Congratulations to all the winners in the 2021 Oceania DX (OCDX) Contest and a huge thanks to everyone who participated to make it the biggest OCDX party ever.

We had a fantastic turnout despite the relatively poor ionospheric conditions and COVID restrictions limiting DXpedition activity. A total of 1908 logs were submitted, consisting of 1178 Phone logs and 730 CW logs – this is well up on the previous record of 1603 logs in 2020 and sets a new benchmark for the OCDX contest. Much of this has come from increased participation from within Oceania. It is fantastic to see that efforts to introduce contesting to amateurs in the region, particularly Indonesia,  are paying off.

It was also great to see the contest attracting many new faces to have a go in the contest, even if only to make a few QSOs. Martin VK3MLT says “First contest after getting my foundation licence the day before, a sure way of getting over mic fright and nerves quickly! Really happy with the contacts from 10W and a little wire antenna. Loved it!”

See the 2021 OCDX contest charts for a detailed analysis of the participation in the 2021 contest and trends over recent years.

Participation was up across most continents and countries. New records were set for the number of Phone logs from Australia, Indonesia and Japan and CW logs from Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and the United States. The increased participation can probably be attributed to various factors such as:

• Growing awareness of the contest due to the contest committee’s ongoing work to increase publicity about the contest, including running a Q&A session on the Ham Radio DX YouTube channel.
• Ongoing COVID constraints on travel meant more contesters were at home and with more time to participate.
• Ionospheric conditions gradually improving as we move further into solar cycle 25. While nowhere near the peak of previous cycles, the solar flux levels were the best that we have experienced over the past 5 years.

Certainly there was more activity in 2021 on 15m, particularly on the inter-continental paths from Oceania to Europe and North America. Given the marked increase in solar activity even since the 2021 event, this can only bode well for 2022! Conditions were good enough on 15M in fact to set several new world records on this band. The number of 10M QSOs was also the highest that we have seen since 2014, although most of these were limited to Asia stations.

Geomagnetic conditions were relatively quiet but the 80M and 160M bands did not play as well this year. Activity was well down on that experienced in 2020. Nonetheless, several stations were still successful in setting new World and Continent records on these bands.

As expected, COVID constraints on travel meant that most of the Oceania activity was limited to the more common Oceania entities, i.e. Australia, Hawaii, Indonesia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. However, logs were still received from some of the rarer countries such as Brunei Darussalam, East Malaysia, Fiji, Guam, and New Caledonia.

LINE SCORES, WINNERS AND NEW RECORDS

There were plenty of impressive efforts and scores achieved in the 2021 contest. Summaries of all the winning entries, and those which also set new records, can be found here:

• 2021 OCDX Phone winners and new records 
• 2021 OCDX CW winners and new records 

Full Results – all Stations

The detailed line scores for all the entrants in the 2021 contest, including information about the equipment and antennas used and soapbox comments, are presented here:

• CW line scores 
• Phone line scores 

New Records

The following entrants also deserve a shout out for their achievement in setting new Continent and World (i.e. outside Oceania) records:

Phone Category

7X2GK     PH SWL          Africa record
7N4WPY    PH SO 15M QRP   World record
9M2S      PH M1           Asia record
9M2SAF    PH SO ALL LP    World record
9V1CD     PH SO 40M HP    Asia record
JA6WFM    PH SO 15M LP    World record
VR2CC     PH SO 15M HP    World record
9A9A      PH SO 20M HP    World record
DL2SAX    PH SO 80M HP    Europe record
LZ5R      PH M1           World record
RT5Z      PH SO ALL HP    Europe record
SP9BIJ/P  PH SO 20M QRP   Europe record
CO6LE     PH SO 15M QRP   North America record
4I1EBD    PH SO 20M LP    Oceania record
VK1POP    PH SO 80M QRP   Oceania record
VK8GM     PH SO 160M LP   Oceania record

JA6WFM - PH Single Op 15m Low Power - World Record

CW Category

9M2A      CW MM           World record
BG7SSK    CW SO 15M QRP   World record
JA5NSR    CW SO 80M HP    World record
JG1GOY/9  CW SO 10M QRP   Asia record
JG6YLY    CW M1           World record
JH1EAQ    CW SO ALL LP    World record
JH8RXM    CW SO 20M LP    Asia record
JI1DCW    CW SO 160M HP   World record
JK7DWD    CW SO 20M QRP   World record
R0DX      CW SO 40M HP    Asia record
LY7Z      CW SO ALL HP    Europe record
OH3GD     CW SO 80M HP    World record
US7UK     CW SO 15M QRP   Europe record
YT1A      CW SO 20M HP    Europe record
KA6BIM    CW SO ALL HP    North America record
KI4MZC    CW SO 15M QRP   North America record
N7IR      CW SO ALL LP    North America record
W4JKC     CW SO 20M HP    North America record

