Dear entrant in the 2017 Oceania DX Contest

The Oceania DX (OCDX) contest committee is pleased to announce that the results of the 2017 OCDX contest have been published on the OCDX website at www.OceaniaDXcontest.com.  Congratulations to all the participants, especially the winners and record setters.

Please accept our apology for the delayed publication of the 2017 results. Day jobs and other personal priorities got in the way of the committee completing the task in a more timely fashion this year. We are taking steps to ensure the results will be published much earlier after the 2018 OCDX contest, through further simplifying and automating the receipt and processing of logs, and preparing the results.

The 2017 contest was tough going, especially on the CW weekend when the solar flux dropped to less than 70 and the Planetary A index peaked up to 31. Lightning QRN from storms in the Pacific area also made it difficult to copy stations on the lower bands during the PHONE weekend. As VE7JKZ commented 'Absolutely awful conditions from VE7. Things can only get better. Can't they ...?!'

Despite the dismal conditions, we were delighted to see a total of 1303 logs submitted. This is an increase of 9% compared to 2016 and sets a new record for the number of logs received. Most of the increase is due to the ongoing upward trend in the number of logs received from Indonesian stations, but there was also a noticeable jump in the number of logs received from stations in the Philippines. Indonesia has now overtaken Japan as the country submitting the most logs. The efforts of YB0NDT, the YB Land DX Club and other YB amateurs to promote the contest are clearly continuing to have a positive impact in driving new participation from Indonesian amateurs.

There were many notable achievements in the 2017 contest, including the setting of 27 new continent records and 140 new country records. Even without sunspots, some QRP stations posted record scores.

The majority of activity was on the 40M band which is not surprising given the poor solar conditions and QRN from storms on the lower bands. The remaining activity was mainly on the 20M and 15M bands, with a similar number of QSOs being made on each of these bands. Some QSOs were made on 80M and 10M but these were generally limited to Oceania, Asian and North American stations, along with the odd QSO to Eastern Europe. QSOs on 160M were even more sparse and almost entirely confined to stations within Oceania, except for a handful of intercontinental QSOs during the CW weekend. The only QSO with Europe on 160M was between R4RE and VK2GR.

As well as the more common Oceania entities (such as KH6, VK, YB and ZL) the 2017 contest saw activity from many of the rarer Oceania entities such as 9M6, A31, DU, E51, FK, T32, T88, V73, V85 and VK9. This activity from rarer entities is important for making the contest interesting and attractive to participants, especially for stations from outside Oceania.

In particular we are grateful to the individuals and teams who travelled to activate the rarer entities in the 2017 contest. A ZL contest group has already announced it will be QRV from Niue as E6Y for the 2018 contest, and we will announce further DXpeditions and activities on the OCDX website as information becomes available.  If you are planning something special for the 2018 contest, then please let us know.

Browse the results page for more information about the 2017 event including the full summary of the results, detailed scores, soapbox comments, the equipment and antennas used, and photos of the leading entrants and their stations.

2017 CERTIFICATES

Certificates have been awarded to the top scoring station in each category for each continent and country. Additionally, a participation certificate identifying the number of successful QSOs has been awarded to each station that participated in the contest. The certificates are available for individual entrants to download and print at their convenience via the links on the results page.

WINNERS OF 2017 PLAQUES AND TROPHIES

OCEANIA Ron Wills ZL2TT Memorial Trophy - VK4NM

OCEANIA PHONE SO 40M Plaque - ZL4YL

VK6NE Memorial Plaque - VK9XI

OCEANIA PHONE M2 Plaque - VK4KW

OCEANIA PHONE Newcomer Plaque - VK4FG

OCEANIA CW SO ALL Plaque - E51RAT

OCEANIA CW SO ALL LP Plaque - VK3MI

OCEANIA CW SO 40M Plaque - ZL4YL

OCEANIA Ken Jewell VK3AKK Memorial Plaque - YD1SDL/2

OCEANIA CW M2 Plaque - WH7M

OCEANIA CW Newcomer Plaque - FK8IK

AUSTRALIA PHONE SO ALL LP Plaque - VK2NSS

AUSTRALIA PHONE SO ALL HP Plaque - VK4NM

AUSTRALIA Frank Hine VK2QL Memorial Trophy - VK4SN

AUSTRALIA Club Plaque - Geelong Amateur Radio Club

VK5 PHONE SO ALL LP Plaque - VK5PAS

VK5 CW SO ALL LP Plaque - VK5XDX

NEW ZEALAND PHONE SO ALL HP Plaque - ZL1RQ

NEW ZEALAND Club Competition Plaque - The Quake Contesters

INDONESIA PHONE SO ALL Plaque - YB1AR

INDONESIA CW SO ALL HP Plaque - YC1ME

INDONESIA General Licence PHONE SO 40M Plaque - YD1SDL/2

NON-OCEANIA PHONE SWL Plaque - F-59706

ASIA PHONE SO ALL Plaque - JE1ZWT

ASIA PHONE M2 Plaque - 9M2ZAK

ASIA CW SO ALL Plaque - RA0FF

ASIA CW M2 Plaque - 9M2M

NORTH AMERICA PHONE SO ALL Plaque - N8OO/5

NORTH AMERICA CW SO ALL Plaque - N8OO/5

EUROPE PHONE SO ALL Plaque - RT5Z

Mirek Rozbicki VK6DXI Memorial Plaque                - R4RE

As always we are most grateful to the sponsors of these plaques and trophies which assist to promote interest and participation in the contest.

LOG CHECKING REPORTS

A log checking report are available for each entry in the contest. This report includes information about QSOs that were busted and removed from the score calculation. You can request a copy of your log checking report by sending an email to the contest committee at info@oceaniadxcontest.com .

2018 OCDX CONTEST

The next OCDX contest will be held on the first two full weekends of October 2018 as follows:

PHONE:                08:00 UTC Saturday 6 October to 08:00 UTC Sunday 7 October

CW:                        08:00 UTC Saturday 13 October to 08:00 UTC Sunday 14 October 

The full rules for the 2018 contest can be found on our rules page at http://www.oceaniadxcontest.com/Rules/rules.html .

We look forward to seeing you again in the 2018 event, and please encourage others to join us to make it the biggest OCDX party ever!

73 from

Oceania DX Contest Committee

ZL2IFB, ZL3GA, VK4FH, VK3GK, VK3MI/ZL1AZE, VK3TZ, VK7GN