1,038 points.

This year I operated from the start of the contest at 0300 UTC on Saturday (12.30 p.m. local time) until 0300 UTC on Sunday (12.30 p.m. local time) when I started to fall asleep at the radio & computer. I tried to stay awake as long as I could after 1.00 a.m. as points were trebled between 1.00 a.m. and 6.00 a.m. local time. But my eyelids didn’t win the battle. I went to bed at 3.00 a.m. and came back out into the shack at about 5.30 a.m. sneaking in a couple of hours of sleep.

The graph below shows my operating activity over the 24 hour period.

I operated on the 80m, 40m, & 20m bands on SSB, with the majority of my contacts being on the 80m band.

• 80m – 407 QSOs
• 40m – 373 QSOs
• 20m – 90 QSOs

The graph below shows my contacts on the three bands.

The map below shows my contacts during the contest around Australia and New Zealand. I wasn’t called by anybody outside of VK and ZL, with those contacts not counting for the contest. The highlight of the RD contest for me was to be called by Paul VK0PD at Casey Station, Antarctica. Sadly there were not a huge number of ZL stations participating. I logged 15 different New Zealand stations. I did not hear any stations from P29 land.

The map below shows my contacts around mainland Australia and Tasmania. The majority of my contacts were into Victoria with a total of 301 QSOs. This was followed by 156 into New South Wales.

• VK1 – 13
• VK2 – 156
• VK3 – 301
• VK4 – 93
• VK5 – 94
• VK6 – 106
• VK7 – 91
• VK8 – 0
• VK9 – 0
• VK0 – 1

Of the 870 QSOs, a total of 402 were different callsigns. In the RD, you could call the same station after a three hour period.

The graph below shows my contacts per State/Territory.

The map below shows my contacts around Victoria.

The map below shows my contacts around New South Wales.

The map below shows my contacts around Western Australia.

The Map below shows my contacts around South Australia.

The map below shows my contacts around Queensland.

The map below shows my contacts around Tasmania.

The map below shows my contacts into New Zealand.

The map below shows my contacts per band. The red markers are for 40m, the blue for 80m, and the orange for 20m. It was pleasing to be able to work New Zealand on 20, 40, & 80m.

The graph below shows my activity on the 80m band. I started off on 80m before it became dark and continued on into the evening. The 80m band was working beautifully, with lots of very strong signals. More importantly, was the absence of any significant status crashes.

Below is a screen shot of VK5BAR Ironstone Range Kiwi SDR showing the activity on 80m at 1.06 a.m. SA local time, showing all the activity with stations taking advantage of the treble points.

The graph below shows my activity on the 40m band. Once it was dark, I found 40m virtually unusable, with very few VK & ZL stations to be heard.

The graph below shows my activity on the 20m band. Contacts on this band were made into VK1, VK2, VK4, VK6, VK0, and New Zealand. It was very pleasing to work a total of 37 VK6 stations.

The screen snot below of the Croydon Victoria Kiwi SDR shows the flurry of activity on 40m just before the end of the contest on Sunday afternoon.

Thank you to everyone who called. I had a lot of fun.

References.

1. WIA, 2021, <https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/rdcontest/>, viewed 16th August 2021

Thanks to all of the VKFF park activators.

My latest VKFF Hunter Honour Roll certificate, issued for having worked 1,550 VKFF references.

Following up on my previous log re contacts I have made from home, this post relates to all of the contacts I have made whilst portable, e.g. on a SOTA summit, in a park, on a HEMA summit, silo, etc.

I have about 38,000 portable QSOs in my log.

I have made contact with 86 different DXCC entities/countries.

The map below shows my QSOs around the world whilst operating portable.

The map below shows my contacts into Europe and the United Kingdom.

The map below shows my contacts into North America, Central America, and South America.

The map below shows my contacts around Australia and New Zealand.

Tonight I decided to upload my home log of about 41,000 QSOs into Log Analyzer 3.2. It plots the QSOs onto a map.

These are contacts made since July 2011 when I obtained my Standard licence.

