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GM

DX

DIG

EST

No 74 Winter 2014/2015

Contents Page #

● Editorial - Malcolm GM3TAL 2

● Chairman’s Chat - Rob GM3YTS 3-4

● 18th Annual GMDX CONVENTION 5-6

● YJ0X Quake Contesters in Vanuatu 7-21

● EA6/GM0EGI 2014 CQWW PHONE 22-24

● Homecoming Award Results 25-26

● PJ7PK Pelikan Island -NEW IOTA 27-35

● Planning the A35V/A35X Dxpedition 36-41

● The DX pages Col, MM0NDX 42-49

● Advertisements 50-53

● Acknowledgements and copyright 54

EDITORIAL

Dear GMDX Members,

This edition of the GMDX Digest contains threeinteresting articles from DXpeditions -

PJ7PK, Pelikan Island, demonstrates the supremeefforts required to land on a rare island, whileboth the YJOX and EA6/GM0EGI stories nicelyillustrate the consequences of meeting with like-minded individuals in bars……

Thanks to all three teams for their excellentreports.

We also have the first article in a series of twofrom Chris GM3WOJ which offers a reflective viewof Dxpedition planning.

I’d like to give MM0NDX special thanks for sharinginformation about forthcoming DXpeditions.(Most readers will be well aware of Col’s websitewww.dx-world.net, but if you aren’t, then I’msure that you will find it interesting and useful.)

A reminder that the copy deadline for Digest 75is 14 April 2015 or you can give me articles at theGMDX Convention.

73MalcolmGM3TAL

GMDX GROUPhttp://www.gmdx.org.uk

Chairman: Robert Ferguson, GM3YTS,gm3yts@btinternet.com

Secretary: Mike Eccles, GM3PPE,Michael@eccles00.orangehome.co.uk

Treasurer: Sheree Ferguson

Committee members:

Geoff Crowley. MM5AHO,Geoffrey.crowley@googlemail.com

Drew Givens, GM3YOR,gm3yor@btinternet.com

Malcolm Hamilton, GM3TAL,mh@interactscotland.co.uk

Colin McGowan, MM0NDX,dxer59@gmail.com

Gavin Taylor, GM0GA,gm0gav@hfdx.co.uk

Chris Tran, GM3WOJ,gm3woj@talk21.com

Chairman’s Chat by Rob GM3YTSHello Folks,

A Happy New Year to you all I hope you enjoyed thefestive period and looking forward to a fun filled2015.

Sheree and I had a lovely time with a house full ofpeople on Christmas day and on Hogmanay, now weare settling down to a quieter few weeks before we

depart for our holiday trip to Australia and New Zealand.

Not much has been happening on the bands for me since the last Digest apart forairing the GA prefix, although in November there was a surprising opening on 6metres to Africa when I worked two new ones ZS4TX/6 and Z21NK. Both were loud. Ihad been listening for ZS4TX for a while but there was always nothing heard thenexcept white noise, one day I saw him spotted switched on my 6m rig and there hewas S9....... amazing band. V51YJ was also worked.

Sadly over these past few weeks two members became silent keys.John G3LZQ died in early December after a long battle with cancer. His funeral wasattended by many radio amateurs including the RSGB President John G3WKL. I wasalso able to attend. John was a great supporter of GMDX along with his wife Trixie.He will be greatly missed.Our second loss was Graham GM3JQJ who passed away in November. Graham wasthe father of Ian GM4KLN and remarkably I remember working Graham on phone inthe early 70’s when we were both in Yorkshire a few miles apart. I then had thepleasure of meeting Graham in person at a GMDX Convention a few years ago.Our condolences and sympathy go out to both families on their loss.

The GMDX Convention is now fixed, it will be held on Saturday 11th April 2015again at the King Robert Hotel in Stirling. Last year some delegates who booked latewere unable to stay at the King Robert as we had used up our allocation of rooms.The Hotel has generously decided that this year all of their rooms will be held forGMDX until 4weeks before the Convention. This hopefully will ensure all attendeeswill be able to stay in the Hotel. We have also chosen at the Hotel’s suggestion a newmenu for next year’s dinner.

The line up of presentations is coming together very nicely. We have Glenn W0GJ whowill be presenting the first presentation in Europe of the upcoming K1N NavassaExpedition. It is 22 years since Navassa was last activated and it is unlikely to be onthe air again for at least 10 years. Glenn is an excellent and entertaining speaker. Weare privileged to have him come over only a few weeks after the completion of theDxpedition. The full line up of speakers and booking form appears elsewhere in thisDigest.

Someone commented to me “What a line up of Speakers”. GMDX certainly seems toattract an above average share of good speakers. Please support us by attending theConvention. The DX Dinner in the evening is also well worth attending the food isgood and great value so bring your partner for an excellent night out.

The “ Homecoming “ special prefixes finished at the end of November and the lineup of scores achieved is shown both on the web site and elsewhere in this Digest. Iwould like thank all of those who took part for their support. I would especially like tothank Terry GA3WUX for his outstanding efforts, in addition to this the event wasstrongly supported by members of The Stirling club and they are worthy winners ofthe “Homecoming “club trophy.

Club Call signs we now have the club call GS8VL we wish to have this call regularlyactivated, it is our plan to allocate this call on a monthly basis to members who arewilling to be reasonably active during their allocated month. GS8VL is a unique call Idon’t think there is another GS8 prefix out there. The only proviso is at the end of themonth they send an ADIF copy of their log to Tom GM4FDM who is the QSL manager.Tom will also upload the logs to LOTW. So if you are interested in using GS8VL pleaselet me know together with your preferred month of operation. The same formulaapplies to our Contest call GM5A except this can only be used in contests. It would begood if we could have our club calls highly visible in 2015.

This year is going to be a year for expeditions to really rare countries so it should anexciting time. In the first half of the year we have the Belgian team going to Iranfollowed by the Navassa Island expedition ,both of these will be presented at theConvention in April. Later on this year we have separate expeditions planned toHeard Island, Bouvet , South Sandwich and South Georgia Islands which are someof the most wanted top ten DXCC entities.

So be prepared get those antennas up to scratch and get ready for the chase!I hope 2015 is a great year for you all both personally and in your DXploits!

73 Rob GM3YTS

(Not GM3YTS !!)

18th ANNUAL GMDX CONVENTION AND DINNER

Saturday, 11th April 2015 at the King Robert Hotel, StirlingProvisional Programme

The GMDX Committee is pleased to announce that the above convention will be held at the King RobertHotel, Whins of Milton, Stirling, on Saturday, 11th April 2015 starting at13.00. Bar snacks will be available from 12.00 noon.

Provisional Programme1300-1330 Registration and Welcome

1330-1400 ZD9XF Tristan da Cunha by Nigel Cawthorne G3TXF

1400-1500 EP6T Kish Island Iran by Marc Cosemans ON6CC

1500-1530       Coffee

1530-1615 PJ7PK IOTA expedition to Pelikan Key, St Martin by David Deane EI9FBB

1615-1630 Short interval

1630-1745 Glenn Johnson W0GJ presents the K1N expedition to Navassa IslandIt is 22 years since the last operation from Navassa

1745 Convention Close and raffle draw2000                           DX Dinner2200                           Hotel Bar

Card Checking available for DXCC, WAZ, WAS, IOSA and RSGB awards.Non Members are very welcomeThe cost of the afternoon’s convention is £9 which includes tea or coffee, whilst the dinner is priced at £24per person.

We would be grateful if you could pre-book to give us an idea of numbers – please return the booking formbelow.  Booking your dinner tickets is particularly important as numbers are limited.

The King Robert has given us a special rate for convention delegates – this is £65 B&Bfor a double room and £45 B&B for a single room. In the event that all single rooms aretaken, the rate for single occupancy of a twin room is £45.  If you would like to stay atthe hotel please contact them direct and mention that you are attending the GMDXConvention to get the special rates.  We suggest you arrange your accommodation asearly as possible to avoid disappointment.  The King Robert Hotel telephone number is01786 811666.…………………………………………………………………………………………

BOOKING Form Shown Below

BOOKING FORMPre- book by completing this form and returning it with your remittance to Sheree Ferguson, 19 LeightonAvenue, Dunblane, Perthshire FK15 0EB.  Please make cheques out to “GMDX Group”.

Please make cheques out to GMDX Group

Note you can pay by Paypal to gmdxgroup@gmail.com Oronline banking to

Royal Bank of ScotlandBranch DunblaneSort Code 83-18-09account  00211009account name GMDX Group

If using any of the above payment methods please clearly state yourcallsign for reference

Name and callsign

DX Convention tickets  £9

DX Dinner tickets  £24

Total remittance enclosed

YJ0X – The Quake Contesters DXpedition to Vanuatu

Phil Holliday zl3pah

The Quake Contesters

The Quake Contesters are a group of keen contesters in and around Christchurch, call sign ZL3X. Weformed around the time of the devastating Christchurch earthquakes out of a chance meeting betweenMark, ZL3AB and Phil, ZL3PAH. It started with an entry in BERU in 2011 as the second ZL team andgrew from there. Our meeting HQ is the Twisted Hop pub in Christchurch where we plan entry in thenext contests. It doesn’t take too long especially after a pint or two of their excellent ale before ourconversation digresses to the topic of DXpeditions. Most of us had never been on one and your scriberemembers as a schoolboy reading about the exploits of famous DXers such as Gus Browning, W1BPDfrom exotic locations from around the world, so why not us too? So we started to seriously discuss aDXpedition of our own.

Where should we go?

We decided to look for a fly-in destination where we could carry all our equipment as hand and holdbaggage, and with a DXCC that was wanted by much of the world. We spent significant time runningthrough the most wanted list on ClubLog and finally decided on Vanuatu – number 97 on the list and arelatively easy journey from New Zealand, just 3 hours from Auckland. We researched the bands andmodes most required by continent and significantly YJ is more wanted on SSB and RTTY than CW –probably because most DXpeditions operate CW as their primary mode.

