Congratulations to all the winners
in the 2024 Oceania DX Contest
and thanks to everyone who participated to
help make it another memorable Oceania DX party!

 

The average solar flux over the Phone and CW weekends reached 271 and 204 respectively – by far the highest values observed since we started monitoring space weather conditions for the contest in 2001. The high solar flux provided good conditions for the Phone section but conditions were much poorer in the CW section due to major geomagnetic storm activity that caused the Ap index to peak as high as 112.

The elevated solar flux meant that most of the action was on the 10M and 15M bands. Many new continent and country records were achieved on these bands. For example, Nick VK9DX logged an impressive total of 2,472 QSOs on 10M to set a new record for Oceania in the Phone SO 10M HP category, as well as achieving the second highest score in Oceania. JA7OWD (Eijirou Takahira) set a new world record in the Phone SO 10M HP category.

Gary W0BF says “10M was like night and day in the Phone section! Weak signals the day before but on the day of the contest signals were so loud they almost broke my speaker!!”

The 20M and lower bands were in much poorer shape. In his CW log Fred KS7T reported “A big decline in the prop here this year from the CMEs with ZM1A being the only station in Oceania I could hear on 20M until WH7T showed up near the end of the contest”. The number of intercontinental QSOs on the 160M, 80M and 40M bands was the lowest we’ve seen since 2021. Almost all of the 160M QSOs were between Oceania stations – there were no cross checked 160M intercontinental QSOs.

It was again encouraging to see many first-time entrants having a go in the contest. Joe VK4IAG entered the Phone section and says “My first contest. Great fun even on low power and I realised that the airwaves aren’t dead and there are heaps of DX contacts to be made, even on low power.”

Logs Received

We received a total of 1672 logs this year, consisting of

• 1052 Phone logs
• 620 CW logs.

There was a reduction in the number of logs from Indonesia in the Phone section but this was largely offset by a record number of logs received from North America and South America.

There was also a reduction in the number of CW logs, across all continents. The main cause appears to have been the depressed conditions due to the geomagnetic storm activity.

As usual, most of the Oceania activity was from the more common entities, i.e. Australia, East Malaysia, Hawaii, Indonesia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Indonesia had the largest number of entries in the Phone section and Australia had the largest number of entries in the CW section.

There was also activity from rarer Oceania DX entities including Eastern Kiribati, Fiji, French Polynesia, the Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island and Samoa. We appreciate the efforts of the operators who activated these locations as they are important for attracting interest in the contest.

Outside Oceania, the continent with the most entries in both the Phone and CW sections was Europe. The country with the highest number of entries was Japan, followed by the United Sates, European Russia and then Germany.

See the 2024 Oceania DX contest charts  for more analysis of the activity in the 2024 event and the trends over time.

2024 CERTIFICATES

Certificates are awarded to the top scoring station in each category for each continent and country. Additionally, each station that took part in the contest and made one or more valid QSOs, is awarded a participation certificate showing the number of valid QSOs made. The certificates are available online for downloading and printing from the Certificates page.

2024 LOG CHECKING REPORTS

A log checking report is produced for each entry in the contest (except SWL entries). This report provides details about the calculation of the final score including identifying any QSOs that are duplicates (no penalty), calls that are copied incorrectly, exchanges that are copied incorrectly, QSOs that are not in the other log, and calls that are unique and not in other logs (no penalty).

Entrants can obtain their reports from the OceaniaDX log checking reports page. Any entrant can enter their call-sign on this page to have a copy of the relevant report sent to the email address used to submit their log. Anyone having difficulty downloading the report (e.g. due to a change in their email address) should contact the contest committee at info@Oceaniadxcontest.com .

LINE SCORES, WINNERS, AND NEW RECORDS

The detailed line scores for each of the entrants in the 2024 contest, including soapbox comments and information about the equipment and antennas used, are presented here:

• Phone line scores (Click here)
• CW line scores (Click here)

There were many fine efforts and scores achieved in the 2024 contest. Summaries of all the winning entries, and those which also set new records, are presented here:

• 2024 Oceania DX Phone winners and new records (Click here)
• 2024 Oceania DX CW winners and new records (Click Here)

The following entrants deserve special mention for their outstanding achievement in setting new world (outside Oceania) records and continent records in the 2024 contest:

New Phone records

11 new records were set in the Phone contest! Congratulations go to the following:

