Author Archives: Stuart VK2FSTU

Ex professional photographer now a passionate hobby, love gold detecting and 4x4 out in the Gold Fields of Aus, also as all on here love Amateur Radio, long days in the sun at a good beach and body surfing, as well as passionate coffee roaster and grower.

Calling CQ FunFlight!

DSC_FUNFLIGHTDear Radio clubs,

It would be appreciated if you could please forward the below media release to your members.  This will be an exciting national event for radio amateurs to be involved with!  Calling CQ FunFlight!
An opportunity exists to promote your radio club and amateur radio through the national FunFlight day, to be held on Sunday November 8th.

FunFlight is volunteer-run, and established to provide children touched by adversity, with joy and inspiration through the exhilaration of flight.  Flying clubs and pilots nation wide donate their facilities and flight time, to help provide a memorable day for thousands of children.  The website is at www.funflight.org.

Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club will be once again setting up an amateur radio station at the Bendigo Flying club, to provide an extra activity for the children while they wait for their flights.  The FunFlight organisers are supportive of the concept, so perhaps your club may be interested in contacting your local Flying club, to see if they are interested in an amateur radio station on FunFlight day.

Radio clubs participating on the day will be liaising on forty metres, providing a link for the children to talk with each other and share their experiences.  This will be an exciting event, and we look forward to connecting with other flying clubs via amateur radio, as we call ‘CQ FunFlight’ on Sunday November 8th!

Kind regards,
Graeme Knight

Oceania DX Content 3-10-15

UluruVia VK Contest Club, original article here.  Contest website here.

The 2015 Oceania DX contest is now only a couple of weeks away, with the PHONE SSB section on the first weekend in October and the CW section on the second weekend in October.

The main aim of the contest is to promote HF contacts with stations in the Oceania region. Oceania stations can work other Oceania and non-Oceania stations. Non-Oceania stations can only work Oceania stations.

As always, this will be a great opportunity to work a lot of DX stations in the Oceania region, as well as giving your station a test drive for the new contest season and CQ WW contest events later in the year. We are expecting another good turn out from VK, ZL and YB stations, as well as stations from
some of the rarer Pacific entities.

We are pleased to announce that the 2015 contest includes two new plaques aimed at Indonesian entrants – Karsono Suyanto YB0NDT is sponsoring a plaque for the highest scoring entrant from Indonesia in the PHONE Single Operator All Band category, and the YB Land DX Club is sponsoring a plaque for the highest scoring entrant from INDONESIA with a General Licence (YD/YG prefix)
in the PHONE Single Operator 40M Band category

The OCDX Contest Committee is sad to report the passing of Mirek Rozbicki VK6DXI earlier this year. Mirek was the sponsor of the Frank Vander Drift VK3COF Memorial Plaque that was awarded to the highest scoring station from Europe in the CW Single Operator ALL Band category. Slawek Barciuk VK3CTN has kindly offered to pick up the ongoing sponsorship of this plaque. This will now be known as the VK6DXI Memorial Plaque – in recognition and memory of Mirek’s significant contribution to the OCDX contest and amateur radio contesting more generally.

Here is an abbreviated summary of the rules for the 2015 contest:

PHONE: 08:00 UTC Saturday 3 October to 08:00 UTC Sunday 4 October
CW: 08:00 UTC Saturday 10 October to 08:00 UTC Sunday 11 October

Bands: 160M to 10M (excluding WARC bands).
Exchange: RS(T) + serial number.
QSO points: 20 points per QSO on 160M; 10 points on 80M; 5 points on 40M; 1 point on 20M; 2 points on 15M; and 3 points on 10M.
Final Score: The sum of the QSO points multiplied by the number of prefixes worked (the same prefix can be counted once on each band).

Entry Categories:
Single Operator All Band QRP (max 5W)
Single Operator All Band Low Power (max 100W)
Single Operator All Band High Power
Single Operator Single Band QRP (max 5W)
Single Operator Single Band Low Power (max 100W)
Single Operator Single Band High Power
M1 – Multiple Operators and Single Transmitter (only one transmitted signal at any time)
M2 – Multiple Operators and Two Transmitters (no more than two transmitted signals at any time and on different bands)
MM – Multiple Operators and Multiple Transmitters (no more than one transmitted signal at any time on each band)
Shortwave Listener (receive only) All Band

Trophies and plaques will be awarded as listed on the web site here . Certificates will be awarded to the winning stations in each of the categories above – for each continent and country. A participation certificate will also be awarded to every station that makes at least one valid QSO.

Log Submission Deadline: All logs must be emailed (or postmarked) NO LATER than 31 October 2015. Logs are to be sent as an e-mail attachment to ph@oceaniadxcontest.com (for PHONE entries) or cw@oceaniadxcontest.com (for CW entries).

More information about the contest, including the detailed rules, is available from the Oceania DX Contest web site here.

73 and we look forward to seeing you in the pile ups!

Oceania DX Contest Committee
VK3MI/ZL1AZE, ZL2IFB, ZL3GA, VK3TZ, VK4FH and VK7GN