The team

The team make-up changed as we started to plan, early on a possible member dropped out with ill health.Mark, ZL3AB had earthquake repairs looming and couldn’t make it (next time Mark). But finally wehad commitment from Paul ZL4PW, Geoff ZL3GA and Phil ZL3PAH. We felt that three was not quiteenough and we needed a fourth op. About this time Phil won the prize crossword in the CDXC magazineand was contacted by Gordon, G3USR who is CDXC treasurer and wanted to pay him the prize of 10pounds. One thing led to another and before long, Gordon was on the team. Fortunately Phil and XYLMaggie were in London for a visit and were able to meet Gordon and XYL Julie to ensure that he wasthe sort of person who would fit into the group, i.e. been on DXpeditions before, with reasonable tablemanners and didn’t slurp his beer. He seemed to fit in.

Once the team was set we started to hold meetings on Skype where everything was discussed and agreed.Inevitably it would seem that whenever two or more amateurs are gathered together the discussion willgravitate to antennas – each team member had his own views and we must have spent hours and hourson Skype talking about them.

A very cunning plan

It was obvious that we would all need a huge number of brownie points with our XYLs to get to go offto a pacific island for a week or two. But about this time we had a brainwave: they could come too! Asthey will no doubt read this we wish to make clear that our intention was not that they were there fordomestic duties but to have a good time too. But thanks Maggie, Francie and Julie for the excellentmeals, teas, coffees, beer and wine and keeping us slightly grounded as we babbled on about being called

by FR4NT, the RTTY pile-ups, run rates and other trivia. And we believe that we may have pioneereda new style for DXpeditions, - it may look like a holiday style expedition but it is definitely deadlyserious.

Planning - The Oceania Contest

We started some serious planning and at some point realized if we went in early October we would beable to operate in both SSB and CW legs of the Oceania contests. Here was a chance to have a crack atsome records and at the very least have a target of new all time Vanuatu scores. So we decided on 12days there, flying out on the 3rd October and coming back on 15th. That would give us two contests (weare after all a contest group) and plenty of time during the weekdays to satisfy the pile-ups and hopefullyknock Vanuatu out of the top 100 most wanted for a couple of years.

The license

Phil was tasked with obtaining a license and with help from Joylyn Boe and Barnabas Boe at TRR(Vanuatu Telecoms and Radio Regulator) we obtained call sign YJ0X.

The license cost 500 Vatu which is the local currency and sounds a lot but was about NZ$7! We wouldlike to acknowledge their help in understanding our need for a single letter call sign for the DXpedition.

The call sign had been issued before in the early 2000s but never activated, although it had a QRZ.COMpage. Once we had the license we were able to replace it with our own entry. At the time of writing wehave had almost 50,000 hits on our QRZ.COM page.

Location

Paul, ZL4PW took on the responsibility of finding a suitable QTH. We were looking for a ham friendlylocation with plenty of room for antennas, four bedrooms, plenty of living space (read shack), a beachside

location for good sea take-off, and no local QRM, so not next door to a resort. Every night there wouldbe an email from Paul with more locations to look at, maps came out and finally we decided on VillaChelle in Mele Bay on Efate Island (IOTA OC-035). Dates were booked and a deposit sent. We hadexplained that this was to be an amateur radio expedition and the booking agents were most accommodating.

Our man on the ground

About this time we made contact with Rod, YJ8RN in Vanuatu. Rod had much of the leftovers of previousDXpeditions, including poles, coax, wire and all sorts of other stuff, which he made available to us. Rodbecame the next member of the DXpedition and checked on the Villa for us, did lots of on the groundpreparation for us and was a truly valuable resource. Once we arrived he collected some of us from theairport and helped set up antennas and provided bamboo poles (note: if you intend using the local bamboopoles, it is essential they are dry – if green, they need a month to dry out, otherwise they are very heavy!).

Equipment & transport

We decided to take four complete rigs. Paul would take his Elecraft K3 and KPA500 linear. Phil wouldtake his K3 and SPE 1K-FA linear. Both Geoff and Gordon would take FT450s, one for a breakable 6mbeacon and one as a back-up rig.

We had band pass filters that we use at ZL3X to reduce interstation interference and those went on thelist. Antennas were discussed ad nauseam. We finally decided to take Phil’s folding hexbeam, some10m fiberglass poles and Paul would build some VDAs. We would source the wire needed locally butwe did take 200m of LMR240 coax with us. Phil built 9 baluns and was told to stop complaining aboutsore fingers. Tools and other essentials were listed, everything was weighed and spreadsheets prepared.Excess baggage was always an issue but sponsorship helped cover that.

Budgets were prepared; lists of additional items required were agreed and purchased. Flights were booked– we would fly out of Christchurch via Auckland on 3rd October to Port Vila on Air New Zealand andreturn on Air Vanuatu on 15th October.

Marketing and Sponsorship

Paul designed and put up a website and we started to produce occasional press releases which wedistributed to DX organizations, DX news-sheets and various DXpedition websites. We were surprisedby the level of generosity and very grateful for all the individual donations that arrived.

As is the case for most DXpeditions we paid for our travel and accommodation individually. Howeverwe had additional costs that were a result of running a DXpedition. It was Phil’s job to raise sponsorshipto cover as much of this as possible. A proposal with details of the DXpedition was sent to manyinternational DX organizations and produced offers of sponsorship from around the world to cover these

Villa Chelle and the mighty hexbeam

additional costs. We are extremely grateful for the support we received. During the DXpedition wemade a special effort to hand out QSOs to those countries and regions that had sponsored us. We hopeyou worked us. The sponsors are all listed on our website and QSL card.

Software

We decided to use N1MM logger in DXpedition mode for the expedition, switching to contest mode forthe Oceania SSB and CW contests. Geoff was in charge of all software aspects of IT for the DXpeditionand we took three older Dell laptops (proven no QRM from PSUs) that we use at ZL3X. We createdour own WiFi network that was then connected to the internet via the villa WiFi connection. This provedto be variable but our local network never let us down.

We had listed YJ0X as a DXpedition on ClubLog. It was our intention to post QSOs made in real-timeto ClubLog. Unfortunately the internet connection proved too unreliable and so we turned this off andinstead posted a log every day to ClubLog. Geoff had a lot of help from Paula, NX1P with this aspectand other software issues and she became a valued member of the team.

We also used Athena which integrates into N1MM to show in real time how our QSO count wasprogressing against our goal.After the expedition we used the ClubLog expedition tools to handle On Line QSL Requests (OQRS)which integrates with PayPal for QSL payment and donations, and which provides label and addresslabel printing facilities. Thank you ClubLog for making this part of the process so easy.

The Recce

Geoff and XYL Francie decided to make a reconnaissance trip over a long weekend, a few weeks beforewe were due to leave. This has already been written up in Break-In. It was extremely valuable for manyreasons. There they met Rod, YJ8RN who picked them up from the airport and were able to arrangesuch items as bamboo poles for antennas to be ready for our arrival. They were able to see the QTHand work out what the antenna site would be like. Geoff also discovered that earthing equipment inVanuatu is somewhat different to New Zealand. The value of this trip cannot be underestimated froman expedition point of view although rumour has it that Francie thought it was to celebrate their weddinganniversary.!

Geoff and Francie also met our two local bus drivers, Joey and Nono. Buses in Vanuatu are somewhatlike taxis, except they are usually vans. You phone them and they collect and drop you off where everyou want to go and will collect you again and take you back home. This saved us the expense of hiringa car, which is expensive in Vanuatu and so reduced our travel budget.

Gordon G3USRpresents Rod

YJ8RN with anFT450

Geoff ZL4GAon SSB - and

its still raining

Rod YJ8RNgets his

expeditionshirt

From left to right: Geoff ZL4GA, Paul ZL4PW and Gordon G3USR

Paul ZP4PW doing what he likes best, running the pile up

The best laid plans …

Everything looked set to go, the planning was finished and we were all very excited. We were flyingout next Friday. But on the Sunday before we were due to leave Phil was struck down with a mysteryillness and spent the next few days in bed and was in no fit state to travel. Gordon and Julie arrivedfrom the UK via Sydney on the Tuesday before D-day. When Maggie picked them up from the airportJulie was on crutches and in a moon boot. She had broken her foot in their hotel in Sydney! Howevershe was walking wounded. Phil could not even walk.

So Phil and Maggie stayed behind and rebooked to fly out on the following Friday, missing the firstweek. This meant that his K3 and linear did not make the journey to Vanuatu and the team was downto three radios and three operators. Phil and Maggie did finally get there about a week late and so didnot miss out on all the excitement.

Arrive and set up

The somewhat reduced team arrived in the early afternoon and were met at the airport by Rod, YJ8RNand Nono. The XYLs settled in and the OMs started to set up the radios and IT infrastructure. The hexbeam was erected on a 7m bamboo pole, and 40m vertical with two raised radials was put up on thedecking extending in front of the villa. This antenna proved to be excellent on both 40m and 15m.Vanuatu is two hours behind New Zealand and we had arrived in the early afternoon but setting up takestime and by now everyone was ready for KickAss curry evening at the resort 70m down the road. Sothe first QSO was made after dinner on 40m SSB with JH1PXH with Paul, ZL4PW at the mic.

More antennas were erected the day after the contest. By now, it was raining very heavily so they werebuilt inside and rushed out for deployment.. We put up a VDA for 12m, a 17m vertical, a 6m delta loopwith the FT450 running a breakable beacon, and an 80m antenna with a 13m pole and top-loading slopingsection. The 80m antenna was very noisy and although we were being well heard, the noise levelprevented us hearing much at all. The 40m vertical was moved further out from the villa,

The weather was atrocious. It was not meant to be the rainy season yet but no one had told the rain godsand we had torrential rain for the next few days. The hexbeam was turned by the Armstrong methodand the best way to do this was to get into bathers (swimming costumes) before going outside.

The 6m breakable beacon had provided almost instant results with 4 x KH6s in the log on the first nightand approximately 40 x JAs the next. It was still raining very heavily so installing the 6m beam borrowedfrom Rod didn't happen as soon as we'd have liked. The 6 el 6m boom antenna was huge and of industrial,cyclone-resistant strength and installed on the villa balcony aimed at the USA.

The other villa on the site was occupied by a group of Wellington girls with their personal trainer andjudging by the bottles every morning they were going for some sort of record. We noted a technicianarriving to fix the interference they were having on their TV. We wonder what caused that? It did notseem to spoil their enjoyment.

When they left at the end of the week we moved to 80m antenna closer to the sea and away form anynoise sources and from then on 80m performed quite well for us. The 12m VDA was also moved closerto the sea and proved an excellent performer.