CT3IF

Phone Single Op 10M Band Low Power

Africa record

JA7OWD	Phone Single Op 10M Band High Power	World record
LZ2PEP	Phone Single Op 10M Band Low Power	Europe record
K7SS	Phone Single Op 10M Band High Power	North America record

 

N6MI	Phone Multi-2 Op	North America record
VK9DX	Phone Single Op 10M Band High Power	Oceania record

                     

YD3ASV	Phone Single Op 10M QRP	Oceania record
HJ3ESF	Phone Single Op 40M Low Power	South America record
LU1JHF	Phone Single Op ALL Low Power	South America record
LU7MT	Phone Single Op ALL High Power	South America record

ZZ3M

Phone Single Op ALL QRP

South America record

New CW records

7 new records were set in the CW contest! Congratulations go to the following:

JA0FVU

CW Single Op 10M Band HP

World record

JA6VZB	CW Single Op 10M Band QRP	World record
JJ1RJR	CW Single Op 15M Low Power	World record (2nd year running)

 

RU7A	CW Single Operator 10M Band QRP	Europe record
SN5X	CW Single Operator 15M Band High Power	Europe record
UW5U	CW Single Operator 10M Band Low Power	Europe record
N6RO	CW Multi-2	World record

Historical Records

The history of all the Oceania DX contest scores and records since 2001 can be searched here:

• Oceania DX Phone searchable scores and records (Click Here)
• Oceania DX CW searchable scores and records (Click Here)

2024 PLAQUES AND TROPHIES

Congratulations to all the winners of the plaques and trophies in the 2024 contest. The winners of the plaques are listed (here).

Australia Club Plaque

The Australia Club plaque is awarded to the local club from Australia with the greatest number of member stations making at least 50 valid QSOs in the Phone or CW sections in the contest. The Geelong Amateur Radio Club has again won this plaque with 19 eligible entries from VK3DL (CW+PH),  VK3NX (CW+PH), VK3TU (CW+PH), VK3WK (CW+PH), VK3ACR (PH), VK3AN (PH), VK3C (PH), VK3DQW (PH), VK3EC (PH), VK3JCC (PH), VK3MGM (PH), VK3PK (PH), VK3PY (PH), VK3SM (PH) and VK3YGO (PH). The Eastern Mountain and District Radio Club (EMDRC) is runner up with 10 entries.

New Zealand Club Competition Plaque

The New Zealand Club Competition plaque is awarded to the local New Zealand NZART Branch, DX club, or contest group with the greatest number of members making at least 50 valid QSOs as a single operator in the Phone or CW sections of the contest. Christchurch Branch 05 is again the winner of this plaque with 6 eligible entries from ZL4FZ (CW), ZL3AC (PH), ZL3DW (PH), ZL3PIE (PH), ZL3WF (PH) and ZL3YB (PH). No other club had enough eligible entries to be considered for this award.

North America Club Plaque

The North America Club plaque is awarded to the club from North America with the greatest number of member stations (within a 400 km radius) making at least 25 valid QSOs in the Phone or CW sections in the contest. The Northern California Contest Club is the winner of this plaque with 4 eligible entries from N6RO (CW), KA6BIM (CW+PH) and WD6T (CW). The runner up position is shared between the Arizona Outlaws Contest Club, Big Sky Contesters Club, Potomac Valley Radio Club and the Yankee Clipper Contest Club who all had 3 entries.

Newcomer Plaques

The Newcomer plaques are awarded to the highest scoring new entrants from Oceania in the Phone and CW sections. The rules define a newcomer as an entrant who has not previously entered the relevant section (in any category) more than twice since the 2001 contest. Eligibility is limited to entrants who have not won any other plaques or trophies in the same section (either in a previous year or the current year).

Congratulations to Nick Hacko VK9DX for winning the Phone newcomer plaque and Laurie Pritchard VL4A for winning the CW newcomer plaque.

YL Plaques

Three plaques are offered to recognise the achievements of high scoring YL “young lady” entrants – the Florence McKenzie (Mrs Mac) plaque for the YL Single Operator entrant from Oceania with the highest combined Phone and CW score, the Austine Henry plaque for the YL Single Operator entrant from outside Oceania (i.e. rest of the world) with the highest combined Phone and CW score, and a plaque for the highest scoring YL Single Operator Phone entrant from Australia.

Congratulations to E.Sri Wahyuni  YB9ELS for winning the Florence McKenzie (Mrs Mac) plaque, Catherine Hammond VK7C for winning the Australia YL Phone plaque and Janina (Jane) Gutkiewicz SP5GMM who has won the Austine Henry plaque.

