Congratulations to all the winners
in the 2023 Oceania DX Contest
and thanks to everyone who participated to
help make it another fantastic Oceania DX party!

Thanks to some of the best solar conditions since the peak of solar cycle 23, most of the activity and fun was on the high bands. The numbers of QSOs for the 15M and 10M bands were the highest we’ve ever seen and many new records were set on each of these bands. On the other hand, conditions were only average on 20M and generally poor to very poor on the lower bands. Only a handful of QSOs were made on 160M and almost all of these were between Oceania stations although VK2IG did manage a CW QSO with RJ4P and VK4KW managed a Phone QSO with JQ2SIX.

Logs Received

We received a total of 1825 logs this year, consisting of

• 1076 Phone logs
• 749 CW logs.

This is slightly down on the previous two years but still a great turnout.

It was encouraging to again see many first-time entrants having a go in the contest. Gregory WB8WUA says “I had much fun on my first Oceania Contest event here. I was very successful getting New Zealand. Unfortunately I did hear Australia but could not make any QSO contact.” and Yudi YF7RDM says “My first time participating this year. I had fun throughout the contest when the DX stations picked me out of the crowd.”

Most of the Oceania activity was from the more common countries, i.e. Australia, East Malaysia, Hawaii, Indonesia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Indonesia had the highest number of entries in both the Phone and CW sections. It was pleasing to see 32 New Zealand entries which also sets a new record for the number of logs from New Zealand. Logs were also received from Fiji, the Marshall Islands, New Caledonia and Samoa but there were less entries than usual from the rarer Oceania DX entities. We’ll be seeking to promote more activity from these entities in 2024 as they are important for attracting interest in the contest.

Outside Oceania, the continent with the most entries in the Phone section was Europe and in the CW section it was Asia. It was great to see a total of 38 logs from South America stations – the highest number ever received from that continent. The country with the highest number of entries was Japan, including a new record of 107 logs in the CW section. It was also great to see a huge turnout form German stations – 82 logs were received which is a new record for the number of entries from Germany.

See the 2023 Oceania DX contest charts  for more analysis of the activity in the 2023 event and the trends over time.

2023 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.

2023 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 2023 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 impressive efforts and scores achieved. Summaries of all the winning entries, and those which also set new records, are presented here:

• 2023 Oceania DX Phone winners and new records (Click here)
• 2023 Oceania DX CW winners and new records (Click Here)

The following entrants deserve special mention for their outstanding achievement in setting new Continent and World (i.e. outside Oceania) records in the 2023 contest:

New Phone records

JA7OWD	Phone Single Op 10M High Power	World record
JH4UTP	Phone Single Op ALL Band High Power	World record

RT0F	Phone Multi Op Single Tx	World record
EB1DJ	Phone Single Op 10M High Power	Europe record
IZ2FOS	Phone Single Op 15M High Power	Europe record
SP7M	Phone Single Op ALL Band QRP	Europe record

K7SS

Phone Single Op 10M High Power

North America record

 

FK8GM	Phone Single Op 15M Low Power	Oceania record
YC0SJA	Phone Single Op 80M QRP	Oceania record
LU9MDH	Phone Single Op 10M High Power	South America record
PU1JSV	Phone Single Op 10M Low Power	South America record
PY2BN	Phone Single Op 10M QRP	South America record
PY2BRA	Phone Single Op ALL Low Power	South America record
PY2QT	Phone Single Op 15M Low Power	South America record
PY2KJ	Phone Single Op 15M High Power	South America record

                      

New CW records

19 new records were set in the CW contest – an amazing outcome! Congratulations go to the following:

JA6GCE

CW Single Op ALL Band QRP

World record

JA7OWD	CW Single Op 10M High Power	World record
JJ1RJR	CW Single Op 15M Low Power	World record

 

RT0F

CW Multi-Op Single Tx

World record

 

OK1XC	CW Single Op 10M QRP	Europe record
SM6F	CW Single Op 15M Low Power	Europe record