These are just my contacts I have made from home as VK5PAS. I also made about 2,900 QSOs with my Foundation call of VK5FPAS. I have also made about 38,000 QSOs whilst portable (in a park, on a SOTA summit, at a HEMA summit, Silo, etc). I will place another post about my portable contacts with maps showing those contacts.

All bands – 278 countries worked and 276 countries confirmed.

• 10m – 169 countries worked and 164 confirmed.
• 15m – 180 countries worked and 173 confirmed.
• 20m – 260 countries worked and 256 confirmed
• 40m – 120 countries worked and 100 confirmed.
• 80m – 6 countries worked and 6 countries confirmed.

The two maps below show my contacts from home.

The map below shows my contacts into Europe and the United Kingdom.

The map below shows my contacts around Asia and the sub-continent.

The map below shows my contacts to the USA, Canada, Central & South America.

And this map shows my contacts into Africa.

Earlier this month I qualified for my latest VKFF Hunter Honour Roll, issued for having worked a total of 1,525 different VKFF references.

Thank you to all of the VKFF activators.

The certificate features a photograph of Matilda Bay Reserve VKFF-2825 which I took during a visit there in 2019.

A few days ago I found out that I came 2nd in the Trans Tasman Contest in the Single Op-Low Power section.

Thanks to everyone who called and thanks to the Contest Manager Alan VK4SN.

In the past couple of weeks I qualified for my last global WWFF Hunter certificate, issued for having worked 1,844 references.

Thanks to all of the WWFF activators and thanks to the Awards Manager Karl DL1JKK.

On Monday 19th, Tuesday 20th, and Wednesday 21st July 2021, Marija VK5MAZ and I had the VK100AF callsign allocated to us once again. This is a special event call to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Royal Australian Air Force.

Over the 3 day period we made a total of 389 QSOs.

This included contacts into 30 different DXCC entities:-

1. Asiatic Russia
2. Australia
3. Austria
4. Belarus
5. Belgium
6. Bulgaria
7. Canada
8. England
9. European Russia
10. Federal Republic of Germany
11. Fiji
12. Finland
13. France
14. Georgia
15. Hawai
16. Hungary
17. Italy
18. New Zealand
19. Northern Ireland
20. Norway
21. Poland
22. Portugal
23. Puerto Rico
24. Republic of Korea
25. Romania
26. Tajikistan
27. Thailand
28. Ukraine
29. United States of America
30. Wales

We made contacts on 10, 20, 40, & 80m SSB. There was a small opening to VK1, VK2, and VK3 on 10m on Tuesday which I took advantage of. There was no propagation on the 15m band.

10m – 18 QSOs

20m – 137 QSOs

40m – 122 QSOs

80m – 112 QSOs

DX this time around was a little more scarce. I found that there was very little, if any at all, openings on the long path on 20m to Europe during our afternoon. On Wednesday evening there was a small opening to Europe on the short path.

I worked 25 stations in the USA and 4 stations in Canada. This was on 20m SSB and 40m SSB.

The majority of ur contacts were around Australia and into New Zealand. We made a total of 290 QSOs to VK stations and 14 to New Zealand.

We had some interesting contacts during the 3 days. This included contact with Dave G4AKC who was bicycle mobile. We spoke with Dave on both Monday and Wednesday on 20m, with band conditions being much better on Wednesday afternoon.

We also spoke with Sam F4GYG/p who was activating FFF- 0364 in France for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.

It was great to speak with Jack W1FDY, on the Southern Cross DX Net. Jack had been running the net for many years and of recent years propagation has not been terrific.

We also spoke with Raul VK2IMP who was mobile. This was Raul’s first ever mobile contact.

We also logged Erwin VK4ERW who was maritime mobile at Fraser Island.

Park activators included Gerard VK2IO and Deryck VK4FDJL/8.

We spoke with Richard N4ICV in Texas, who was a former aircraft mechanic. Also Len KM4WW ho was former Marine Corp.

THANK YOU to everyone who called. We have the callsign again next month in August.

Received these certificates today from Stuie VK8NSB for our participation using the VK100AF and VI100AF callsigns for the 100-year celebration of the Royal Australian Air Force.

It has been a real privilege to use the calls.

Thanks to Stuie for organising the event, and thanks to all of the callers.