Hi everyone
Last week was crazy at work so here’s a late report on my effort in the 2026 Commonwealth Contest.
After a few years away from HF contesting (new house build + losing access to my old farm‑stay portable site), I finally decided it was time to jump back in and have a crack at the 2026 Commonwealth Contest. It’s always been one of my favourites — friendly operators, lots of strategy, and a more relaxed pace.
My new home QTH in suburban Melbourne isn’t exactly contest‑friendly… planning restrictions + high QRN = no thanks. So I went hunting for a rental outside the city and found a place up in the Dandenong Ranges with a nice take‑off to the north and enough trees to hang a couple of wire antennas. Even better, it was available (and affordable!) for the contest weekend.
Setup was the usual portable operation scramble: getting ropes in trees, two multiband dipoles (one for NA, one for EU), FLEX‑6400 configured, laptop behaving… mostly. I didn’t get time for a full shakedown, but I was “contest‑ready” a few minutes before the start — or so I thought.
10M and 15M were dead at kick-off, so I dropped to the lower bands. Rates were slow, much slower than I remembered. I initially thought it was just me getting back into the swing of the game, but later discovered two other culprits:
- the K‑index was ugly, and
- I’d been switching the RX antenna correctly… but forgetting to switch the TX. So for the first 10 hours I was only transmitting on the EU dipole. Oops! With about 10 dB difference between the two antennas, that definitely didn’t help my signal into VE land.
Noise levels at the rental were better than home — around S3 on 80M down to S1 on 10M (250 Hz). Running 100W meant I was usually hearing stations better than they were hearing me, so the noise wasn’t a show‑stopper.
Conditions overall were tough. The usual 80M G opening on our Sunday morning was almost non-existent. I only managed G6XX on that band. 15M didn’t wake up until late Sunday morning, and during the day the only DX I worked (other than VK/ZL) were VE3EJ, 5Z4VJ, 5W1SA, 3B8XF and 9H6A. Thankfully the band perked up in the last hour and I scraped in G6XX, G3BJ and M5DX after many repeats. 10M was barely alive — just five QSOs, four VKs plus P3X who was absolutely blasting in on an otherwise empty band.
Africa was a pleasant surprise though. ZS1C was huge on 20M, and I managed both 5Z4VJ and 3B8XF on three bands. The highlight was catching 3B8VV on 80M at sunrise, despite a hill directly behind my QTH blocking the short‑path direction.
WriteLog summary:
80M: 23 QSOs
40M: 88
20M: 97
15M: 17
10M: 5
Total: 230 QSOs, 4780 points, 62 CAs, 34 HQs
Low rates made it a bit of a grind, but I somehow stayed awake for most of the 24 hours. The world’s most uncomfortable chair probably helped.
Thanks to everyone for the QSOs and for sticking with me through the repeats and band changes. Great to be back in the Commonwealth Contest again.
73, Brian VK3MI
Antennas: Two multiband dipoles @15m (EU + NA)
Radio: FLEX‑6400 (100W)