Archive for February, 2008

Colin WA2YUN is on work assignment on Wake Island for an extended period.

He will be operating as time permits as WA2YUN/KH9. Three spots on the cluster show him to be active on 20m SSB:

JA2DDN 14189.8 WA2YUN/KH9 Wake Is 0725 27-Feb-2008
JE1LET 14225.0 WA2YUN/KH9 0956 17-Feb-2008
JA3LEZ 14240.0 WA2YUN/KH9 0814 17-Feb-2008

QSL via K2PF

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Read an interesting snippet written by VE1DX on one of the DX reflectors. New York Philharmonic Orchestra plays a concert in North Korea.

This would never have happened a few years ago, so you wonder if relations between North Korea and the West are improving ever so slightly..

P5 on air soon? Who knows!

Late yesterday, Feb 21, the Ducie Island expedition submitted over data for over seven thousand VP6DX contacts to the ARRL robot. These contacts were with over 900 stations whose owners made financial contributions of at least five US dollars to the expedition through Feb 24. The submission has been accepted and processed by the robot, and these contacts are ready for matching by the donors.

 Meanwhile, on Ducie Island, the operator team and crew of the Braveheart have begun the first phase of disassembly and off-loading. On today’s schedule to be disassembled and removed from the island: * All antennas for 20 through 6 meters at both east and west camps.* The 30m antenna at the west camp, and the 40m 4-square at the east camp.* Two operating positions and the shift supervisor workstation at the east camp.* The technical workstation.* A portion of the camp infrastructure for meals, cooking, washing, etc. No on-air operating will occur during the daylight period today, as all hands are needed to complete the work of disassemble, packing, transfer to the ship, and storage for the sea journey.

 Tonight (beginning as early as Feb 27 Wednesday 0300z) a more limited on-air operation is possible, if the operators have time and energy remaining. Five operating positions at two sites and transmit antennas for 160 through 30 meter bands will be available. At Feb 27 Wednesday 1445z on-air operations will again shut down for a second day of deconstruction. At the end of Thursday local time the entire east camp will have been removed from the island. The west camp, with single element verticals for 160, 80/30 and 40m, and possible one beverage (045) will remain, along with three operating positions. This equipment will be staffed by a skeleton overnight crew, on-air from about Feb 28 Thursday 0330-1430z. Most operators will sleep on the “Braveheart”, as there will be no camp facilities on the island. Early Thursday morning (Ducie Island time), around 1400z, the ship’s crew and operators will return to the island to pack and remove all remaining antennas, equipment, etc. The on-air phase of the Ducie Island expedition will end at that point.

 This will be the last press release from Ducie Island. A log update was submitted to the website about one hour ago. A final log update, together with a press release containing final statistics, will be transmitted from the Braveheart once we have departed.

Over 180, 000 Q’s in the log!

The Ducie Island expedition has broken other expedition records in recent days, including:

* largest number of RTTY contacts, previously held by the Swains Island N8S expedition of 2007 April.

* largest number of SSB (voice) contacts, previously held by the Comoros Island D68C expedition.

* largest number of contacts on the 40m band, previously held by the Libya 5A7A expedition of 2006 November.

* largest number of contacts on the 30m band, previously held by the St Brandon Island 3B7C expedition of 2007 September.

* largest number of contacts on the 17m band, previously held by the Swains Island N8S expedition.

* largest number of contacts with North America, previously held by the Comoros Island D68C expedition.

* largest number of contacts with South America, previously held by the Peter the First Island 3Y0X expedition of 2006 February.

* largest number of contacts with Africa, previously held by the Rodrigues Island 3B9C expedition of 2004 March-April.

Website

Some very interesting news displayed on Tom ZD7X’s QRZ.com profile.

Would appear he has permission to operate from Tristan da Cunha. Furthermore, planned visits to South Sandwich, South Orkney and South Georgia are on the horizon!.

This is what Tom says:

IMPORTANT INFO: I have been given permission by the Tristan da Cunha government to visit Tristan for an extended stay. Tristan will be my next DX location!!! I hope to operate from Tristan for a period of 4 – 6 months. As I have been from St. Helena, I will be VERY active putting Tristan on the air.

My next planned DX locations after Tristan will be the three islands of South Sandwich, South Orkney & South Georgia. My goal is to activate each island for at least two weeks straight. This three island DXpedition is in the planning stages right now. I hope to stage this whole operation out of the Falkland Islands

Latest from the TX5C website:

The TX5C Dxpedition will operate as FO5A/mm from the Shogun while on route to Clipperton Atoll. The expected departure date is March 28th, but it is also possible the team will be able to leave a day earlier on the 27th. Part of the French team is already in San Diego with other members coming in from points around the US and Canada. The team expects to be together on the 26th.

Photo write-up by G3TXF