SP7M	CW Single Op ALL Band QRP	Europe record
UA4FCO	CW Single Op 15M QRP	Europe record
UC4L	CW Single Op 10M High Power	Europe record
K6JS	CW Single Op ALL Band QRP	North America record
K7SS	CW Single Op 10M High Power	North America record
N7IR	CW Single Op ALL Band Low Power	North America record

                       

VK4DX	CW Single Op 15M High Power	Oceania record
VL6T	CW Single Op 10M QRP	Oceania record
PU2TES	CW Single Op 10M Low Power	South America record
PY2QT	CW Single Op 15M High Power	South America record

PY2UDB	CW Single Op ALL Band Low Power	South America record
PY2XL	CW Single Op 15M Low Power	South America record
PY3TD	CW Single Op 20M High Power	South America 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)

2023 PLAQUES AND TROPHIES

Congratulations to all the winners of the plaques and trophies in the 2023 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 13 eligible entries from VK3DL (CW+PH), VK3TU (CW+PH), VK3WK (CW+PH), VK3ZL (CW+PH), VK3DQW (PH), VK3PK (PH), VK3PY (PH), VK3SM (PH) and VK8AA (PH). The Eastern Mountain and District Radio Club (EMDRC) is runner up with 8 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 7 eligible entries from ZL4FZ (CW), ZL3AWB (PH), ZL3PIE (PH), ZL3TAO (PH), ZL3WF (PH), ZL3YB (PH) and ZL4TJE (PH). No other club had enough eligible entries.

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 Yankee Clipper Contest Club is again the winner of this plaque with 5 eligible entries from K1ZZ (CW), K1KI (CW), K1JB (CW+PH) and W1KM (PH).

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 Santosa Eric Esposito FK8GM for winning the Phone newcomer plaque and Bob Li VK3GF 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 Misae Soma JF1UOX for winning the Austine Henry plaque, and to Catherine VK7C for winning both the Florence McKenzie (Mrs Mac) and the Australia YL Phone plaques!

There are 20 Oceania entrants and 20 non-Oceania entrants who claimed they are YLs. However, as usual some of these entrants are actually OMs who mistakenly ticked the YL identification check box when submitting their log.

Youth Plaques

Two youth plaques are offered to encourage participation by younger entrants. The World Youth Phone plaque is awarded to the highest scoring youth entrant (no older than 25 years age) from outside Oceania in any of the Phone Single Operator categories and the Australia Youth Phone plaque to the highest scoring youth entrant (no older than 25 years age) from Australia in any of the Phone Single Operator categories.

This year we received 3 youth entries from Oceania and 4 youth entries from the rest of the world. Congratulations to Piotr Wilkon SQ8L who has again won the World Youth Phone plaque.

No eligible entries were received for the Australia Youth Phone plaque so we clearly need to do more to encourage participation from younger contesters in Australia.

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)

YB8UF – Winner Oceania Phone Single Op 40m

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

VK4KW – Winner Oceania Phone Multi-Op 2 Transmitters

9M8J Winner Oceania Phone Multi Operator Multi Transmitter 

It was also great to see more stations taking part in the Multi-Multi category in Oceania. While this award was dominated by Australian stations for several years, it is great to see other parts of the region extending their skills and taking out this prestigious plaque, sponsored by DX Systems.

VK2BJ – Oceania CW Single-Op ALL Band

YC2VOC – WInner Oceania CW Single-Op All Band Low Power

VK4DX Winner – Oceania CW Single-Op 15M (Ken Jewell VK3AKK Memorial Award)

YB1IQE – Winner Oceania CW Single Op 40m

Continental Plaques – Asia

It was great to see the team from 9M2M win the Asia Phone Multi-Two category. Well done team!

