Australia Day Contest Results and 2023

TRIAL AUSTRALIA DAY CONTEST

Contest Managers

Trent Sampson VK4TS
Alan Shannon VK4SN

Contest Introduction

This trial contest is to encourage Amateur Radio promotional Activity in Australia New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and is designed to encourage friendly participation and help improve the operating skills of participants. It is held on the Australia Day Public Holiday that being the 26th January.

Aim Of The Contest

Amateurs in VK, ZL and P2 will endeavour to contact other amateurs in VK, ZL and P2.
* VK, ZL, and P2 mean any station operating within Australia, New Zealand or Papua New Guinea and their external territories.
* Points are only awarded for valid contacts between VK, ZL and P2 stations.

This Years Winners

Submitted logs can be viewed at www.vklogchecker.com

Log Checker Statistics

Trial Australia Day Contest 2022

The trial Australia Day Contest was considered a success by the many participants – we had 78 logs submitted and over 580 different callsigns in the logs.

In the single operator phone category VK2K (Cam VK2DG) from Gol Gol was in first place with 275 points with a clear margin to the second place of AX2VH on 237 points the first foundation was VK4BDX who concentrated on 10 metres for 83 points and an 8th place overall, congratulations Brett.

In the single operator CW category AX2GR (Allan VK2GR) edged out VK2PN (Patrick) with 40 points versus 26. We are sure in years to come that the single operator CW category will have more entrants.

In the single operator mixed category VK4N Greg (VK4BXX) was first with 82 points and coming in second was AX3GK Lee with 77 points

In the single operator QRP phone category VK3W (Megan VK3AAK) on 30 points edged out VK3P (Perrin VK3PT) with 24 points, it was a great effort for Megan.

In the multi operator multi transmitter category a very lonely VL4R was the winner with 213 points, well done Bill and Diane

Previous Years Winners

This contest is new from 2022

Contest History

January 2022. Alan VK4SN and Trent VK4TS brainstormed the concept and presented it to the WIA board. Taking just a week, websites, rules, loggers and WIA approval have come to completion. Thanks to all involved to get the contest ready for 2022.

Upcoming Contest Date & Time

Australia Day, January 26th Every year

Going Forwards:

As we pointed out from the start it was a trial and the very encouraging results have us considering 2023 on a bigger scale for a more permanent entry to the contesting calendar.

In 2023 the restrictions to P2, VK and ZL will be removed, and DX will be allowed to be worked.

In 2023 the Contest will be HF Only with 160 80 40 20 15 and 10M leaving 30 17 and 12M free for those who want to give out AX calls without contest interference.

In 2023 the time of the contest will be increased to 24 hours

In 2023 the RD based scoring will be retained, with the difference being internationals are able to be worked and can also enter the contest, after all the contest is about promoting Australia day.

Contest Rules

4. Categories
1. Single Operator
2. Single Operator – QRP
3. Multi-Operator – Single Transmitter (Multi-Single)
4. Multi-Operator – Unlimited (Multi-Multi)

NOTE: Multi stations please respect relevant COVID lockdown rules in your area.
* QRP stations are limited to 5 Watts average (CW) or PEP (SSB) at the transmitter output.

5. Sub-Category Modes for Single Operators
1. Phone (AM, FM & SSB)
2. CW
3. Mixed

6. Permitted Bands
1. Contacts may be made on MF (160M), HF and VHF & above bands except for WARC bands (10, 18 & 24MHZ) which are excluded by IARU agreement from all contest operations.

a. HF SSB Voice transmissions should be within:
1843-1875, 3535-3570 and 3600-3700, 7080-7300, 14112-14300, 21150-21450, 28300-29100KHz, otherwise disqualification or points reduction may result.

7. Multi-operator Stations
1. Multi-operator single transmitter stations
a. Are only allowed one transmitted signal on air at any time.
2. Multi-operator Unlimited stations
a. Are only allowed two transmitted signals on any band, one per Phone and one per CW as per rule 5.1 and 5.2.
b. Simultaneous transmissions on different bands are permitted.
3. Multi-operator stations are mixed mode only.

8. Contacts
1. Suggested Call: “CQ Australia Day”, “CQ Contest”, or “CQ Test”
2. Exchange: A valid exchange consists of RS(T) followed by a number as follows:
a. For a single operator, the number of years you have been a licenced Ham. For example, if this is your 1st year as a ham then you will sign RS(T) 001. Round off to the nearest whole number. All zeros are not accepted.
b. For a multi-op or club station, the number of licenced years of the longest licenced Amateur present at the start of the contest.
3. On all bands, stations may be contacted at intervals of not less than THREE hours since the previous contact on that band and mode.
a. FM, AM, & SSB count as one mode. Therefore, one cannot QSO with a station in FM and work them on SSB on the same band before the three hours is up.
4. No cross-band contacts are allowed.
5. Exchange of contact information via satellites, telephones, repeaters, Echolink, IRLP, or the internet is not in the spirit of the contest.
6. Contacts via satellites are not allowed for scoring purposes.
7. Contacts within the same call area are permitted.

10. General Rules
1) W.I.A. General Rules for All Contests apply unless otherwise specified.
2) All operators of single operator stations must perform all operating and logging without assistance.
a) Use of clusters, Skimmers, and /or SDR Technology is allowed.
3) Holders of more than one licence or callsign MUST use only ONE callsign for the contest duration.
4) Fully automated operation is not permitted; however, computers can be used for logging or CW reception and/or keying.
5) All operations must be in accordance with the band plan for the band in use
6) Any station observed as departing from the generally accepted codes of operating ethics or licence conditions may be disqualified.
7) REMOTE STATION OPERATION is allowed with the following conditions:
a) Both receiving and transmitting antennas must be co-located and be in Australia.
b) If your remote station is interstate, you must sign VKn??/VKn or VKn/VKn??
c) The remote site location must be shown by a maiden head six figure grid square in your soapbox comments. General Rule 5(c) applies regarding 500m circle.
d) All calls and exchanges must be obtained through the TX/RX remote site.
e) Only the remote site can be used during the contest. I.E. Using your personal physical local location for use of local TX/RX operations is not allowed and will result in disqualification.
8. 2×1 contest calls are prohibited from using the AX prefix in lieu of VK.

