I worked VK6AS this morning on 20 meters. This was the second time working Dr. Smith, the first being about eight months ago. He’s located in Bull Creek, just outside of Perth, on the Western Coast of Australia. My logging program pulls data from QRZ and is only as accurate as that site, but according to it, our contact was 11,124.6 miles distant (long path is 13,732).

FT8 contact details

VK6AS sits at the top of my log as the most distant station worked and sifting the details reveals I have only worked 17 different stations 10,000 miles or more from me. All in Australia of course, though Rodriguez Island comes in at 10,113 miles. The Land of Oz is a big place and the difference (from my QTH) between working stations near the East Coast and those on the far side is thousands of miles.

By comparison, I worked two other Aussies this morning and neither cracked the 10,000 mile mark. My contact with Hawaii this morning was a paltry 4320 miles and another (30M) with the Easter Island DXpedition a mere 4900 miles.

Australia is big, and far from here. I’ve logged 51 total contacts with stations there and it continues to amaze me whenever I work anyone from the deserts, beaches, the bush, and the “outback” of VK-land.