The history of all the OCDX scores and records since 2001 can be searched here:

• OCDX Phone searchable scores and records 
• OCDX CW searchable scores and records 

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KA6BIM CW SO ALL HP - Continent Record

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JH1EAQ    CW SO ALL LP    World record

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2021 PLAQUES AND TROPHIES

Congratulations to all the winners of the plaques and trophies in the 2021 contest. The winners of the plaques are listed here.

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 Eastern Mountain and District Radio Club (EMDRC) is the winner of this plaque for the second year in a row with 9 entries from VK3HY (CW), VK3QI (CW+PH), VK3TZ (CW+PH), VK3ER (PH), VK3GJG (PH), VK3MDH (PH) and VK3ZD (PH). The Geelong Amateur Radio Club also had 9 eligible entries but a smaller aggregate score – 181,347 compared to 1,354,753 from the EMDRC.

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. The Quake Contesters is the winner of this plaque in 2021 with 5 eligible entries form ZL3AB (CW), ZL3GA (PH), ZL3P (CW+PH) and ZM3GA (CW).

Note: Australia and New Zealand entrants are again reminded to use the Cabrillo log CLUB: field to identify their membership of a relevant organisation for the purpose of awarding these plaques. Most Australian and New Zealand logs for the 2021 contest did not identify membership of any organisation. See the AUSTRALIA Club Plaque rules  and NEW ZEALAND Club Competition Plaque rules for more information about which clubs and organisations are eligible.

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 Adam VK2PW for winning the 2021 Phone newcomer plaque and Tim DU3TW for winning the 2021 CW newcomer plaque.

This year three plaques were available for high scoring YL “young lady” entrants. As well as the plaque sponsored by Diane Main VK4DI and Bill Main VK4ZD for the highest scoring YL Single Operator Phone entrant from Australia, the Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association (ALARA) sponsored two new awards – the Florence McKenzie (Mrs Mac) plaque for the YL Single Operator entrant from Oceania with the highest combined Phone and CW score, and 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.

Congratulations to Dagmar DM7PQ for winning the Austine Henry plaque, Sri YB9ELS for winning the Florence McKenzie (Mrs Mac) plaque and Catherine VK7GH for winning the Australia YL Phone plaque!

Note that plaques for the 2021 contest have been distributed in accordance with the new 12b rule introduced for the 2020 contest, 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.

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 currently AUD 50.00 per annum to cover the expenses associated with the manufacture and postage of each plaque.

2021 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

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 OCDX log checking reports page . Any entrant can enter their callsign 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 .

2022 CONTEST

The 2022 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 1 October to 06:00 UTC Sunday 2 October 2022
• CW Section: 06:00 UTC Saturday 8 October to 06:00 UTC Sunday 9 October 2022

The 2022 Oceania DX Contest rules will be released soon. We hope to see you all on the air in October! Any queries should be emailed to info@oceaniadxcontest.com .

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

• Ken K1EA for supplying and maintaining our log checking software.
• Mike ZL1AXG for  providing the OCDX Contest domain name and email server.
• The Amateur Radio Experimenters Group (AREG) for hosting and provision of technical support for our main 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.
• Hayden VK7HH for hosting our OCDX contest Q&A session on the Ham Radio DX YouTube channel.
• All the plaque sponsors.

Finally, and most importantly, thank you again to everyone who participated in the 75th contest and made it such a huge success. We look forward to seeing you all again, along with more new entrants, in the 2022 event.

73 from

Oceania DX Contest Committee (Mike ZL1AXG, Geoff ZL3GA, Lee VK3GK, Phil VK4FH, Brian VK3MI/ZL1AZE, Tony VK3TZ, Mike VK4QS, Grant VK5GR, Martin VK7GN, Karsono YB0NDT)

ABBREVIATIONS

The following abbreviations are used in the description of the entry categories for the OCDX 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
LP = low power (total output power no more than 100 Watts)
HP = high power (total output power greater than 100 Watts)
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 LP and HP categories were introduced in 2010, and the QRP categories were introduced in 2014.