Finally on the air and the Oceania SSB contest

Operations started on the first evening on 40m SSB and the first contact in the log at 08:51 was JH1PXH.We had left Christchurch at 4am that morning and after a couple of hours on the air we shut down forthe evening, being tired but pleased to be finally on the air after the months of planning. Operationcontinued next morning whilst the other contest-band antennas were erected.

At 08:00 on 4th we switched N1MM over from DXPEDITION mode to CONTEST mode for the K3whilst leaving the other laptops running in DXpedition mode. We were up and running and calling CQContest. We operated as a multi-one for 24 hours and made 1406 QSOs. This demonstrated to us thatbeing a wanted DXCC in a contest is a double-edged sword. The pile-ups calling us actually sloweddown the QSO rate, but at least we were always being called!

Condx & pile ups

The weather didn’t improve. The rain was torrential. But nobody cared as condx on the bands, especiallythe higher bands were excellent. And the pile-ups were huge. We operated two stations most of thetime. The K3 and KPA linear were running 500W and the FT450D was running 100W. But the lowpower of the FT450D did not cause any reduction in the pile-ups. Initially we worked a mix of CW andSSB with attention being paid to where possible working those countries where DX associations hadsponsored us. Then on the 9th we started to operate RTTY using just 40W on the FT450D. We usedMMVARI with multi-rx enabled and it was just like shooting fish in a barrel! We continued with themix of bands and modes to try and ensure as best we could that new band slots were given out. It is notpossible to please everyone but we have had some very nice thank-you emails now we are back homeso we must have been doing something right.

Phil finally makes it and the Oceania CW contestPhil, ZL3PAH finally arrived a week late, determined to get out to Vanuatu after all the planning. Wehad decided that there was no need to bring his K3 and especially no need for a 1KW linear as everythingwas going well with the equipment we had and there were only four days left. Phil got stuck into someRTTY and then helped out in the Oceania CW contest. Again we made a multi-one entry. Now we had

Phil ZL3PAH on RTTY and Paul ZL4PW

four ops there was plenty of opportunity to run a second and third station and so we continued to operateover the Oceania CW weekend outside of the contest with big pile-ups on 17m CW and 12m RTTY.Our final total for the Oceania CW contest was 1261 QSOs. The tally would have been much higher butrunning simplex made it very difficult to complete contest exchanges when other callers persisted inattracting our attention! It seems CW ops didn't understand the “TEST” in our CQs, at least the majorityof voice ops in the SSB leg were more compliant with the need for a serial number. We are confidentthat we have set new records for Vanuatu for both legs of the Oceania.

We had set a target of 15,000 QSOs for the DXpedition in total. We posted to our website that we wouldbe going QRT at 00:00z on 14th October. In the end we made 15,854 QSOs and the last two were madeat exactly the same time by Phil with WR7Q on 12m CW and by Paul with AE7OA on 10m SSB. Thanksfor all the QSOs, each one was appreciated.

We worked 129 different DXCCs. And whilst the bulk of QSOs were with North America (39.9%) andAsia (26.9%) we were very pleased with a large number of QSOs with Europe (20.1%). Oceania camein at 7.9%, South America at 4.6% and Africa at 0.7%. More analysis is available at the ClubLog statisticspage.

The antennas came down quickly and the rigs and computers were packed up in a couple of hours. Wehad and enough time to take a bus tour across the island once we had packed up. None of the party hadseen anything of Vanuatu outside of the Port Vila supermarkets up to this point! We had the DXpeditiondinner that evening with Rod YJ8RN and his XYL Ruth to thank them for the huge help they had givenus. At four o’clock local time the next morning we were lining up to go to the airport, tired but happy.

What goes on tour stays on tour

There were some memorable moments during the DXpedition but mostly what goes on tour stays ontour. However we can share a few with you, but no names, no pack drill.

There was the op on SSB calling ‘the JA station with J in the call please go now’, and the op who calledCQ on 17m on LSB and wondered why he wasn’t getting any replies. And we won’t mention the personwho put PL259 connectors on both ends of the coax before trying to pass it through the tiny hole in thewall. Or the op with the only serious tummy bug of the trip who had to suddenly QRX the pile up acouple of times.

The rest we will keep to ourselves.

Back home but the DXpedition isn’t over

We arrived back home and there was already a lot of airmail cards in the letterbox. We have set up theOn Line QSL Request (OQRS) on ClubLog and the demand for cards is high. We would all like to thankthose reading this who have used the OQRS and have made an additional donation along with the costof the cards. We have all been amazed at the generosity of people, and also the many kind emails wehave received complementing us on the DXpedition. By the time you read this article the cards shouldbe back from the printers and in the post or at the bureau. We have had only a few emails regardingbusted calls and have been able to fix all the genuine ones. We will be posting the log to Logbook ofThe World as soon as we are sure the log is clean.

One of the surprises has been the number of emails received beseeching us to visit a QRZ.COM page sothat they can have Vanutau flag on their page. This does not seem to have anything to do with amateurradio and they have all been ignored.

What we learned

We learned a huge amount about planning an expedition, and would do many things differently nexttime (and there will be a next time). We would take more rigs, more operators and separate the phoneops from the CW ops. We would make a point of speed testing the internet feed during the recce. It wasa great disappointment to have everything working so that we could upload QSOs as soon as they wentinto the log, only to find out that the connection to the internet was unreliable. We would send the ITguy out a day early. It gets hard to set everything up and troubleshoot with others around with differentpriorities. We have learned that simpler works well especially with antennas. We have learned that thereis no such thing as enough coax. And we have learned that you cannot trust the weather to behave as itis supposed to.

But what we also learned is that DXpeditions are contagious, and we have caught the disease. Planningfor the next one has already started and we are socializing various possibilities within the QuakeContesters.

How do we choose the location? It must be in the top one hundred most wanted DXCC list, we mustbe able to fly in with the gear – no boats for us, have good accommodation suitable for DXing with goodtake off. And there must be good shopping!

“Late afternoon and the wine arrives…………………..”

i� http://www.zl3x.com/

ii� http://www.beru.org.uk/

iii� https://secure.clublog.org/mostwanted.php

iv� http://www.cdxc.org.uk/

v� http://www.oceaniadxcontest.com/

vi� http://www.trr.vu/index.php/en/

vii� http://familyaccommodationvanuatu.com/about‐‐the‐‐villas/

viii� http://www.foldingantennas.com/gb.html

ix� http://www.f4bkv.net/antenna‐‐vda.html

x� http://yj2014.wordpress.com/

xi� http://n1mm.hamdocs.com/tiki‐‐index.php

xii� http://www.pc5m.net/projects/athena

xiii� https://secure.clublog.org/charts/?c=YJ0X

xiv� ‘A Hamcation in YJ’ by Geoff Clark ZL3GA, Break‐‐In Vol 87, Number 5,

September/October 2014 p15xv

YJ0X references and links

� http://www.benjor.vu/restaurant

� https://secure.clublog.org/charts/?c=YJ0X#r

� https://lotw.arrl.org/lotwuser/default

xvi

xvii

EA6/GM0EGI 2014 CQWW PHONE CONTESTBy Brian Devlin GM0EGI

As usual these things normally start with a throw away comment in the bar, this was no exception.

Colin GM0RLZ and Gordon MM0GPZ had been talking at the GMDX Group AGM, and as I was leaving to go homeGordon asked ” How do you fancy going to EA6 for cqww phone contest?”. I said I didn’t think I could make it as I hadonly just returned from a week in EA8. A few days later I had a call from Gordon, “we have booked the villa” he then toldme the flight numbers and said that he, Colin and Phil GM0LIR were going. After a quick discussion with my XYL Ibooked the flights. We decided that we needed at least one more op, so Colin asked Jonathan MM0OKG if he would like tocome, Jonathan agreed and that made up our team of 5. As we only had 4 weeks to sort everything out we arranged to havea meeting at my QTH to discuss our plans and decide on, antennas, radios, amps and which callsign to use, then have afinal meeting at Gordon’s to pack the antennas and weigh all the equipment, we were flying Ryanair and were aware oftheir “overweight baggage policy” we had purchased extra luggage allowance but were still keen to make sure everythingwent smoothly.

We spent the Sunday before the contest assembling the antennas and packing all the equipment in cases, we cut runs ofcoax and measured the wires for the antennas, checked the fibreglass poles, packed guy ropes, checked the laptops andbasically made sure that everything we needed was there.

We were leaving on the Wednesday before the contest and flying from Manchester so we all met at Gordon’s QTH as wewere going to the airport in 2 cars, we were a bit late in leaving as there were one or two issues still to sort out, but we stillhad plenty of time to get there, Everything was fine until we got on to the M6, only to discover that a lorry had jack knifedand was blocking all three lanes, this was not looking good, but eventually we got through on the hard shoulder and made itto the airport on time to check in. The check in was smooth and the Ryan air staff were extremely helpful in taking ourluggage, so after going through security we headed for the bar and were unaware that boarding had been brought forwardso we were probably the last 5 people on the plane. The flight was uneventful and in just a little over 2 hours we arrived inPalma. Our transport was waiting and took us to the villa, where we dumped the luggage and went to look for somewhereto eat, we found an English bar “The Red Rum” which was about 10 minutes walk away and ate there. After dinner weheaded back home to bed as we had a busy day ahead the next day.

Thursday morning was bright and warm, what a change, erecting antennas in shorts and T shirts instead of wellies andwaterproofs. We started to build the antennas, we were using 2 element VDA’S for 10, 15 and 20 metres, a quarter wavevertical for 40 and 80 metres and an inverted L for top band.

