After arriving back on the South Australian mainland from Flinders Island on Sunday 21st April 2024, I headed to get a coffee from the roadhouse at Elliston and fill up the 4WD with some diesel.

I then took the Clifftop Drive at Elliston. My first stop was Salmon Point overlooking Waterloo Bay back to Elliston and Wellington Point. It was a spectacular day with not a cloud in the sky.

The drive is an easy 7 km loop drive. Along the way are various sculptures.

There are some magnificent views of the coastline along this drive. The West Coast of South Australia is absolutely sensational and rivals other coastal drives around Australia.

One of the best sculptures on the drive is the ‘Thongs’.

There are also some nice views of the Waldegrave Islands, about 2.5 km off the coast from Cape Finniss. They qualify for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program and are VKFF-1116.

Captain Matthew Flinders discovered the island group in February 1802 and named them in honour of William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock. (Wikipedia 2024)

The Waldegrave Islands group consists of Waldegrave Island, Little Waldegrave Island and a pair of rocks known as the Watchers. (Wikipedia 2024)

I then drove back into Elliston to view the mural at the Elliston Hall. The mural features various aspects of Elliston including its history and sporting activities.

I also visited M.A. Trudinger Memorial Park at Elliston. The park is named in honour of Dr. Malcolm August Trudinger M.B. B.S. who practised on the Eyre Peninsula during the years 1930-1964.

I then visited the Matthew Flinders monument at Elliston. Captain Matthew Flinders, the Commander of H.M. Sloop Investigator, between 10th and 13th February 1802 discovered and named The Investigator Group including Pearson, Ward Isles, Flinders Isle, Waldegrave Isles and Topgallant Isles. The monument was unveiled on Pioneers Day in April 1948.

I then activated the Elliston silo VK-ELN5. I parked on Silo Road and operated from the 4WD running the Icom IC-7000, 100 watts and the Codan 9350 antenna with the 1.5-metre stainless steel whip.

Above:- The activation zone of the Elliston silo. Image c/o SiOTA silo.

This was just a short activation. I logged a total of 14 stations on 20 & 40m SSB.

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK3YV/p (Picnic Point Streamside Reserve VKFF-3832)
2. VK3PF

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

1. VK1AO
2. VK2MET
3. VK3PF
4. VK1AD
5. VK7XX
6. ZL1HIM
7. VK5QA
8. Vk4DNO
9. VK2IO
10. VK1MCW/m
11. VK5MAZ
12. VK4SMA

References.

1. Wikipedia. (2022). Waldegrave Islands. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldegrave_Islands [Accessed 17 Jul. 2024].‌

I have finalised the results for the 2023 Top VKFF Hunter.

I came in 10th place during 2023 with a total of 620 VKFF references worked.

The certificate features a photograph I took of Investigator Marine Park on the west coast of South Australia

Here are my latest FT8 award certificates.

Thank you to all of the FT8 operators and thank you to the various award managers.

Here is a selection of some of the latest QSL cards to be received here in the past week or so for VK5MAZ and VK5PAS.

At about 1236 UTC on the 3rd day of July 2024, I tuned in to WWCR in the United States of America, broadcasting in the English language on 13845 kHz.

The signal was coming from the Nashville, Tennessee 100kW transmitter. (Short Wave Info 2023)

The program consisted of Country & Western music.

The overall reception of WWCR was good. The signal strength was good and there was no interference from other stations on the frequency or from adjacent frequencies.  There was only very slight fading of the signal – barely noticeable.  The band was very quiet and there were no significant static crashes that affected the signal.

Below is a short video showing my reception of WWCR.

References.

1. Short-wave.info. (2023). Short-Wave Radio Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH. [online] Available at: http://www.short-wave.info/index.php [Accessed 9 Jul. 2024].‌

At about 1025 UTC on the 2nd day of July 2024, I tuned in to the KBS World Radio, South Korea, broadcasting on 9570 kHz in the English language.

The signal was coming from the Kimjai 100kW transmitter in South Korea. (Short Wave Info 2023)

The overall reception of KBS World was fair.   The signal strength was good, however, there was moderate interference on the same frequency from China National Radio CNR2 broadcasting in the Chinese language.  This did affect listening pleasure.  There was only slight fading of the signal.

Below is a short video showing my reception of the KBS World Radio.

References.

1. Short-wave.info. (2023). Short-Wave Radio Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH. [online] Available at: http://www.short-wave.info/index.php [Accessed 9 Jul. 2024].‌

At about 0958 UTC on the 2nd day of July 2024, I tuned in to the Voice of Vietnam broadcasting on 9840 kHz in the English language.

The signal was coming from the Hanoi 100kW transmitter in Vietnam. (Short Wave Info 2023)

The overall reception of the Voice of Vietnam was fair.   The signal strength was good, however, there was interference on either side of the frequency from other stations in Southeast Asia.  There was only slight fading of the signal.

Below is a short video showing my reception of the Voice of Vietnam.

References.

1. Short-wave.info. (2023). Short-Wave Radio Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH. [online] Available at: http://www.short-wave.info/index.php [Accessed 9 Jul. 2024].‌

At about 1238 UTC on the 1st day of July 2024, I tuned in to Voice of Beibu Bay Radio broadcasting on 15505 kHz in the Vietnamese and Chinese languages.

The signal was coming from the Nanning 15kW transmitter. (Short Wave Info 2023)

The overall reception of Voice of Beibu Bay Radio was good.   The signal strength was good and there was only slight fading of the signal. There was only slight interference from other stations on adjacent frequencies.  There were very slight static crashes on the band.

Below is a short video showing my reception of Voice of Beibu Bay Radio.

References.

1. Short-wave.info. (2023). Short-Wave Radio Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH. [online] Available at: http://www.short-wave.info/index.php [Accessed 9 Jul. 2024].‌

At about 1305 UTC on the 1st day of July 2024, I tuned into South Korea Meteorological Radio transmitting on 5858 kHz.

At about 1427 UTC on the 29th day of June 2024, I tuned in to Adventist World Radio broadcasting on 15505 kHz in the English language.

The signal was coming from the Dushabe-Or 1kW transmitter in Tajikistan. (Short Wave Info 2023)

The overall reception of Adventist World Radio was fair.   The signal strength was good, however, there was some sort of squealing noise on the frequency and this severely affected listening pleasure.  There was only slight fading of the signal.

Below is a short video showing my reception of Adventist World Radio.

References.

1. Short-wave.info. (2023). Short-Wave Radio Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH. [online] Available at: http://www.short-wave.info/index.php [Accessed 9 Jul. 2024].‌