Jeff, VK8DNT, shows that with perseverance you can still have some success at contesting despite a modest station. Microphone to you Jeff.

This contest commemorates the Amateurs who died during World War II and is designed to encourage friendly participation and help improve the operating skills of participants. It is held on the weekend closest to the 15th August, the date on which hostiless ceased in the southwest Pacific area.

This was going to be one contest I was keen to enter after a complete failure with IOTA. The week prior I started to give the contest some thought, making sure I had everything in place so I had no surprises on the day. I pulled down my trusty Dipole 40/15 to check the connections & added an RF choke for safety and minimise RF entering the shack.
I next organised logging software, making sure that was running smoothly even though I manually write most things down to double check myself. We were ready to hit the air!

My Station consists of an Icom IC7300, Kenwood AT-200 Tuner and my trusty dipole, IPAD & Macbook Pro for logging and not to overlook the most important piece of equipment; noise cancelling headphones for us deaf folk. These came in very handy on the faint stations worked.

Instead of hunting I like to be active most of the time, picking a clear frequency that’s not being whipped out from across the water. Saturday 02:45 UTC rolled around, and 15 minutes of silence was observed before the bands were opened to the brave for a 0300 UTC start.

Starting my conquest on 40 I thought would be a good option. A frequency was found and clear and I began the call “CQ RD CQ RD this is VK8DNT CALLING CQ RD and standing by…” Thanks to Icom for having the sense to put in pre-recorded messaging, hence I still have my voice to annoy the family this fine Sunday.

Straight out of the box VK2GGC filled my ears and – the exchange was seamless, but that’s where it stopped for about 3-4 hours. Hours of nothing, I was starting to wonder had I made the right choice and decided to go on the hunt. With not much happening it was time to down the mic and mow the lawns. That’s right the propagation, or lack of it, sent me outside in the heat to do some dirty work.

17:00 jobs done and back to the radio, after a quick spin of the VFO 40m came up trumps again and off we went for round two. Within 10 minutes of calling, we had broken the drought. Steadily one after the other the call signs came in VK3, VK2, VK4, VK5 VK1 and first time worked VK7. I was happy with that, so happy in fact 8.00pm rolled around and VK8DNT was feeling a little peckish. Dinner had been up for an hour, and I wasn’t winning any brownie points with the XYL. Quick food break & back to the static.

With 40 QSO’s looming I needed to push on. I wanted to hit 50 contacts so a change was on the cards. A quick scan of the bands confirmed it was not me, the conditions had changed and that may have been it. Hang about, what about 80 mts, could there be some action down there? It turns out all the pros knew something and the band was alive. What am I going to do, my dipole is not resonant on 80m? A wise man once told me the AT-200 will turn a noodle (who isthiswiseman? Ed.), so a noodle it was and bingo we tricked the IC7300 and we were on the air. My first 3 contacts on 80m were made into VK3, VK4 & VK5.

Time flies when you’re having fun, but the eye lids were telling me tomorrow is another day and you won’t be making any triple points tonight on this round. Alarm set to 5.00am and back to the radio. 80m was still open and I managed to make 3 more contacts before 6.00am.

Over the course of the morning, family stuff and commitments I managed to hit 52 QSOs. A far cry from the big guns that worked their way through the night down south to claim the points. As always, I had fun, made new contacts and learnt more about my setup. We will be back next year bigger and better.