The antenna building went fine and by early afternoon all the antennas were in place. Although the villa we had rentedowned all the land, there was a right of way around the point of land that the villa sat on, so throughout the day there werelots of people walking around the area we were on, I had brought some warning tape, and we put this on the guys andradials so that everything could be seen. There was one old gentleman who seemed to take a closer interest in what we weredoing than most folk, but I didn’t really think much about it at the time. Later on that night after we had finished our dinnerthere was a knock at the door, Two Spanish policemen had arrived, one of the neighbours had phoned them as they wereconcerned with what we were doing with the antennas. We explained to the police why we were there, I had printed offboth the CEPT regulation and the CQWW contest rules in Spanish, they checked our rental agreement and our licences and

then just took a note of Colin’s passport number, as it was his name on the villa rental document, one of the policemenspoke good English and kept reassuring us by saying “ There is no problem everything is alright”, they explained to us thatthere was a right of way, around our villa, that was used regularly by the locals and I think they were concerned that wewould prevent people using this, we assured the police that anyone could use the right of way and we would not stopanyone from coming on to the land, the police then left and that was the last we heard from them. The next day dawnedbright and warm again and it was time to set up the stations, we were using 2- Elecraft K3’s and 2- Elecraft KPA-500, 500watt amplifiers, 2 x 5B4AGN automatic switchable bandpass filters and Win-Test software was used for logging.We spent most of Friday relaxing, there was a small jetty next to the property so we all went for a swim and later on weheaded back to the “Red Rum” for a pre contest dinner which consisted mainly of steak!, this really was a very civilizedway to prepare for a contest. After dinner we headed back to the villa to have a final check of the equipment before thecontest started.

The contest started at 2 am local time and we very quickly we got into the swing of things, we had made up a rota ofoperating times to try and give everyone a fair shot at the bands and this seemed to work quite well, There were a lot of bigsignals on the band and I was surprised at the strength of the signals from the pacific area, JA, VK and ZL., We had noequipment problems apart from on Sunday morning when 10 metres seemed to go dead and Gordon shouted out to checkand see if we still had an antenna up!. One of the guys on the 10 metre VDA had worn through caused by the tidalmovement, (yes we had them THAT close to the sea), and this made the antenna fall down and break about 8 inches off thetop of the fibreglass pole, we very quickly fixed this by changing the top section from one of our spare poles.

We had one or two visitors to the shack during the contest.The son of EA6SV came to visit with his family and he was very interested in what was going on as he had grown up withham radio, and a Spanish girl who was visiting her parent’s and had taken their dogs for a walk, she visited the shack whilstPhil and Jonathan were operating and was surprised to learn that we were making contacts all over the world!. We also hada little black cat that visited us every day, it would not come into the house but was happy to sit on our outside chairs or atthe open window and watch us operate. One interesting episode that had Gordon smiling, for most of the day on Saturday,was a couple of young ladies who decided to do some topless sunbathing directly in his view outside our garden, I don’tthink it cost us many contacts but whoever he was working at the time may have wondered about the silence from our endfor a few minutes.

The rest of the contest went fairly straightforward until, with an hour or so to go, we switched on the microwave in thekitchen and the lights went out. All the lights and some of the sockets had tripped, although the socket that Colin’s rig wasplugged into still had power, everything else was dead. Colin continued to operate barefoot as the power to his amp wasreading only 80 volts for some reason, whilst the rest of us searched for the circuit breaker, all to no avail. We did find a

large supply box in the street with the meter in it but access to the circuit breakers was locked, so there we were with anhour to go in the contest and no power, we could have phoned Carlos the villa agent, but as he lived in Palma which was 45minutes away and that it was already after midnight and we had less than an hour to go we decided that it was not worth thebother, so our contest was over, 5389 qso’s and a raw score of about 5.5 million points.

On the Monday morning it was time to strip out the antennas and dismantle the station, all the antennas were down andpacked by 10 am and the station dismantled before lunch. We had a visit from Joachim EA6/DK5IR who was in Majorcafor the contest and we had worked him on a few bands during the contest. After lunch we all walked in to Alcudia old townto do a bit of sightseeing, shopping and to eat ice cream, before heading back to the villa to do a final bit of packing.

Gordon had bought a set of small scales and we wanted to check the weights in the bags for the return trip.By 5.15pm we were ready to go, the taxi arrived at 5.45pm to take us to the airport. We had more of an issue with the bagson the way back but eventually everything was sorted and we got through security and headed to get something to eat, theflight home was uneventful although the landing in Manchester was quite interesting due to strong crosswinds, then it wasback to the cars to head North up the M6 to home.

Was it worth it,? you bet it was, we all had a great time.

What did we learn? well here are some thoughts:

1- EA6/GM0EGI was too long the EA6 prefix was a pain and cost us a few qso, not great for a contest entry.2- Print the paperwork off in the local language.3- Find out where the fuse box is before the agent goes away.4- If possible give yourself more than 4 weeks to prepare.5- 20 cable ties are NOT enough, Colin.6- Bigger amps, we could have used 1KW in EA6 but the weight was a problem.7- Better 160 metre antenna8- RX antenna that works TX3A design did not work well in this location.9- An additional mult station.10- 2 more operators, to help with the weight allowance and run the mult rig.11- The VDA worked great next to the water, although we were blocked slightly to the South.12- Blinds for the window to stop “ distractions”13-

I would like to thank everyone who gave us a call and persevered with our callsign, we know it was a mouthful, but youshould have been at our end of it for 47 hours. We hope to work you again next year from, well that’s the question we areasking ourselves, “Where do we go next?”

73 from the EA6/GM0EGI team

Colin GM0RLZ, Gordon MM0GPZ, Phil GM0LIR, Jonathon MM0OKG, Brian GM0EGI

GMDX would like to thank everybody who took part inthe 2014 Homecoming, there was a good level ofactivity and we estimate that more than 100,000 QSO'swere made with the special prefix. Quaichs will beawarded to the following stations for the highestnumber of contacts:

GA14CG Stirling ClubGA3WUX Terry, GM3WUXGA5CX Rob, GM3YTSGA3YOR Drew, GM3YORGA1BSG John, GM1BSG

RV9DC Sergei Grzhibovsky

Well done to the Stirling club who delivered theexcellent GA14CG, GA700BOB and GA6NX activity. Anotable mention to the Caithness Amateur RadioSociety who sent in 7 logs.

In terms of single operator effort, Terry GM3WUX wasthe clear winner with an incredible 17,000 QSO's

GA Stations

Callsign QSO's

GA14CG 22112GA3WUX 17001GA5CX 6692GA3YOR 5001GA1BSG 3779GA2MP 3146GA700BOB 2701MA0XXW 2559MA0BQI 2000GA3YTS 2000GA4JPZ 1796GA6NX 1749GA4UBJ 17202A0KAU 1705GA4AFF 15472A0VJR 1413MA1ACM 1313MA5AHO 1292GA4YMM 1288MA6BJJ 1144GA3TAL 892GA0AXY 839GA0TKB 748MA0FNR 723MA6SZA 713GA4JYB 658GA4AUP 259MA6PSX 41

Non GM Stations

Callsign QSO's

RV9DC 46

PJ7PK – Pelikan Key, NA-247 NEW IOTA

“ELEVEN NEW IOTA GROUPS were announced at IOTA’s 50th Anniversary Convention, heldin Windsor, England over the weekend 4 to 6 July 2014. All new groups have provisionalnumbers. This means that they will need to be confirmed by an operation taking place after5 July 2014 that meets the 1000 QSO and other normal validation requirements. Most of thenew groups have not seen a previous amateur radio operation. “

The above has been taken directly from the pages of the IOTA website. Some of these 11new IOTA groups were introduced as a result from the rule changes announced in the latestIOTA Directory, published in May 2014. The others……well just read on and see. The NA-247group was added as a new coastal islands group of a split sovereignty island. Dutch SintMaarten (PJ7) & French Saint Martin (FS) are both very different and independent of eachother. These islands were not previously shown on a 1:1,000,000 scale map but now qualifyfrom being shown and named on Google Earth in the same way that the coastal islands of StMartin FS count (NA-199). Thus, the new Sint Maarten’s coastal islands group was born.There are 2 islands that qualify for this group. Molly Beday and Guana Key of Pelikan akaPelikan Key. The latter was the obvious choice for us to try to activate. Sure, it was going tobe tough, we knew that, but it was still going to be a lot easier than Molly.

Col, MM0NDX was the brains behind this, and to be fair, did Trojan work behind the scenes.When activating a brand new IOTA, one has no resources, no past experiences to call on.We had no one to ask for help and no one to advise us either. No one had done this before.You could say, we were almost in the blind. This rock is barely known even on a local level.The Local Sint Maarteniens don’t even land there. 4 photos were all we had in hand alongwith blurry Google maps imagery. Still though, this didn’t deter us and after concrete planswere in place, the team was formed; Dom 3Z9DX, Dave EI9FBB, Jeremy EI5GM, Frans J69DS

we thought the callsign PJ7 Pelican Key was worthy, worthwhile and justified. Copies of ourindividual licences and passports were forwarded and the straightforward applicationprocess began. Dates agreed, flights booked, stations prepared and most importantly, wehad a fool proof plan in mind (or did we)?

The only way to do this was to have a boat anchored nearby this blessed rock. This would beour base, our home, and our means of commuting to and from the rock. Looking at Googlemaps can be very deceiving (as we learnt) and what looked like just a few hundred meters,actually turned out to be several nautical miles. Sure, point to point is just a few hundredmeters off-shore, but this is to a steep cliff face on the mainland, no use whatsoever forlaunching a boat.

We were in fact a little over 3 nautical miles from the marina, ourdeparture point. Several quotations later and we had decided on a 6 berth yacht wasadequate for this job. We now had an approximate budget in hand and could now try torequest some sponsorship. Dom, 3Z9DX is a well experienced skipper and has all therelevant papers to captain his own boat, yacht etc…even oil tanker! We were not fussyabout what type of boat we got, once it did the job. The problem was, we did not know thejob, we hadn’t seen the rock and therefore was always going to be unsure of our specificrequirements. This is where Dom’s experience shone through. He felt responsible for all oursafety and needed to be 110% certain of our needs and requirements. Simpson Bay,Philipsburg, has to be one of the most ‘flushest’ marinas in the world. Hundreds of Cruiseships visit here each season. There are many marinas overflowing with yachts and pleasureboats of all types, from the small jet ski right up to the largest of super yachts belonging tothe rich and famous. It was out of season, and from browsing several of the many charterwebsites, there were boats abundant. We all agreed it made perfect sense to try get theboats that suited our needs exactly. To do this we would first have to evaluate the situationat Pelikan, do a recce, and then get the required boats – we needed two! There was alwaysthe hopeful too of getting a good cash deal.

be long using up one’s minimal airline baggage allowance. We all got hit with these excessbaggage charges. At an estimate, over $400 in excess baggage charges were paid. Stillthough, everything arrived on the day and everything was in perfect condition.

