On Monday afternoon (10th October 2016) I headed down to the Adelaide Airport and collected fellow Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) Director Andrew VK6AS.  Andrew and I had scheduled 3 talks over the next 3 days across South Australia with regards to matters involving the WIA.

On Monday evening we spoke at the Blackwood Community Centre, Young Street Blackwood, to around 100 amateurs.  The evening was hosted by the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society and was attended by members from most of the Adelaide suburban clubs.

On Tuesday morning (11th October 2016) Andrew and I drove down to Mount Gambier, a journey of around 404 km.  On the way down to Mount Gambier I introduced Andrew to park activating.  Despite the rather inclement weather, we activated the Mount Monster Conservation Park VKFF-0800.  On arrival in Mount Gambier we headed to the home of Col VK5HCF for a coffee and a chat and later that evening we joined Col VK5HCF and the President of the South East Radio Group (SERG) Col VK5DK, at one of the local hotels for dinner.  We subsequently spoke with a group of 18 amateurs from VK5 and VK3 at SERG’s clubrooms in Mount Gambier.

On Wednesday morning we were on the road again, and this time headed to the Riverland region of South Australia.  This was a 451 km drive.  Along the way we briefly activated the Peebinga Conservation Park VKFF-0830.  That evening we spoke with around 12 amateurs at the Barmera Scout Hall.

On Thursday morning (12th October 2016) Andrew and I headed back to Adelaide.  Along the way we stopped off briefly at the Loch Luna Game Reserve VKFF-1723 and activated this VKFF reference for the very first time.  It was then off to the Adelaide airport and a flight back to Perth for Andrew.

It was a great 3 days away, with lots of interest shown by amateurs in our discussion surrounding the WIA.  A distance of around 1,100 km covered in the 3 days whilst we were away.

Above:- Map showing our trip around South Australia.  Map courtesy of plotaroute.com

Last week in the mail I was very pleased to receive my plaque for the 2015 Oceania DX Contest.  The Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society (AHARS) sponsors two plaques in the Oceania DX Contest:-

• Top entrant from South Australia (VK5) in PHONE Single-Operator ALL Band LOW
  Power category
• Top entrant from South Australia (VK5) in CW Single-Operator ALL Band LOW Power
  category

Many thanks to the Oceania DX Contest Committee and also thanks to the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society.

More information on the Oceania DX Contest can be found at….

http://www.oceaniadxcontest.com/

I received my Platinum SOTA Mountain Hunter certificate last night.  This is issued for working at least 2 SOTA activators in 20 Associations in 3 or more continents around the world.

Well another Oceania DX Contest has been and gone.  This is one contest I always participate in as clearly its focus is on my part of the world, Oceania.  I have participated since 2011.  The Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society (AHARS) also sponsors two plaque in the contest, and that is extra motivation for taking part.  The plaques sponsored by AHARS are as follows:

• VK5 PHONE Single Op, All band, Low power
• VK5 CW Single Op, All band, Low power

I have been the recipient of the AHARS PHONE plaque in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.

The object of the Oceania DX Contest is for Oceania stations to contact as many stations as possible both inside and outside of the Oceania region, whilst Non-Oceania stations are required to contact as many stations as possible inside the Oceania region.  Each QSO is credited points depending upon which band the contact was made and a multiplier applies in the award, which is the number of different valid prefixes worked.  The final score is the sum of the contact points multiplied by the Multiplier.

This year I made a total of 276 QSOs with a claimed score of 120,754 points.  That consisted of 698 points and 173 multipliers.  I operated on the 40, 20 and 15 m bands on SSB and entered into the Single Operator Low Power All bands category.

How does that stack up against previous years for me?

• 2011 – 194 QSOs
• 2012 – 731 QSOs
• 2013 – 154 QSOs
• 2014 – 829 QSOs
• 2015 – 404 QSOs.

So I was well down on most of the previous years.

Sadly, propagation over the 24 hours was less than ideal.  There were some openings on 15m into Asia, but conditions on that band were well down for me compared to previous years.  Long path propagation to Europe was definitely down, compared to what it has been over the last couple of weeks.  Sadly for me I have a very average antenna on 40m, and my noise floor at home on 40m during the evenings is quite high.  So working DX on 40m is quite a challenge.

My equipment consisted of:

• Yaesu FT-1000
• 100 watts
• home brew 1/2 wave 40m dipole @ 9 metres, inverted vee
• 5 element tri band yagi @ 16 metres

My 5 element yagi at home

The contest started yesterday (Saturday 1st October 2016) at 0800 UTC and concluded at 0800 UTC today (Sunday 2nd October 2016).  I did not make the contest an ‘over nighter’ and went to bed at around 10.00 p.m. local time (1230 UTC) on Saturday evening.  After a bit of a sleep in on Sunday morning, I headed back to shack and was on air again at around 8.45 a.m. local time (2315 UTC).  I took a number of breaks during the day as band conditions were poor, and I engaged in less enjoyable activities such as mowing the lawn and clearing emails.

The chart below shows my hours of activity during the contest.

I started off on the 20m band on Saturday afternoon and worked a total of 51 stations in Europe, the Pacific, Japan, Norfolk Island, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Australia.  My first contact in the contest was with SQ1OD in Poland and this was followed by A35JP in Tonga in the Pacific.

When the 20m band had closed at around 0900 UTC I headed over to 15m where I worked just 2 JA stations.  I then moved to 40m where I worked a total of 70 stations in Australia, USA, Indonesia, Thailand, Lord Howe Island, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Norfolk Island.

So at the end of day one, Saturday, I had a total of 122 QSOs in the log.  It had been quite slow going.