Congratulations also to JH4UTP for his win in the ASIA Phone Single Op ALL Band category

Congratulations also to the team at BD1KV who are the winner of the Asia CW Multi-Two category, with operators BD1KV and BD1IIJ

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

N7IR – NORTH AMERICA CW Single-Op ALL Band 

Continental Plaques – Europe

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

HA3NU – Winner EUROPE Phone Single-Op ALL Band 

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

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

YB9YSS – Winner INDONESIA Phone Single-Op ALL Band  

YD1CMZ – Winner – INDONESIA General Licence Phone Single-Op

YF7RDM – Runner Up INDONESIA Advanced/Extra Licence Phone Single-Op 40M  – winner was YB8UF (Rule 12b)

7B9K – INDONESIA Phone Multi-1Tx club station

YB9/RN1B – INDONESIA CW Single-Op ALL Band HIGH Power

YC9FAR – INDONESIA CW Single-Op ALL Band Low Power (Runner Up) – winner was YC2VOC (Rule 12b)

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, sponsored by Karsono Suyanto YB0NDT. This year we are pleased to announce  that the winner 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!

VL2G Runner Up AUSTRALIA CW Single-Op ALL Band (Frank Hine VK2QL Memorial Award) (Category winner was VK2BJ (Rule 12b))

VK5PAS – Winner – AUSTRALIA Phone Single-Op ALL Band LOW Power

VK4M (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

ZL1Y – Winner NEW ZEALAND Phone Single-Op ALL Band HIGH Power Plaque

VK2CCC – AUSTRALIA CW Single-Op ALL Band QRP

ZL1IF  –  NEW ZEALAND CW Single-Op ALL Band HIGH Power

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.

---

2024 CONTEST

The 2024 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 5 October to 06:00 UTC Sunday 6 October 2024
• CW Section:
  • 06:00 UTC Saturday 12 October to 06:00 UTC Sunday 13 October 2024

The 2024 Oceania DX Contest rules will be published on the Oceania DX Contest web site closer to the contest.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The successful running of the Oceania DX 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 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 Oceania DX 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 78th contest and made it such a success. We look forward to seeing you all again, along with more new entrants, in the 2024 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)

 

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.

 

Congratulations to all the winners in the 2022 Oceania DX (OCDX) Contest and thanks to everyone who participated to make it the biggest OCDX party ever!

We had another brilliant turnout assisted by some excellent openings on the higher bands. We received a total of 1940 logs, consisting of 1133 Phone logs and 807 CW logs. This exceeds the 1908 logs received in 2021 and sets a new record.

Solar conditions were generally excellent except for a brief disruption from an X-class flare over the Phone weekend. The 10.7 cm solar flux peaked over 150 on both the Phone and CW weekends – the best we’ve seen since 2002! This meant that most intercontinental QSOs were on the 20M, 15M and 10M bands. 10M was finally open to all continents and many new records were set on this band. 40M activity was well down on recent years. Conditions on 160M and 80M were the poorest that we’ve seen for many years due to QRN from lightning storms along with some elevated geomagnetic activity over the CW weekend.

Fred KS7T sums it up with “10M being open makes this contest much more fun and it was open better than 15M. Love those 8k++ mile QSOs on any band!”

It’s always encouraging to see newcomers joining in and having some – like Matsunaga JS2MYR who says “I’m a beginner on HF band. I’ve never connected with Australia before. I enjoyed this contest and was so excited. Thank you so much!”

Fred K3ZO reported

“What a difference rising solar flux has made in the Oceania SSB contest.  In 2018-2021 it was mainly a 40M contest and I had to struggle to make 100 QSOs.  In 2019 I made exactly ONE QSO on 20M.  This year 20M was wide open to Australia and New Zealand at both the beginning and the end of the contest and I made exactly ONE HUNDRED QSOs on 20M and 220 QSOs overall! Last year I made 27 QSOs on 15 and they were all KH6s, VKs or ZLs. This year I made 47 QSOs on 15M and the first 28 of those QSOs were Indonesians.  10M last year? Forget about it – this year 10M was good for 36 QSOs!”