Col and Frans arrived on the Saturday, the day before the rest of us. It was the plan for themto round up some possible boats and to secure the generators. Sure, there was a lot ofother equipment that needed to be bought locally, but this could be done when the wholeteam was together. Worries over the current Air France strike were thankfully resolved justprior to Col’s departure from Paris. Frans’ flights were delayed though and as a result theduo didn’t meet up until later that evening (after dark). It was too late to do anything thatday. Jeremy and I both arrived on the Sunday morning (from Amsterdam) moments afterDom’s flight touched down from Panama. He was arriving from Brazil and transited throughthere. Arrangements had been made to land all our baggage at the same hotel that Col andFrans had used on the previous night. We didn’t need a hotel, we were getting a boat forour accommodation-remember?

Bags dropped, a quick freshen up and off out again with Frans’ nephew to go boat hunting.Several marinas were visited that day, on both sides, French and Dutch, all to no avail. Somewere closed, but those that were open had some lovely boats available. Some of thesewould have been ideal, and were within our budget. However, once we started gettingserious and showing them the green, no one wanted anything to do with us. They all had asystem, and what we were doing was not part of the system. Imagine handing someone awad of cash and them not wanting it? That’s what was happening here. The only way to getone of these boats was to go on-line, book it and pay for it on-line. The charter company(middleman) would then have to make the bank transfer (after taking his cut) to the boatowner who would give his permission. The boat would then be serviced and cleaned andmight be ready by the end of the week. It was impossible to get a boat on the spot. This wasa big blow to us as we had been so sure and so certain of this. This caused a delay andpushed us a day behind. Monday came and we woke to hear that a ‘friend of a friend’ had aboat that could take us. A breakthrough. We couldn’t even finish our breakfast as our ridewas already outside to bring us to the marina. There we viewed a boat, two boats in fact,and although a little grubby and had a lot of hours on the clock, was found to be adequate.Either one of them would have done, so after negotiating a price, the owner said he wouldcome with us to take it out for the first hour or so. During this hour we decided to go toPelikan and get the recce trip done. All of us on board and as we started to leave the bay,the engine overheated causing us to pull over onto a nearby jetty. This boat, we discovered,hadn’t been used very much in recent months. The skipper actually lived in this boat and itwas the other boat that he used often. We had chosen the wrong boat. At least though, weknew where there was a second boat and so, soon we were on route to switch boats. Thisother boat was a diesel engine boat, and started first pick of the key. Again, as we pulled outof the harbour area, the skipper gave it a little more throttle and boy, was she blowingsmoke. Serious smoke. Thick black smoke in fact. We continued in the hopes that it would

clear up. It didn’t. Reducing power eased things a little, not much, but a little. We were justaround the headland from Pelikan when he recommended it was too risky for us to hit theopen sea with this boat. We turned around and headed back to shore and stayed within thesafety of the harbour. This had taken up most of the morning and we were now, back tosquare one. Still no boat. We had to go searching again. So much to do and time was againstus. To cover more ground, we decided to split up. Frans went to collect the PJ7PK licencewhile the rest of us decided it was vital to get an actual visual on the rock that was causingus all this grief. So back to the marina where we had earlier seen a sign for private boatcharter. We went in and told them in detail what we wanted. To be fair, everyone theretried their hardest to source us a boat, they were getting the same results as us. However,they did have their own big rib that could be hired. Expensive? Yes, and we had to use theircaptain! This was a serious rib, had twin 400 HP Yamahas on the back of it and they used itfor private hire for Cruise ship passengers. Every second day a cruise ship/ships comebut…guess what…today there was none. The boat was idle. They WERE willing to take us outto Pelikan and at least the recce trip could be done. This rib was well able to move and inless than an hour, we had been to Pelikan, circled it several times, photographed it,identified a possible landing spot and came back.

A new plan came into action, and as 2boats were needed (one to bring us out and another small one to get in close to the rocks) itwas decided to use a small rib that Frans’ nephew had, and, Pierre was more than happy totake us out again in the big rib.

This local company proved to be invaluable and this skipper (Pierre) was a godsend. He hadthe local knowledge that we needed, knew the places to bring us, where to source the rightequipment. In fact, that day alone we sourced everything that we needed for theDXpedition. We bought 2 generators, fuel cans, extension leads, tables, chairs, foodstuffs,

would be able for the trip. It was now or never. We loaded up this boat the followingmorning and with Dom and Frans in tow behind in the small rib, we headed out of SimpsonBay and headed towards Pelikan. We made progress, good progress, almost too good to betrue. Pelikan was now in sight and the closer we came, the more determined we all were tomake this happen. We slowed right down next to this rock, and the local guys turned to usand asked, are you sure this is the place? Why would anyone want to overnight here? Youwhite guys are crazy! For now though, we had more serious business to be dealing with. Theproposed landing spot that we had identified the previous day was now under almost 2meters of swell, and was now impossible to land here. The risk of bursting the small rib wastoo high to even attempt. Again, Dom’s experience shown and an alternative spot was apossible option. This would be tricky though as it would need very fast manoeuvring of therib, to and fro, almost like a dance. There was a 10 foot gap between two sharp jaggedrocks, and this is when Jeremy, dived into the sea and swam ashore. He was the first man toland, followed by Frans who was equally as crazy. Dom returned to the big rib and got thatskipper to bring him ashore. Ashore is a very pleasant word, but let me assure you that itwas anything but pleasant. We had been warned, to use protective footwear at all times.Poisonous sea urchins are abundant here and if you step on one, it’s needles will pierce thesole of your foot and the result is…well, not nice to say the least. The first rock you land on isat a 45 degree slope, is wet and is covered in seaweed. You must try to take a giant stepfrom here and onto a more level rock, but also covered in seaweed. It takes a few of thesegiant steps before one can actually begin to feel a little grip. The risk of falling is extremelyhigh. If you fall and do yourself an injury, it will be very difficult for you to be rescued. Thelanding is difficult even with all your faculties; imagine trying to take someone off! Stillthough, three of our men were now on the rock. They surveyed the rock in great detail, left,right, up and down, all looking for an easier landing spot. There was none. The three ofthem all shook their heads and all agreed that there was no way possible to land all 5 guysand equipment. It was certain that someone or something would end up in the deep waters.Frans was the first one off the island and came back to inform both Col and I of theirfindings. It was not going to happen. The skipper was now anxious to leave and was underpressure to go. So near and yet so far. At that very moment, Col realised that the hardest bitwas actually already done. Two guys were already safe on the rock. This could be theturning point of the DXpedition. If only we had one complete station to hand them, so theycould at least make the minimum required 1000 QSOs.

I was very conscious of my baggage allowance and how things were packed. I had repackedmy case earlier that morning to have one complete station ready in one case. Fransreminded us of the risks involved and thought it very likely that it would end up on the seabed. After hearing that, I suggested to try landing the generator first. If we could do this, wecould land other equipment. If we couldn’t land it or if it fell, nothing lost as without agenerator we couldn’t be QRV anyway. We decided to give it a go. At this stage, Dom andJeremy were waiting to be collected and to be brought back. Instead they were been

thrown a generator and told to take this quickly. Moments later, the generator was on therock, Dom and Jeremy still dumbstruck. What was happening? It’s going ahead, that’swhat’s happening. Frans went backwards and forwards many times that afternoon, handingequipment to Dom and from Dom to Jeremy. It had been 30 years previous when Frans wasused to manoeuvring ribs like this. He must have been good at it in his day because this day,he was excellent, driven with precision. The rib kept bobbing up and down, in and out in theswell and somehow, he avoided grounding it. One sudden movement or jerk and somethingwould have ended up in the sea for sure. Meanwhile Col and I were busy getting anothercomplete station together. Yes, it was still going to be a compromise but….two stations arebetter than one! We knew at this stage that the complete team could not land. We neededa ground crew, this is something that we hadn’t thought about. If all 5 of us had been on therock, there was no-one to organise a way to get us off. Col volunteered to stay behind alongwith Frans, who would drive the rib back to the mainland – he had already demonstrated hisdriving skills. We also needed someone competent enough to come back out again in caseof emergency and to come to recover us. I was the last person to get onto that rib and to goashore onto that cursed rock. As Jeremy, Dom and I watched Frans and Col disappear intothe horizon, we immediately began the station set-up. We were alone, very alone andisolated. We had everything we needed to make this happen, a generator, fuel, 2 completestations, a little food and water and most importantly, determination. We had to get on-airas soon as possible and begin operating. We needed to make that required 1000 QSOsunsure of when and how we were going to be collected. Our original plan came into action.The only CW station was going to be on 30m, with 20 & 17m on SSB. This would give prettymuch 24 hour propagation into most geographical areas of the globe. Although all clubsponsorship came from Europe, we wanted to give all areas / continents equal chances ofworking us in this now, shorter window.

I was the first station QRV on 17m SSB. The band was alive. Our 17m vertical dipole wasgoing to ‘rock this rock’! Infact, the band was so busy, it was hard to find a clear frequencyto call CQ. I squeezed myself a spot on 18.130 and CQ CQ CQ. This is Papa Japan Seven PapaKilo, New IOTA NA-247, QRZ? Zilch ! 12 minutes of unanswered CQs got me frustrated. Wasmy antenna not working? Had I microphone / audio problems? One way to find out. Iscanned the band and found 2 loud stations in QSO. I broke in and asked for a radio report.PA2LO was most helpful and obliged. Infact, Gert was completely aware of our activationand was waiting for us. There had been some pirate activity before our activation using ourcallsign and so I think he needed a little convincing. I asked him to QSY to 18130 and therewe continued the chat. After brief formalities were exchanged, he was delighted to be thefirst QSO with this NEW IOTA group and kindly agreed to spot me on the DX cluster.Moments after this all hell broke loose and the fun began. It was at this moment when Irealised why exactly, I do this DXpeditioning lark! The pure adrenalin rush of a pile-up. Thegoal here was to work the needed 1000 and anything more than that was going to be abonus. The pileups were huge, most enjoyable and surprisingly, excellently behaved. The

propagation gods were looking down on us (for once) and we had openings into allcontinents at once. The rate was phenomenal, and one wouldn’t be long clocking up highQSO numbers. Jeremy was also QRV at this stage and running 30m CW where he alsonoticed, equally good propagation and pile-ups.