On Sunday I started off on the 15m band where I worked a number of stations from Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Russia.  It was then off to mow the lawns.

I returned back to the radio just before 0400 UTC and worked a further 27 stations on 15m from Indonesia, India, Philippines,  Australia, Brunei, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Korea, and Hong Kong.

But I was finding band conditions a real struggle on 15m, so I occasionally headed over to 40m and 20m.  I found the 40m band was well down and was incredibly noisy, and found it a little hard to pull some of the VK callers out of the noise.  It was a bonus to log Ron VK3AFW/2 and Allen VK3AHR/2 who were on SOTA peak Granite Mountain VK2/ SW-015.

At around 0613 UTC I headed back to 20m and worked a handful of stations from Australia, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Japan, and New Zealand.  I then found a clear frequency and started calling CQ contest.  Things started off quite slowly but it wasn’t long before I had quite a large pile up from Europe and I logged a further 67 contacts.  Below is a short video of working the pile up.

Unfortunately the 20m band dropped out quite quickly, so for the last 10 minutes of the contest I called CQ on 40m where my first taker from my CQ call was EA5CTE in Spain.  For me, with my little antenna and 100 watts, I was very pleased.  A handful of callers followed from VK2, VK4 and New Zealand, leading up to the close of the contest at 0800 UTC.  My last contact was with VK2AHE.

Here is a breakdown of the bands I used during the contest:

40m – 94 QSOs

• Asiatic Russia
• Australia
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Lord Howe Island
• Marianna Islands
• New Zealand
• Norfolk Island
• Spain
• Thailand
• United States of America
• West Malaysia

20m – 136 QSOs

• Australia
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Corsica
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• England
• European Russia
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hong Kong
• Hawaii
• Hungary
• Indonesia
• Israel
• Italy
• Japan
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norfolk Island
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Russia
• Singapore
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Thailand
• Tonga
• Ukraine
• United States of America

15m – 46 QSOs

• Asiatic Russia
• Australia
• Brunei
• East Malaysia
• European Russa
• Hong Kong
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Philippines
• South Korea
• Thailand
• Ukraine
• West Malaysia

So with 276 contacts in the log under some pretty trying band conditions, and intermittent time spent at the radio, I was quite pleased.  A few of the highlights for me included working the Quake Contesters team on Norfolk Island, as I had been on Norfolk myself back in May.

Also A35JP in Tonga, my good mate Marnix OP7M in Belgium amongst the pile up and EA5CTE on 40m after my first CQ call.

Here is hoping for better band conditions next year.

More information can be found on the Oceania DX Contest at…….

http://www.oceaniadxcontest.com/

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish writer who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world’s pre-eminent novelists.  His major work, Don Quixote, is considered to be the first modern novel.  It is the most edited and translated book in literature history, just behind The Bible.

2016 is the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes and the Union de Radioaficionados Espanoles (URE) are offering a special award and diploma between 19th September 2016 to 9th October 2016.

Diplomas are offered for working a certain number of the 14 special event stations (highlighted in red are those that I have worked).

1. AN400A
2. AN400C
3. AN400D
4. AN400E
5. AN400G
6. AN400I
7. AN400L
8. AN400M
9. AN400N
10. AN400R
11. AN400S
12. AN400T
13. AN400U
14. AN400V

Today I received the Silver diploma.

More information can be found at…..

http://cervantes.ure.es/

I’ve been asked a couple of times in the past few weeks, what camera gear do I use to:

1.  take the photos on the summits and in the parks;

and

2. take the video from my activations.

When I first started activating, I used my i-phone.  I soon learnt that the phone went flat quickly by using it for this purpose.  Thus eliminating a tool for contact with the outside world should things go wrong.

So I started using a camera and video during my activations.

My current camera is a Nikon D750 which also takes full HD video.

I have a variety of different lenses including a Nikon 24-120mm lens, and a Nikon 200-500mm lens.

Also in the mail was my certificate for the ARRL Centennial Points Challenge.

This was held during 2015, and points were allocated for QSOs with ARRL memebrs, appointees, elected officials, staff, and W1AW portable stations.

More information can be found at…..

http://www.arrl.org/centennial-qso-party

I received in the mail the other day my certificate for the 2015 HF World Championship.  I came first in Zone 59 for my category, Single Operator/Phone only/Low power.

The objective of this contest is to make contact with as many other amateurs, especially IARU member society HQ stations, around the world.

I decided to have a look tonight at my stats for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.  I’m sitting on 745 different WWFF references worked around the world, and I was interested to see how that broke down per country.

Below is a bar graph showing the number of references worked in various countries around the world.  I have worked WWFF activators in 27 different countries (DXCC entities).

Of course, the most number of references worked is Australia on 504.  This is followed by Belgium with 63, Poland with 37, and then Italy with 32.

The graph below shows references worked around the world (excluding Australia).  As mentioned, leading is Belgium, followed by Poland, Italy, France, and then Germany.

1. Australia-504
2. Belgium-63
3. Poland-37
4. Italy-32
5. France-19
6. Germany-16
7. Denmark-7
8. Romania-7
9. United Kingdom-7
10. Finland-6
11. Czech Republic-6
12. Netherlands-6
13. Spain-6
14. Croatia-4
15. Cyprus-3
16. Portugal-3
17. Hungary-3
18. Greece-3
19. Ukraine-3
20. Switzerland-2
21. Serbia-2
22. New Zealand-2
23. Lithuania-1
24. Austria-1
25. Sweden-1
26. Israel-1
27. Galapagos Island-1

Belgium, Poland, and Italy have very vibrant WWFF programs, and their activators often listen for ‘outside of Europe’ which helps us activators down here in Australia.