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After a successful start in 2009, the Australian Shires Contest returns for 2010, with organizers hoping that they can get even more hams from around the world to turn their antennas "Down Under" for a few contacts.
The objectives of this contest are pretty simple - hams from Australia work their colleagues from VK as well as the rest of the world, while the world focuses on Australia, and hundreds of "Shires" as multipliers.
"Shires are the VK local government areas similar to Counties in the USA...bearing in mind some of the shires are bigger than some US States," says Trent Sampson VK4TI, one of the hard working organizers for the second running of this contest.
And if you like multipliers, then this contest will keep you on the move.
"There are 741 Separate shires available in VK so there are plenty of multipliers and each shire can be worked for multiplier credit on both modes," said Sampson.
And with five bands from 80-10 meters, plus both modes on each band, that means there is a possible 7,410 multipliers out there for you to chase.
The first VK Shires contest featured only a handful of Rovers, one thing that organizers are hoping to improve on in 2010, in order to put even more shires on the air.
The Top Single Op Rover in 2009 Was Craig Edwards VK5HRT, who was one of the initial organizers of the contest, making sure that there were as many contacts available as possible.
"We want as many of the distinct VK shires activiated in the contest weekend," Sampson VK4T told radio-sport.net.
One thing that organizers have done is not to allow any M/M category, worried that it would actually suppress activity.
"Activating a multi multi takes up too many resources that could be split into separate Shires," Sampson added.
The 2010 VK Shires Contest runs from 0600z June 12 to 0600z June 13.
See all the rules on the VK Shires website.
"In a hobby that communications is our main medium - radio hams are not that good at other modes," admitted Trent Sampson VK4TI.
Sampson said they first decided to create a Yahoo group to figure out exactly what shape the contest would take and who could help promote it.
Then they started the vkshires.info web site and started contacting as many hams as possible through the Oceania DX Group as well.
For stations outside Australia, your multipliers are the different Australian Shires worked on SSB and/or CW on each band (if you work a shire on CW, it can be counted again as a mult on SSB.)
Sampson says he's optimstic this contest can keep growing.
"Our first effort was great and part of the success was the valued support we recieved from radio-sport.net."