Life on the island was not pretty. We did not spend too long on preparing our operating site.We thought it much more important to spend that time on making QSOs. As a result, we setup between two giant boulders. There had been a previous rock fall here. The surface wasuneven. There was no comfort and if you decided to try move about, there was a high risk oftripping or standing on a loose uneven stone and falling. It was smelly, and signs of deadcrabs were evident. It was also hot, very hot. It tipped 41 degrees at one point betweenthese two boulders on our thermometer. There was no shade – nor air conditioning! Wehad a tent but this increased the ambient temperature even more. The risks of the dangersfrom the sun were high. We certainly didn’t want to dehydrate. We had to drink often. Ourbottled water was warm, there was no way to keep it cool. There was no breeze, a deadheat with high humidity. There was always the risk of further falling rocks down upon us.We had to be careful of our movements. Not to mention all the insect bites. And we alsoknew that there was a high risk of that lightning storm returning. Basically, we were exposedto all the elements here and were at Mother Nature’s mercy.

The pile-ups continued and were never ending. Jeremy was our main CW op. I took a breakat 500 QSOs and switched and did a bit on CW to relieve him. It was nearing midnight, andboth stations were in full swing. Dom on SSB and I was on CW. Jeremy came up from his restand told us that there was a boat coming straight in our direction at speed. It looked like apolice boat. We were in trouble. A quick check of the log showed little over 900 QSOs at thisstage. Damn, we need that required 1000. Again, so near and yet so far ! Jeremy got backinto the hot-seat while I tried to negotiate with the boat. He’s faster than me. We had torack up the last remaining needed QSOs. They had their searchlight on and wereilluminating the rock. They must have circled it several times before trying to communicatewith us. I’m sure it was at this point that they realised that they too, couldn’t get ashore.Not only that, they couldn’t get us off eitherJ. Frans had left his VHF handheld with us incase of emergency. This was set to channel 16. Dom suggested to get them to call us onchannel 16. All I could do was to signal (using my torch) 16, 16, 16, in the hopes thatsomeone on board knew a little morse. A carrier was heard on channel 16, end stopping itwas, it had to be them. I have to say that Dom handled them perfectly. It was thecoastguard, and they were concerned for our safety. The weather forecast was not goodand they had received a report from someone on the mainland. Once they knew that weactually had permission to be there, and knew what we were doing, they bidded us afarewell and reminded us to call them again on channel 16 if there was an emergency. Thiswas obviously a breakdown in communication between their departments.

Operations continued throughout the night and the pileups were endless. 30m and 20mwere the 2 night time bands and before we knew it, we were well passed the required 1000QSO mark. We took it in turns and ran quite irregular shifts. There was always a spare manwaiting to take over and both radios were always manned. We had so little time to try packin as much as we could. Time goes by remarkably quick when running at this speed, andbefore we knew it, the sun was starting to come up. We had survived the night on Pelikan.We were lucky though, we knew that, and decided to count our blessings and not to riskanother night.

We were at Pierre’s mercy on when to collect us and despite our requests for 2 hoursnotice, a twin-engined 400 Horse power rib moves remarkably quick and got to us in notime. Both stations ran continuously but as there was a slight null on 30m, that was the firststation to shut down. We had tuned our vertical dipole for 10m as that band was wide openand continued the pileups until the last minute. We went QRT at 13:24 with EI8BLB beingthe last station in the log.

Now, of course there was a sudden rush to dismantle, get everything down and to pack up.Carefully ! Things had to be properly packed – we knew the dangers. And so the pack upbegins, as does the dangerous journey back down to that slippery rock. All this as thetemperature rises to over 30 degrees. We are careful not to forget anything, no trash, this isa wildlife reserve after all. The only thing that’s left behind is the pile-ups, still begging fortheir QSO. We always set out to try to give this new one to as many uniques as possible anddiscouraged dupes and multiple band slots. This is unnecessary towards IOTA – one QSO issurely enough.

The only way to off load the equipment was for the three of us to go waist deep in thewater and to form a chain. Col was on the rib with Frans. We passed each case and eachprecious piece of equipment to him and after a few slips and a little foul mouthed language,all equipment gets transferred safely and onto the big rib. Jeremy next, then me and the lastto leave the rock is Dom – he needs to untie the rope. Everyone gets off safely, and so nowthe trip back to Simpson Bay, all of us exhausted. Unload the boat, make the final payments,and dispose of some of the leftover food etc. We donated the left over equipment,generators, tables and chairs to those locals that had been good to us for without them, thiswould not have happened.

They say a picture paints a thousand words, but, a picture can also be deceiving. To some,this DXpedition looked easy despite of our difficulties. Were we over exaggerating? Thosewho followed us on Twitter often saw pictures of nice blue skies and couldn’t see anydanger. WX here was always a major safety concern. We had experienced that lightning /thunderstorm on our second night. Not nice. We were so thankful that we had not beenexposed on the rock that night. We learnt that the day after we all flew home, HurricaneGonzalo hit Simpson Bay with winds of over 125 mph. More than 12 people injured, over 30boats sank, severe structural damage, one man confirmed dead and several still missing.

We on the other hand, achieved what we set out to do somewhat, we activated the newIOTA, netted 2,200 QSOs in little over 17 hours, gave a new one to the deserving and mostof all, got through all the mishaps and hardships together as a team. We are most thankfulto our generous sponsors and individual donors for helping to offset our ever increasingcosts. Now the enormous job of QSLing is just beginning for Dom, 3Z9DX our QSL manager.The QSL is being designed and will be available shortly. Thanks to everyone for calling us andthanks to the IOTA committee who have already approved and validated this operationtowards credit. For video footage, photos, on-line log and more, visit our website:www.pj7pk.net

Vy 73 de Dave EI9FBB

Planning the A35V/A35X DXpedition (April 2014) - part 1

Chris Tran GM3WOJ / GM2V

I don’t know about you, but I find many DXpeditionreports too similar – pictures of the ops on an aeroplane,setting up antennas, etc, lists of how many QSOs made,etc. So, this two-part article is maybe a bit different – Iwill deal solely with the months of preparations that makea DXpedition happen and be (hopefully) successful.Firstly, you have to consider if you can afford the timeand the money to go on a DXpedition. If you are workingand have a young family, getting the necessary time offwork at the correct time of year and being away fromyour family can be problematic. If you are retired, howmuch of your savings or pension will be used up – usuallyfor the great experience of visiting somewhere welloutside your ‘comfort zone’ but sadly only usually for acouple of weeks. It all depends on how we choose tospend any spare cash we have – should we install a newkitchen at home or should I go on a DXpedition to aPacific island?! Should you seek Sponsorship or try to beself-financing?Next, do I have the operating experience to cope with bigpile-ups? For most of us wanting to go on our firstDXpedition, the answer is definitely ‘no’. It can be verystressful being called by dozens of stations if you arecompletely unfamiliar with the situation, which iscompletely different from being the station who is calling

a DXpedition. Luckily, we can gain the necessaryoperating experience and also vital other skills, by goingon one or more practice DXpeditions, which can berelatively low-stress. A simple DXpedition lasting just afew days to one of the Scottish islands which are fairlyunique IOTAs would be an ideal training situation.Apart from reasonable health and stamina, a DXpeditionoperator needs to be proficient (ideally) in both CW andSSB, a speedy typist, and have knowledge of expectedpropagation. The best times of year for a DXpedition areSpring and Autumn, when propagation on many bands isusually worldwide. Major contest weekends might seemattractive as a source of extra QSOs, but in reality aDXpedition to a rare DXCC entity can end up just beingan ordinary other multiplier in a contest and/or drivenonto the WARC bands because they cannot work split onthe contest bands.Choosing a DXpedition destination is not nearly as easyas it might seem. Almost all of the ‘Top 50’ most wantedcountries have some restriction which makes themimpossible as destinations for a small DXpedition. LargerDXpedition costs seems to have increased markedly inthe last 10 years, again making them unavailable to thoseops without thick wallets. Relatively cheap air travel hasresulted in many more DXpeditions being active eachyear. There is always the danger that if you announce aDXpedition too soon, another group will decide to gothere before you. You also have to decide in advance

which bands you are going to focus on e.g. will you be on160m and 80m – this has a bearing on which destinationyou choose and the time of year.Planning – once you have decided on a destination andwho is going with you, there is a lot of careful research tobe done before you decide that a DXpedition there ispossible. This planning is in 7 parts :

1. Do I go by myself or with someone else? It’s really apersonal choice – if single-op, you will be restrictedin how much stuff you can carry. In terms ofefficiency, for a medium size DXpedition, a 4-manDXpedition is probably about the most efficient size- rotation of ops should keep at least 2 stations onthe air 24/7 and there should be plenty of weightcarrying capacity to take plenty of equipment andantennas. I don’t recommend a single-op DXpeditionif you are inexperienced. If you decide to go withothers, make sure you know their abilities andlimitations in advance, so there are no nastysurprises or arguments if things don’t work outexactly as planned.

2. Travel – can the chosen destination be reached bycommercial flights or boat, within a reasonable timescale? Some Pacific islands have no airport, whileothers only have one flight per week. Do theseflights have any unexpected baggage weight restrictions,

which could cost you hundreds of extra dollars or

maybe even mean you have to leave behind somevital pieces of equipment. If you only have 14 daysfor a DXpedition, you don’t really want to spend 3days getting there and 3 days getting home.

3. Visas / health restrictions - it is absolutely vital thatyou have sufficient time to apply for, and receive,any visas that might be required for visiting somecountries. Likewise, any inoculations or other healthrestrictions which might affect your entry into thatcountry. Check that your passport has at least 6months of validity left.

4. Accommodation – is there suitable accommodationat the destination? Is it affordable? Somedestinations like Botswana A2 seem an attractiveDXpedition possibility (relatively rare, fairly easy toget to) but when you discover that the luxury safarilodges, which might be the only option, cost US$500per person per night, it does not seem quite soattractive! Other factors to consider are – if on anisland, is the beach close enough to theaccommodation to install antennas on the beach, arethe owners happy to let you play radio for 2 weeks,is there useful Internet access, how far away are thelocal shops, cost of car hire, etc. etc. - a host ofimportant details. Often a phone call to theaccommodation owners is better than e-mailing.