Contest Scoring

Scoring
1. On 160 metres two points per completed valid contact.
2. On 23cm or higher bands two points per completed valid contact.
3. On all other bands one point. (No WARC bands allowed)
4. On CW, irrespective of band, double points.

Submitting Your Log

Log Submission
1. Use of logging software is preferred as the output file will be in Cabrillo format which suits the log checking software. See below for logger links.
2. Submit Log via https://vklogchecker.com MANUAL submission.
3. Or failing b. above, attach your ‘callsign.log’ file to your email to axlogs@wia.org.au and put your callsign in the subject.
4. If logs are sent directly to the manager, receipt of your log, will be receipted by the manager. Just to be sure, it is advised that you flag your email for “confirmation of receipt”.
5. PAPER logs are not accepted.
6. Emailed Logs are to be received by the contest manager no later than midnight on the 31st of January after the contest ends.
7. All logs will be receipted by email provided an email address is supplied.
8. Logs received after the closing date will not be eligible for processing.

Contest Results

12. Contest Results

Trial Australia Day Contest 2022

The trial Australia Day Contest was considered a success by the many participants – we had 78 logs submitted and over 580 different callsigns in the logs.

In the single operator phone category VK2K (Cam VK2DG) from Gol Gol was in first place with 275 points with a clear margin to the second place of AX2VH on 237 points the first foundation was VK4BDX who concentrated on 10 metres for 83 points and an 8th place overall, congratulations Brett.

In the single operator CW category AX2GR (Allan VK2GR) edged out VK2PN (Patrick) with 40 points versus 26. We are sure in years to come that the single operator CW category will have more entrants.

In the single operator mixed category VK4N Greg (VK4BXX) was first with 82 points and coming in second was AX3GK Lee with 77 points

In the single operator QRP phone category VK3W (Megan VK3AAK) on 30 points edged out VK3P (Perrin VK3PT) with 24 points, it was a great effort for Megan.

In the multi operator multi transmitter category a very lonely VL4R was the winner with 213 points, well done Bill and Diane

Contest Award

13. Contest Awards

1. PDF Certificates will be awarded to:
a. Single Operator Phone
b. Single Operator CW
c. Single Operator Mixed
d. Single Operator QRP Phone
e. Single Operator QRP CW
f. Single Operator QRP Mixed
g. Multi-operator – Single Transmitter
h. Multi-operator – Multi Transmitter

Logging Software

Logging Software
(Note: The Australia Day Contest rules are derived from the RD Contest, and VKCL users should select the RD contest to use for this trial contest and submit log manually. Ignore the triple point score, it will be corrected on log submission.)

1. Downloads
a. VK Contest Log (VKCL) by Mike Subocz VK3AVV, Link
b. RD Logger
c. N1MM Support files WIA-AXDAY.zip from vk4sn dot com/contests/N1MMVK
2. Remember to check for updates immediately prior to contests to make sure you have the latest software that will contain up to date scoring and rule changes.

Soap Box:

Comments from entrants

AX4ADC: Interesting enough but lots of people did not know about it as an inaugural event – or the rules. These things needs lots of PR to make them work. Propagation good at times, poor other times, and not enough stations to work. Storm QRN did not help. VHF operation almost non-existent.

VL4R: Participation rate seemed somewhat low.

VK3P: QRP 5W WITH ELAD FDM-DUO, FTDX10 AND IC705

VK4SN: Not much time to put into the contest as I was with family.

VK2GR: Poor CW activity in the new Australia Day contest

VK4GCR: Single Operator From Home Base Station 100 watt Transceiver 20M,40M,80M

AX2TTL: Thanks for the new contest. Tried to work as many bands the 7300 allowed. Got contacts 80 to 6m, so conditions were favourable. Heard a fair few operators I hav’nt spoken to for some time. 10m was a notable fav for many. Power 100W except 10M being 350Wpep. Ant a multi-wire di-pole.

AX6MK: Great Competition. Thanks for the efforts in making this happen.

VJ2B: Many thanks to the organisers of this new contest! I believe that it was a great success. This was the first outing for the new contesting callsign VJ2B, running portable.

VK3CJN: 1st attempt at contesting. I really enjoyed it.

AX2LEE: not a lot of operators out today.. maybe too short of notice.. many operators on 10 metres. I did work some of the new callsigns I was using 80m & 40m inverted vee antennas as I had an open circuit in My HB35 Yagi. Looking forward to the ANZAC day contest . Lee AX2LEE.

VK3GN: Greatly enjoyed for the short time I was able participate. Look forward to future RD an Aust Day tests – thanks

VJ2A: What a great contest on a great day cheers conditions were great it was a real ball of fun… Matt VK2ZG

AX2AZ: RIP Mike!

AX3AUQ: This was a simple no stress contest. I was not available for much of it. Maybe it should be expanded to allow DX contacts or restricted to only VK. P2 and ZL ARE DX and not relevant to Australia Day unlike the RD contest. Start at 00:00 UCT on 26th January and run for 12 hours. I only use the AX prefix on the specified UCT date. ie NOT the 25th. Thanks for giving it a try and hope it will continue.