Check Propagation And Get Some Early Prep For CQ WW SSB With The 2010 Oceania DX Contest

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted September 26, 2010

With the calendar turning to October, time is already growing short when it comes to getting your antennas ready for the 2010 CQ WW SSB Contest, making this weekend's Oceania DX SSB Contest a prime stop for contesters worldwide.

The Oceania DX test is split into two weekends, with SSB this weekend, and CW the second weekend of October.

The format is simple - the world works Australia and New Zealand, while VK and ZL work everyone - giving hams around the world a chance to test propagation and fine tune some of their plans for CQ WW SSB, which is the final weekend of October.

The Oceania DX test has been growing in recent years under new management, and this year's contest has some rules changes that organizers hope will attract even more interest.

Maybe the most important change is that the "Single Operator categories have been split into high power and low power sections and the Multiple Operator categories have also been revised," says the contest home page at http://www.oceaniadxcontest.com.

The multi-operator side of the contest will change as well, to mirror the changes made for multi-ops in the CQ WPX contest, with distinct Multi-Single and Multi-Two categories, allowing one and two signals at any time respectively.

One signal that still won't be heard this contest season is the ZL6QH group, which has had to dismantle their operations and move to a new location.

"We are looking forward to these changes further boosting participation in the contest. In particular, the changes are intended to encourage more entries from low power stations, and from the smaller multiple-operator teams that have limited resources," said organizers.

And if this year is like the last few, it will mean even more growth for the Oceania DX contest, as there were 999 logs submitted last year, smashing the previous record of 783 logs from just a year earlier.

Organizers say much of the growth came from stations in Europe who have joined in the contest, along with Oceania itself.

"As well as the more common VK, ZL, YB and KH6 stations there were a number of rarer Oceania entities active including 3D2, 9M6, DU, FO8, KH2, P29, and T88," the 2009 contest summary stated.

For those testing the bands, from Europe and North America, Oceania is obviously rich with important double mults for CQ WW SSB & CW - especially the 40 meter long path that can help fill up your log with extra points.

One operator who has excelled at that kind of propagation work for years is Fred Laun K3ZO, who had the top score from North America in the Oceania DX Phone leg from 2009.

Laun often uses smaller contests like Oceania DX to gauge propagation for some of the bigger contests like CQ WW SSB. For example, before CQ WW SSB, sometimes he will dabble in the JIDX Phone and OK/OM CW tests, just to check the bands for CQ WW CW.

If that works for someone who has cranked out a fair share of top finishes, then it might work for you too!

The Oceania DX Contest is run over two weekends - the Phone contest is 0800 Saturday 2 October to 0800 Sunday 3 October.

The CW leg is 0800 Saturday 9 October to 0800 Sunday 10 October. Both contests are 24 hours.