5. Licensing – how easily and quickly can a licence tooperate be obtained? Ideally a DXpedition needs aunique, short callsign which clearly identifies theDXCC entity, so operating with your home callsignunder CEPT is not really the best option, but may bea last resort. For example, it takes 6 months or moreto obtain a licence to operate from Nauru C21. It isnot always the case, but you may find you have topay some ‘special fees’ when you go to collect thelicence documents. Once the callsign is known, itneeds to be registered immediately on QRZ.COM andClubLog and a Certificate for LoTW obtained, thengiven widespread publicity.

6. Equipment – do we have, or can we borrow, suitableequipment for the duration of the DXpedition? Bysuitable equipment I mean transceivers with goodperformance, amplifiers which don’t die when themains AC spikes to 330V, etc. Currently, I wouldrate the TS-590S and the K3 as probably the bestDXpedition radios, with some reservations. (I foundthe K2 good on CW but useless on SSB on my firstDXpedition). The cheap FT-450D actually performswell on a DXpedition. This equipment, especially ifborrowed, must be carried securely (a Pelican casefor a typical 600W Solid-state HF amp costs £170)and be insured against loss. Weight of radios, ampsand peripherals is an important consideration.

7. Antennas - which antennas will let us achieve themost QSOs during the DXpedition, not just locallybut with the key population areas (Europe, USA,Japan)? Speaking personally, I am not a fan of anyhorizontal antenna unless it is at least 20m high – anunrealistic expectation for most small DXpeditions. Iknow some DXpeditions favour Spiderbeams, butthey seem less popular nowadays, probably becausethey are very fiddly to set up in a hurry. I understandHexbeams are easier to set up, but I would stillprefer separate single-band vertical antennas anyday.Telescopic fiberglass poles have made life a loteasier for DXpeditions, allowing the installation ofverticals and/or 2 element vertical arrays likeMoxons or VDAs. Pacific island airport staff are notsurprised when you arrive in their country where it is

+35oC, carrying a Ski bag full of fishing rods! Howmuch coax you can carry is another limiting factor.

In part 2 of this article I’ll go into more detail abouthow my friend Keith Kerr GM4YXI/GM5X and Iplanned our DXpedition to Tonga last year. I’ll alsodiscuss Websites and the issues surrounding QSLing,Sponsorship and ‘Leaderboards’.

The DX pages from Col, MM0NDX

DX bulletin 7601/01/2015By ON9CFG HF DX manager UBADX WORLD team memberON9CFG@telenet.be

Happy New Year!!!A new year:Filled with lots of DX and IOTA’s…Filled with lots of astonishing announcements…Filled with a weekly DX bulletin…73Bjorn – ON9CFG

DX News byBouvet Isl – 3Y0FPreliminary dates are December 17, 2015 until January 10, 2016. The operator list has commenced, team so far:UN7PCZ, SM5AQD. A website with full details is coming soon. In the meantime, on the bottom of thisbulletin you can find the list of antennas that will be used.

Iran – EP6TWith only 17 days to go before the EP6T DXpedition will take place in the I.R of Iran, the Rockall DX Group isin the final process of finalizing their newest set-up:5 High power stations, more than 6km of radials, new RX systems, filters, combiners, verticals, phased arrays, a4 SQ and 5 beams should make it possible to get YOU in our log!Propagation predictions show that almost all continents are within decent signal range, with North America theonly exception. The EP to NA path is extremely difficult and of short duration. To give everyone a fair chanceand to obtain a levelled continental balance, we will have to use all openings to NA to the fullest! The 10 meterantenna has been replaced by a 5 element OWA Yagi. By doing so, our signal will be significantly stronger, butwe also hope to be able to log West Coast stations via LP.

Navassa Isl – K1NIt is now about 4 weeks before K1N goes on the air. The exact date of departure from the staging area will bedependent upon a combination of the date U.S. FWS transportation is available and upon weather windows. It islooking like K1N will be QRV the first two weeks of February.Most of the team have their bags packed and are ready to go. Because of the helicopter logistics, this will be ano-frills-minimum-comfort operation for the team. Meals will be MRE’s. The container has been organized for aquick camp setup and quick radio/antenna setup to take advantage of every moment. It is estimated there will betwo full days of helicopter shuttles to get everything needed to start operations.

DXCCThis week on HF1A0, SOV MIL ORDER OF MALTA A team is operating as 1A0C until January 6. Operation from 160 to 6meter using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via IZ7KHR, logsearch and OQRS Clublog. http://www.1a0c.com/4S, SRI LANKA Peter, DC0KK is active until April 10 as 4S7KKG using CW and digital modes. QSL viaDC0KK, bureau or direct, OQRS.5B, CYPRUS Mek, SP7VC and Kate, SQ7OYL are QRV until January 4 as 5B/calls. Operation from 80 to 10meter using SSB. QSL via homecall. http://www.sp7vc.pl/A6, UAE Andy, DL3YM is QRV until January 5 as A6/call. Operation from 40 to 10 meter using CW. QSLvia homecall, bureau or direct, LoTW.C6, BAHAMAS Jack, KB7HH is operating in ‘holiday-style’ as C6A/call until January 6.  Operation on HFusing CW. QSL via homecall, bureau or direct.C6, BAHAMAS Robert, AK4BM is active as C6AGT until January 3. Look for him from 40 to 10 meter usingSSB. QSL via homecall, direct.C6, BAHAMAS John, KK4OYJ is QRV as C6ATS until late April from various IOTA groups. QSL viaNI5DX, direct, LoTW and Clublog OQRS. http://kk4oyj.wordpress.com/CN, MOROCCO Darius, SP9DLM is QRV as CN2DM until January 2. Activity on 40, 20 and 15 meter. QSLvia homecall.CN, MOROCCO Jean-Pierre, F6CTF is active as CN2JF until March 20. QSL via F6CTF, direct.CY0, SABLE ISL Aaron, VA1AXC is operating as cy0/call until January 31. Operation mostly on 15 meterusing SSB. QSL via JE1LET.D4, CAPE VERDE Harald, DF2WO is operating as D44TW in ‘holiday-style’ until January 8. QRV from 40to 10 meter using SSB and CW. QSL via M0OXO, OQRS preferred.EA8, CANARY ISL Andrea IK1PMR and Claudia PA3LEO are QRV as EA8/call until January 8. Operationfrom 160 to 6 meter using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via HB9FKK. http://www.ik1pmr.com/EX, KYRGYZSTAN Andrea, HB9DUR is operating as EX/call until January 4. QSL via homecall.FM, MARTINIQUE Gerard, F2VX and Bernard, F9IE are operating as FM/call until January 8. Activity onHF using CW and SSB.  QSL via operators’ instructions.FO/A, AUSTRAL ISL Mike, OE1SS is QRV as FO/call from Bora Bora (OC-067) until January 12. Activityin ‘holiday-style’ on HF.  QSL via homecall.FO/A, AUSTRAL ISL Wayne, KK6BT will be operating as TX5W between January 5 and January 11.Operation from 40 to 10 meter using SSB. Focus will be on central and north EU. http://www.tx5w.com/JD1, OGASAWARA Harry, JG7PSJ is QRV as JD1BMH until January 10. Operation from 40 to 10 meterusing CW, SSB and RTTY. http://sapphire.es.tohoku.ac.jp/jd1bmh/JD1, OGASAWARA Koji, JI1LET and Take JA1UII are operating as JD1BOI and JD1BON until January 2.Activity from 80 to 6 meter using SSB, CW and RTTY. QSL via homecalls.JW, SVALBARD Svein, LA9JKA is active as JW9JKA until May. Operation during his spare time on HF and6 meter. During the winter focus on 160 meter. QSL via homecall, direct.JW, SVALBARD Alexander, UA3IPL is operating as JW/call from Spitsbergen until March. Activity on HFusing CW, SSB and digital modes. QSL via RW6HS, direct.PZ, SURINAME Wolfgang, DL4WO is QRV as PZ5JW until January 15. Activity on HF. QSL via homecall.T8, PALAU Ryosei, JH0IXE is active as T8CW until January 5. Activity on all bands using CW, SSB anddigital modes. QSL via JA0FOX, bureau preferred. http://t8cw.idou.net/V5, NAMIBIA Nick, G3RWF will be QRV as V5/call from January 6 until January 13. Operation on thehigher bands using CW only. QSL via OQRS and LoTW.VP9, BERMUDA Larry, K4KGG is operating as VP9/call until January 5. Activity on HF. QSL via W3HNK,LoTW and Clublog.XE, MEXICO Markus, DJ4EL is active as XE1/call until January 4. Operation from 20 to 10 meter using SSB.QSL via homecall, bureau or direct, OQRS and LoTW.XW, LAOS Bruce, 3W3B is operating as XW4XR until January 2. Operation from 80 to 10 meter using CWand RTTY. QSL via E21EIC and LoTW.ZD9, COUGH ISL David, ZS1BCE is operating as ZD9A during a tour of duty as radio technician untilSeptember. Operation using SSB with some digital modes. QSL via ZS1LS, Clublog and LoTW.ZS, SOUTH AFRICA Look for Nick, G3RWF as ZS1/call until January 5. Operation on the higher bandsusing CW only. QSL via OQRS and LoTW.

Antarctic Base Sations*Concordia Base Paolo, IZ2QEJ is active on Concordia Base (AN-016) until February. Active during his sparetime as IA/IZ2QEJ on HF. QSL via IZ2QEJ, direct.*Neumayer III Neumayer Station III, Felix DL5XL will be active when time permits as DP1POL untilFebruary. QRV mainly using CW with some SSB and RTTY. QSL via DL1ZBO and LoTW.

Coming up soon6W, SENEGAL Francis, F6BLP will be QRV as 6W7SK from January 10 until February 5. Operation from 80to 10 meter using CW. Maybe 160 meter is possible. QSL via homecall, bureau and LoTW.CE0Y, EASTER ISL A team of Japanese operators JA3ARJ, JA3AVO, JA3HJI, JA3IVU, JH3PBL andJI3DNN will be QRV as XR0YJ between January 9 and January 16. Activity will be from 80 to 6 meter usingCW, SSB and digital modes.  QSL via operators’ instructions.HH, HAITI Tom, KC0W will be operating as HH5/call between January 12 and February 3. Activity on 160,80 and 40 meter using CW only. QSL via homecall, direct only.KH8, AMERICAN SAMOA Nobu, JA0JHQ will be operating from Tutuila (OC-045) as AH0CO/KH8between January 7 and January 12. Activity mainly on 30, 17 and 15 meter using SSB with some CW. QSL viahomecall, direct or bureau.PJ7, SINT MAARTEN Jeff, VA3QSL will be operating as PJ7/call in ‘holiday-style’ between January 9 andJanuary 15. Operation from 80 to 10 meter using CW and SSB. QSL via homecall, direct or bureau.T8, PALAU Look for T88SM, T88HS, T88HK, T88KC and T88RR between January 7 and January 15.Operation from 160 to 6 meter using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via home calls, direct.

