IOTA

Although we had plans for Sunday morning, I was going to put in a bit of time in the afternoon (VK4 local time) on the IOTA contest.

I like the idea of IOTA, it tends toward more unusual activations in remote areas. That's something I believe that keeps amateur radio relevant in this day and age. The IOTA contest is also a good opportunity to pick up a few new ones.

As it turned out I never even got around to turning the radio on.

We had our annual general meeting in the morning for the wildlife rescue organisation my wife, Donna, and I are involved with. During the meeting one of the members who is involved with a pelican and seabird rescue organisation got a call to a sick pelican. Needless to say, when the opportunity came up for Donna and I to assist, they didn't have to ask us twice.

So we spent that afternoon catching and assessing, not one pelican, but three. Two of them were released after being treated and the third was taken to Australia Zoo's wildlife hospital for further treatment.



Well, after that I forgot all about the IOTA contest until just before closing time.

Maybe next year.

73 de VK4VSP

IARU contest

The IARU contest is on this coming weekend.

I was going to compete together with my brother Laurie, VK4VCC, at his new QTH. Unfortunately, his QTH isn't finished yet because the builders can't seem to get their act together.

I do have Laurie's FT-950 here that we used in the CQ WPX SSB contest back in March, but I'm doing a first aid course all weekend. If I do get on, it'll be in the evenings and I certainly won't be competing seriously.

Good luck to those of you that are competing this weekend.

73 de VK4VSP