You can read Fred’s full report (here).

We are sad to report that this was also the last OCDX contest for Fred K3ZO as he became a SK earlier in 2023. Fred has been a regular entrant in the contest over the past 40 years and was also leader from North America in the Phone and CW Single Operator High power categories on many occasions.

Farewell Fred – we will miss your big signal on the bands and in our contest logs.

While most Oceania activity was from the more common countries (Australia, East Malaysia, Hawaii, Indonesia, New Zealand, and the Philippines) it was great to see an increase in the number of participants from some of the rarer Oceania countries such as Brunei Darussalam, Chatham Islands, Fiji, Guam, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Samoa, and Vanuatu.

See the 2022 OCDX contest charts for a full analysis of the activity in the contest in 2022 and over recent years.

LINE SCORES, WINNERS, AND NEW RECORDS

The detailed line scores for all the entrants in the 2022 contest, including soapbox comments and information about the equipment and antennas used, are presented here:

• CW line scores
• Phone line scores

There were many impressive efforts and scores achieved in the 2022 contest. Summaries of the winning entries, and those which also set new records, can be found here:

• 2022 OCDX Phone winners and new records
• 2022 OCDX CW winners and new records

The following entrants deserve a special shout out for their outstanding achievement in setting new Continent and World (i.e. outside Oceania) records in the 2022 contest:

New CW records

JA6VZB   CW SO 10M QRP  World record
JA7OWD   CW SO 10M HP   World record
JH1EAQ   CW SO ALL LP   World record
JH6WHN   CW SO 10M LP   World record
JR7IWC   CW SO 15M HP   World record
9A3VM    CW SO 20M HP   Europe record
LZ5R     CW M1          Europe record
R3LC     CW SO 10M HP   Europe record
RT1L     CW SO ALL QRP  Europe record
SM2M     CW SO ALL LP   Europe record
SQ7FPD   CW SO 10M QRP  Europe record
US5VX    CW SO 20M QRP  Europe record
KA6BIM   CW SO ALL HP   North America record
KW7R     CW SO 15M QRP  North America record
N7IR     CW SO ALL LP   North America record
VE7TK    CW SO 10M HP   North America record
W6MZ     CW SO ALL QRP  North America record
5W1SA    CW SO 10M HP   Oceania record
VK4DX    CW SO 20M HP   Oceania record
ZM4T     CW SO 15M HP   Oceania record
PY2XJ    CW SO 20M LP   South America record
PY5ZHP   CW SO 15M HP   South America record

CW World Record Holders – 2022

New Phone records

ZS2ABE   PH SO ALL HP   Africa record
9M2A     PH M2          Asia record
9M2L     PH SO ALL LP   World record
JA2MWV   PH SO 10M QRP  World record
JA6WFM   PH SO 10M LP   World record
JA7NVF   PH SO ALL HP   World record
JA7OWD   PH SO 10M HP   World record
G4ICP/P  PH SO 20M QRP  Europe record
IZ2FOS   PH SO 15M HP   Europe record
SM2M     PH SO ALL LP   Europe record
SP7M     PH SO 10M QRP  Europe record
UA4M     PH M2          World record

Phone World Record Holders – 2022

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

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

It was great to see a new group also join in the Multi-Multi station fun with an entry from VK2W this year taking out the OCEANIA PH Multi Multi category this year.

Winner Oceania Phone Multi-Multi category 2022

2022 PLAQUES AND TROPHIES

Clubs Competition Plaques

Congratulations to all the winners of the plaques and trophies in the 2022 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 Geelong Amateur Radio Club has wrestled this plaque back from the Eastern Mountain and District Radio Club (EMDRC). The Geelong Amateur Radio Club had 13 eligible entries from VK3DQW (PH), VK3ZL (PH+CW), VK3WK (PH+CW), VK3TU (PH+CW), VK3DL (PH+CW), VK3PY (PH), VK3ACR (PH), VK3SM (PH), VK3AN (PH). The EMDRC had 9 eligible entries.

