AUSSIE BACKYARD BIRD COUNT & NATIONAL BIRD WEEK– 17-23 OCTOBER 2017
The Aussie Backyard Bird Count will take placed between 17th-23rd October 2016. This is part of National Bird Week.
I will be out activating a few parks over this time, and have a special QSL card on offer. If you happen to log me whilst I’m out in the field and would like a card, please send me a SSAE with your card to my QRZ.com address.
I hope to see some more park activators out over that week.
More information on the Aussie Bird Count can be found at…..
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…….
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedrawas 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).
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.
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.
Australia-504
Belgium-63
Poland-37
Italy-32
France-19
Germany-16
Denmark-7
Romania-7
United Kingdom-7
Finland-6
Czech Republic-6
Netherlands-6
Spain-6
Croatia-4
Cyprus-3
Portugal-3
Hungary-3
Greece-3
Ukraine-3
Switzerland-2
Serbia-2
New Zealand-2
Lithuania-1
Austria-1
Sweden-1
Israel-1
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.
My eighth and final park whilst away was the Franklin Harbour Conservation Park VKFF-0807 and 5CP-071.
Above:- Map showing the location of the Franklin Harbour Conservation Park. Map courtesy of Protected Planet.
After leaving Middlecamp Hills, I travelled south along the Kimba-Cowell Road, and enjoyed some nice views down towards Cowell. I was very cognisant of the time, as it has taken me longer to get my 44 QSOs at Middlecamp Hills than expected. And I had to be back at Whyalla, about 100 km away, for lunch, and then a 5 hour drive back home to the Adelaide Hills.
Above:- View towards Cowell.
I had activated Franklin Harbour CP previously, but this was to be another unique VKFF park for me. My last activation of the park was back in June 2013, and was as part of the VK5 National and Conservation Parks Award. It is amazing how the parks programs have progressed in Australia since that time. For that activation I made a total of 7 contacts. To read and see more have a look at my previous post at……
Franklin Harbour CP was established on 22nd January 1976, and is 1,356 hectares (3,350 acres) in size. It is located about 5 km south of the town of Cowell. The conservation park consists of land on a peninsula that encloses the south east side of Franklin Harbor and four islands including Entrance Island. The park is important in that it preserves an area of mangrove and samphire flats. This type of vegetation is dramatically depleted in South Australia.
Above:- Aerial shot showing the location of the Franklin Harbour Conservation Park. Image courtesy of Google Maps.
The Entrance Islands contain a population of Death Adders, which is one of the most venomous land snakes in Australia and the world. Death Adders possess the longest fangs of any Australian snake and can deliver the fastest strike among all venomous snakes recorded in Australia. Death can result within 6 hours of the bite. Thankfully I was not going there. I am no fan of snakes! The islands also provide a safe roosting and feeding site for sea birds.
Above:- A Death Adder. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Cowell itself is a beautiful little town, with a population of around 1,070 people. It is the centre of the surrounding agricultural district. The town also supports the local fishing and oyster farming industry.
I drove out of Cowell along Beach Road which was quite wet and boggy in parts. Beach Road takes you out to The Knob and the south western tip of the Conservation Park.
I found a dirt track off Beach Road and drove a short distance down that track and set up my station quickly, as I wanted to get back to Whyalla for lunch.
Above:- Map showing my operating spot within the park. Map courtesty of Protected Planet.
There were some stations on 7.146 so I decided not to operate on 7.144 as I did not want to cause any interference to them. So I headed down to 7.142 and commenced calling CQ. My first responder was Geoff VK3SQ in Beechworth with a nice 5/9 signal, followed by Col VK5HCF, and then Greg VK5GJ, running QRP 40 milliwatts again. This time Greg was a good 5/5 with his QRP set up.
It was an extremely nice outlook from ‘my shack’ out across Spencer Gulf, and to top it off I had a lot of callers. I had secured the elusive 44 contacts within 40 minutes, and that was with Peter VK3ZPF. I worked a further 3 stations before going QRT.
I’m sorry if there was anyone else waiting there, but I did not want to push my luck with my wife Marija. I had a total of 47 contacts in the log and another successful VKFF activation.
The following stations were worked on 40m SSB:-
VK3SQ
VK5HCF
VK5GJ
VK4RF
VK4HA
VK3PF
VK2HHA
VK5EE
VK3GGG
VK3PMG
VK1AT/3
VK5FANA
VK3SFG
VK3MRH
VK2YW
VK3UH
VK3ZMD
VK5NFT/m
VK2PKT
VK3FRAB
VK3FLCS
VK5AFZ
VK3ELH
VK5FMID
VK3BBB
VK5MRT
VK5VRB
VK2IO
VK5FR
VK3VBI
VK4HNS/p
VK5HS
VK2KYO
VK5FLEX
VK3FSPG
VK5AYD
VK3GP
VK3FQSO
VK5PL
VK3KRH
VK5KLV/m
VK3PAT
VK3TJS
VK3ZPF
VK6JON/7
VK1DI
VK7FOLK/m
At the conclusion of the activation I stopped off very quickly at the agricultural museum at Cowell, which contains a wide range of agricultural machinery. It was then a 1 hour drive back to Whyalla.
And while on Whyalla, I’d be remiss not to mention something about the town. I always joke that the best view of Whyalla is ‘in the rear vision mirror’. It is not the most pleasing town on the eye. But it is the birth place of my beloved, and we have family and many good friends there.
Whyalla, previously known as Hummock Hill, is the third most populous town/city in South Australia. Only behind Adelaide and Mount Gambier. It is known as the “Steel City’ due to its steelworks and shipbuilding heritage. Whyalla has been exporting iron ore since 1903 and was founded by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP). A shipyard was constructed at Whyalla to provide ships to the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War. The first ship that rolled off the shipyard, was in 1941, and the corvette was appropriately named HMAS Whyalla. This is now a landlocked tourist attraction.
VK5PAS 