Youth Plaques

The following youth plaques are offered to encourage participation from younger entrants (no older than 25 years age). This year we received 4 youth entries from Oceania and 4 youth entries from the rest of the world.

• The World Youth Phone plaque is awarded to the highest scoring youth entrant from outside Oceania in any of the Phone Single Operator categories. Grigoriy Anikin R2BW at station RL3A is the 2024 winner of this plaque
• The North America Phone Youth Single-Operator plaque is new for 2024 and awarded to the highest scoring youth entrant from North America in any of the Phone Single Operator categories. Max Freedman N4ML is the winner of this plaque.

• The Australia Youth Phone plaque is awarded to the highest scoring youth entrant from Australia in any of the Phone Single Operator categories. There was no eligible entry for this plaque in 2024.
• The Oceania Phone Youth Multi-Operator plaque is new for 2024 and awarded to the highest scoring youth team (all operators no older than 25 years age at the start of the contest) in the Oceania Phone M1, M2 or MM categories. The VK4II YOTA team (Ops VK4II, VK4OTZ, VK3ASP, and VK4KDF) is the inaugural winner of this plaque
• The Oceania CW Youth Multi-Operator plaque is new for 2024 and awarded to the highest scoring youth team (all operators no older than 25 years age at the start of the contest) in the Oceania CW M1, M2 or MM categories. There was no eligible entry for this plaque in 2024.

Hopefully we will see more youth entrants in 2025 to win the plaques above that were unable to be awarded in 2024.

Continental Plaques – Oceania

We are very pleased to award the following operators plaques for their wins in the continental division for Oceania.

VL2A – Winner Oceania Phone Single-Op ALL Band (Ron Wills ZL2TT Memorial Award)

VK4A – Winner Oceania Phone Multi Op Single Tx (Neil Penfold VK6NE Memorial Award)

VK4KW – Winner Oceania Phone Multi-Op 2 Transmitters

T32AZ Winner Oceania Phone Multi Operator Multi Transmitter 

It was great to see the T32AZ team led by Ken Taylor take out this years Multi-Multi award from Kiribati!

VL2A – Oceania CW Single-Op ALL Band

VK2IG – WInner Oceania CW Single-Op All Band Low Power

KH6AQ Winner – Oceania CW Single-Op 15M (Ken Jewell VK3AKK Memorial Award)

Continental Plaques – Asia

It was great to see the team from UA0D, including UA0DBX, UA0DM and UA0DX having a great Oceania contest series with wins in both phone and CW contests this year!

• Asia Phone Multi-Two category
• Asia CW Multi-Two category

Congratulations also to JA7NVF for his win in the ASIA Phone Single Op ALL Band category

Congratulations also to RT0F for his win in the ASIA CW Single Op ALL Band category

Continental Plaques – North America

For our North American participants, we are pleased to announce the following category plaque winners:

KA6BIM – Winner NORTH AMERICA Phone Single-Op ALL Band

KA6BIM – NORTH AMERICA CW Single-Op ALL Band 

Continental Plaques – South America

Our South American plaques are new this year, thanks to Sponsorship by Karsono Suyanto YB0NDT. We are very pleased to award the following:

LU7MT – Winner SOUTH AMERICA Phone Single-Op ALL Band High Power

Continental Plaques – Europe

For our European participants, we are pleased to announce the following category plaque winners:

SP8R – Winner EUROPE Phone Single-Op ALL Band 

OM8CW – Winner EUROPE CW Single-Op ALL Band  (Mirek Rozbicki VK6DXI Memorial Award)

Continental Plaques – Africa

Another new plaque for 2025 was our Africa Phone Single Op All Band category, sponsored by Karsono Suyanto YB0NDT. We are pleased to announce the following category plaque winners:

CT3IQ – Winner AFRICA Phone Single-Op ALL Band 

Regional Plaques – Indonesia

As always the regional plaques within Oceania are hotly contested. We are pleased to be able to award the following Indonesian plaques

YD1SKA – Winner – INDONESIA General Licence Phone Single-Op Low Power

YC1PIO – Winner INDONESIA Advanced/Extra Licence Phone Single-Op 40M

Regional Plaques – Oceania: South East Asia Phone Plaque

One of the unique plaques in this competition is the special award for stations entering from the Philippines, East Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, or East Timor in any of the Phone Single Operator categories (any power), sponsored by Karsono Suyanto YB0NDT. This year we are pleased to announce  that the winner once more is 4F1EBD

Oceania Plaques – Australia & New Zealand

As always the Australian and New Zealand contingent are very active in this contest. The following are the winners of the various sections open to amateurs in these countries. Congratulations all!