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 the winner of this plaque with 4 eligible entries from ZL3YB (PH), ZL3PIE (PH), ZL3TOB (PH) and ZL3WF (PH). No other clubs had enough eligible entries.

A new North America Club plaque sponsored by Rippletech Electronics (VK3TZ) is being awarded to help promote interest amongst North America clubs. This plaque is awarded to the North America club 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 inaugural winner of this plaque is the Yankee Clipper Contest Club with 7 eligible entries – W1KM (PH), K1AR (CW), K1JB (PH), K1RX (PH+CW), K1ZZ (PH), and WK1O (PH). The Potomac Valley Radio Club and Willamette Valley DX Club jointly share the runner-up title with each having 6 eligible entries.

 

 

---

Newcomer Plaques

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 Santosa Sunny Ruslie YB0AGW for winning the Phone newcomer plaque and David Cuthbert KH6AQ for winning the CW newcomer plaque.

---

New Youth Plaques Awarded for the first time

Two new plaques were also sponsored by Oscar Reyes VK3TX to help promote participation by younger entrants:

• a World Youth Phone plaque for the highest scoring youth entrant (no older than 25 years age) from outside Oceania in any of the Phone Single Operator categories and
• an Australia Youth Phone plaque for the highest scoring youth entrant (no older than 25 years age) from Australia

These were awarded in any of the Phone Single Operator categories. Congratulations to Piotr Wilkon SQ8L for winning the World Youth Phone plaque and Drew Head VK5CLD for winning the Australia Youth Phone plaque.

---

Florence McKenzie Award & Austine Henry Award

We also congratulate Catherine Hammond VK7C for winning the (Florence McKenzie Award) and Emily Yang BU2BE for winning the Austine Henry Award. This marks the second year this has been supported by ALARA – thank you for your support of the Oceania DX Contest!

---

Indonesian Plaque Winners – 2022

It is also great to see the very high level of interest in the contest by amateurs in Indonesia. This year we again awarded a number of plaques specifically encouraging our YB friends to come and give contesting a go, and by all accounts it seems to be working!

This year we are pleased to present the following Indonesian specific awards:

YB4IR	Winner INDONESIA PH SO ALL
YD0NHG	Winner INDONESIA General Licence PH SO LP
YB0BAC (plaque presented to the Runner Up YC5LCZ under rule 12b)	Winner INDONESIA Advanced/Extra Licence PH SO 40M
YB1ACN	Winner INDONESIA CW SO ALL HP
YB1AYO	Winner INDONESIA CW SO ALL LP

 

---

Mirek Rozbicki VK6DXI Memorial Plaque 2022 Winner

Lastly we wish to congratulate Luca Babolin IK2PFL on winning the Mirek Rozbicki VK6DXI Memorial Plaque for 2023!

---

Note that plaques for the 2022 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 AUD $55.00 per annum to cover the expenses associated with the manufacture and postage of each plaque.

2022 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 .

2023 CONTEST

The 2023 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 7 October to 06:00 UTC Sunday 8 October 2023
• CW Section: 06:00 UTC Saturday 14 October to 06:00 UTC Sunday 15 October 2023

The 2023 Oceania DX Contest rules will be published on the OCDX Contest web site as soon as they are available.

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 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 77th contest and made it such a huge success. We look forward to seeing you all again, along with more new entrants, in the 2023 pileups!

73 from the Oceania DX Contest Committee (Mike ZL1AXG, Lee VK3GK, Phil VK4FH, Brian VK3MI/ZL1AZE, Tony VK3TZ, Grant VK5GR, 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 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 LP and HP categories were introduced in 2010, and the QRP categories were introduced in 2014.

 

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 

---

KA6BIM CW SO ALL HP - Continent Record

---

JH1EAQ    CW SO ALL LP    World record

---

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.