VK6T (VK6LW) Runner Up AUSTRALIA CW Single-Op ALL Band (Frank Hine VK2QL Memorial Award) (Category winner was VL2A (Rule 12b))

VK8DNT – Winner – AUSTRALIA Phone Single-Op ALL Band LOW Power

VL3E (Runner Up) AUSTRALIA Phone Single-Op ALL Band HIGH power – (Category winner was VL2A (Rule 12b))

VK7C – Winner AUSTRALIA Phone YL Single-Op ALL Band

ZM1A – Winner NEW ZEALAND Phone Single-Op ALL Band HIGH Power Plaque

ZM1A – Winner NEW ZEALAND CW Single-Op ALL Band HIGH Power Plaque

ZL3VZ – Winner NEW ZEALAND CW Single-Op ALL Band LOW Power Plaque

Rule 12b

Note that plaques are distributed in accordance with Rule 12b, i.e. if an entrant is eligible to receive multiple plaques in a hierarchy, they only receive the plaque for the highest level that they win. The plaque inscription will include the details of any lower-level plaque categories that they have won. The lower-level plaques are awarded to the runner-up entrants in those categories and the inscription on those plaques will state that they are being awarded to the runner-up.

Sponsorship

The ongoing sponsorship of plaques is important for maintaining and growing interest in the contest. New sponsorship offers are always welcome and anyone who is interested in becoming a sponsor should contact the Contest Committee. The cost of sponsoring a plaque is AUD 55.00 per annum to cover the expenses associated with the manufacture and delivery of each plaque.

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2025 CONTEST

The 2025 Oceania DX contest will be held over the first two full weekends of October at the following dates and times:

• Phone Section:
  • 06:00 UTC Saturday 4 October to 06:00 UTC Sunday 5 October 2025
• CW Section:
  • 06:00 UTC Saturday 11 October to 06:00 UTC Sunday 12 October 2025

The 2025 Oceania DX Contest rules will be published on the Oceania DX Contest web site closer to the contest.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The successful running of the OCDX contest is a large team effort involving contributions from around the world. The log uploading, log checking and certificate production processes are now largely automated, but committee members and others still contribute many days of effort each year to manage these processes along with writing up and publishing of the annual results, administering the sponsorship and distribution of plaques, and promoting the contest.

The ongoing support of the following individuals and organisations is acknowledged and greatly appreciated:

• Ken K1EA for supplying and supporting our log checking software.
• Mike ZL1AXG for hosting the OCDX Contest domain name and email server.
• The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group (AREG) for hosting our web site.
• Bruce WA7BNM for providing and managing the web portal for the uploading of logs, delivering certificates and log checking reports, and the provision of his on-line web form for converting non-Cabrillo logs to Cabrillo format.
• All the plaque sponsors.

Finally, and most importantly, thank you again to everyone who took part in the 79th contest and made it such a success. We look forward to seeing you all again, along with more new entrants, in the 2025 pileups!

73 from

Oceania DX Contest Committee (Lee VK3GK, Phil VK4FH, Brian VK3MI/ZL1AZE, Tony VK3TZ, Diane VK4DI, Grant VK5GR, Karsono YB0NDT, Mike ZL1AXG, Holger ZL3IO)

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ABBREVIATIONS used in this report

The following abbreviations are used in the description of the entry categories for the Oceania DX results:

• 160M = 160M band
• 80M = 80M band
• 40M = 40M band
• 20M = 20M band
• 15M = 15M band
• 10M = 10M band
• ALL = all bands
• CK = check log
• Low Power = low power (total output power no more than 100 Watts)
• High Power = high power (total output power no more than 1500 Watts, or the maximum permitted output power for the station licence, whichever is less.)
• QRP = reduced power (total output power no more than 5W)
• M1 = multiple operators and single transmitter
• M2 = multiple operators and two transmitters
• MM = multiple operators and multiple transmitters
• MS = multi-single
• SO = single operator
• SWL = shortwave listener.

Note: the M1 and M2 categories replaced the MS category in 2010, the Low Power and High Power categories were introduced in 2010, and the QRP categories were introduced in 2014.