IOTAThis week on HFAS-049 Kuchino Isl Take, JI3DST is QRV as call/6 until January 4. Activity from 160 to 10 meter using SSB,CW and digital modes. QSL via homecall, bureau preferred.AS-143 Yongxing Isl Look for BA7CK until January 9 on 10, 12 and 15 meter using SSB and RTTY. QSL viaBA4TB, direct.OC-067 Bora Bora Wayne, KK6BT will be operating as FO/call between January 2 and January 5. Operationon 10 and 15 meters using SSB. QSL via KE8G.

Coming up soonAS-153 Sagar Isl Operators from the West Bengal Radio Club will be active as 8T5MQT between January 9and January 16. Operation mainly on 20 meter using SSB. QSL via VU2NRO.

Contest

1/01/2015 08:00 1/01/2015 11:00 SARTG New Year Contest RTTY1/01/2015 09:00 1/01/2015 12:00 AGCW Happy New Year Contest CW3/01/2015 12:00 4/01/2015 12:00 WW PMC Contest CW/SSB3/01/2015 18:00 3/01/2015 23:59 ARRL RTTY Roundup DIGI3/01/2015 20:00 3/01/2015 23:00 ON5ME - EU CW 160 Meter Contest - 1 CW4/01/2015 00:00 4/01/2015 23:59 VERON SWL’s New Year Contest SWL4/01/2015 04:00 4/01/2015 07:00 ON5ME - EU CW 160 Meter Contest - 2 CW4/01/2015 09:30 4/01/2015 10:30 EU QRP Foxhunt CW/PSK/SSB5/01/2015 19:30 5/01/2015 20:30 EU QRP Foxhunt CW/PSK/SSB

ANNOUNCEMENTSAnnounced DXTHE NEWCOMERSCaribbean Tour:Chuck, W7AUM will be active QRP/portable on the white sand beaches as:

Virgin Isl KP2/W7AUM January 30 from St Thomas (NA-106)Curacao PJ2/W7AUM February 2Cayman Isl ZF2UM February 6

QSL via W7AUM.

C2, NAURU A team (PA3EWP, DL6JGN, DK2AMM, DL2AWG) will operate as C21EU (pending) betweenMarch 25 and April 4. Operation from 40 to 10 meter using CW, SSB, RTTY and maybe PSK with 2 stations .OJ0, MARKET REEF Peter ON8VP, Mike ON6QQ and Ron ON5TQ will be QRV as OJ0V from June 28until July 4. Activity from 40 to 10 meter using CW and SSB. QSL via ON5TC.PY0F, FERNANDO DE NORONHA Will, AA4NC will be operating as PY0F/call from October 17 untilOctober 27.  Operation in ‘holiday-style’ from 160 to 10 meter using CW and SSB.  QSL via LoTW.ZF, CAYMAN ISL Bob, K3UL will be QRV as ZF2UL between March 14 and March 20. Operation on HF.QSL via homecall.ZF, CAYMAN ISL Col, MM0NDX will be active in ‘holiday-style’ as ZF2CI (pending) from April 25 untilMay 2. Operation from 160 to 10 meter using SSB only. Plans are to be active as ZF8/ZF2CI from LittleCayman and as ZF9/ZF2CI from Cayman Brac. QSL via IW7EGQ.ZL7, CHATHAM ISL Nobu, JA0JHQ will be operating as ZL7/call from January 30 until February 1.Operation mainly on 15 and 17 meter using CW and SSB. QSL via homecall.

THE REMINDERS1S, SPRATLY ISL A large team is planning to be active as DX0P during April. Operation from 160 to 10meter using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via WJ1P. More to follow.3B8, MAURITIUS Jose, EA5IDQ will be active as 3B8/call between May 10 and May 18. Active from 40 to10 meter using SSB and RTTY. QSL via homecall, direct or bureau.3B9, RODRIGUES ISL Jose, EA5IDQ will be operating as 3B9/call from May 19 until May 23. QRV from40 to 10 meter using SSB and RTTY. QSL via homecall, bureau or direct.3Y/B BOUVET ISL A team with Alex, UN7PCZ is assembling to be active as 3Y0F from December 17, 2015until January 10, 2016. Activity by 12 operators with 6 stations. More info soon.3Y/B BOUVET ISL Number 3 most wanted DXCC, the most remote place on Earth will be activated by Mark,ON4WW. He will conduct a 1-man expedition for 3 months during spring 2016.  Mark aims for 100000 QSO’s,he will be QRV using SSB, CW and RTTY on HF. This will cost around 250000 euro and he is looking forsponsoring. Read all about his sponsorship program http://www.on4ww.be/bouvet2016.html5Z, KENYA Bertrand DF3FS and Oli DL9OLI will be operating as 5Z4/call between February 16 and March 8.Operation from 80 to 10 meter using CW and SSB. QSL via DF3FS, direct or bureau. http://www.df3fs.de/5z-2015/index.html7Q, MALAWI A team will be active as 7QAA between March 11 and March 21. Operation using CW andRTTY from 160 to 10 meter. A second team will use the same call from March 22 until April 1, 2015. Theywill be active from 160 to 10 meter using SSB and RTTY. QSL via N7RO and LoTW, logsearch on Clublog.More on http://www.malawidx.org/index.html9Q, CONGO The Italian DXpedition Team will be QRV for a short time as 9Q0HQ during March. Plans are tobe active using CW, SSB and RTTY from 160 to 6 meter. QSL and other information onhttp://www.i2ysb.com/idt/ A dedicated forum on http://www.hamradioweb.net/C5, THE GAMBIA Steve G3VMW, Alan G3XAQ, Don G3XTT and Iain M0PCB will be operating as C5Xbetween January 15 and January 26. They plan to have 2 high powered stations using CW, SSB and RTTY onall bands. QSL via M0OXO,use his OQRS, logs on Clublog and LoTW.CE0Z, JUAN FERNANDEZ Members of F6KOP are going to be active from February 24 until March 4. Ateam from 22 operators will be active from 160 to 6 meter. Web site will be online soon.E4, PALESTINE A team will gear up to Palestine and sign as E44Y. Operation will be in March 2016. Plansare to set up 5 stations around the clock. QSL via EB7DX direct, OQRS Clublog, bureau and LoTW. More tofollow. http://palestine.ig9y.com/EP, IRAN The Rockall DX Group is announcing their next DXpedition to AS-166 Kish Island. Active as EP6Tbetween January 16 and January 26. With 5 stations they plan to be active from 160 to 10 meter using CW, SSBand RTTY. http://www.rockall.be/

FG, GUADELOUPE Jean-Pierre, F6ITD will be QRV as FG/call between January 27 and march 30.Operation on HF and 6 meter using SSB and digital modes. QSL via LoTW and logsearch on Clublog.FJ, ST BARTHELEMY Gene, N9SW will be QRV as FJ/call between January 17 and January 25. Activityfrom 40 to 6 meter with maybe some 80 meter using mostly CW. QSL via homecall.FK, TX CHESTERFIELD ISL The Perseverance DX Group is announcing their intention to activateChesterfield Isl OC-176 in 2015. Callsign TX3X is pending. The idea is to have a team of 12 operators staying12 days on the island. More to follow. http://chesterfield2015.pdxg.net/ Number 25 most wanted.FM, MARTINIQUE Look for Rich, M5RIC as TO4C between March 22 and March 29. Participation in theCQ WPX SSB. QSL via M0OXO.FO, FRENCH POLYNESIA Pete, K8PGJ will be operating as FO/call between February 15 and February 24.Activity in ‘holiday-style’ on HF.  QSL via homecall and LoTW.FP, ST PIERRE and MIQUELON Rob, N7QT will be QRV as FP/call from July 20 until July 29. Activityfrom 80 to 10 meter using CW, SSB and digital modes. QSL via N7QT and LoTW.H4, SOLOMON ISL Look for Bernhard, DL2GAC as H44MS between February 1 and April 30. Activityfrom 80 to 6 meter using SSB only. QSL via DL2GAC, bureau or direct.J8, GRENADINES Brain, GW4DVB is operating as J88PI between April 13 and April 21 when time permits.Operation mainly using SSB. QSL via homecall. http://www.g4dvb.co.uk/KP1, NAVASSA ISL A team of 15 operators will be active in January-February 2015 as K1N for about 14days. Dates will be determined by the USFWS. January is the month of minimum bird nesting activity and thisis the primary reason USFWS is asking that the operation be completed during that month. However, theweather is unpredictable in January and because Navassa is surrounded by cliffs, this may preclude a safelanding by boat. For safety reasons and in order to maximize our time on the Island and on the air, a helicopteroperation is planned. Navassa is over 100 miles (160 km) from the nearest helicopter staging point and as manyas ten round trips will be required at the beginning and end of the operation. Obviously, this means that therewill be a significant cost for activating this #1 ranked DXCC entity. http://kp1-5.com/new/index.htmPJ4, BONAIRE Peter, PA8A will be QRV as PJ4B from January 14 until January 29.  Operation in ‘holiday-style’ on HF.  QSL via homecall, direct only.PJ4, BONAIRE Klaus, DG1SGW will be operating as PJ4/call from March 1 until March 12. Operation in‘holiday-style’ on HF.  QSL via homecall.PJ7, ST MAARTEN Dave, WJ2O will be operating as PJ7/call between February 18 and February 25.Operation mainly on the WARC bands using CW. QSL via homecall.http://www.wj2o.com/index.asp?NewsID=1PJ7, ST MAARTEN Tom, AA9A will be QRV as PJ7AA from February 18 until March 16. Operation on HFusing SSB and CW. QSL via homecall.PY0T, TRINIDADE and MARTIM VAZ ISL A group of 5 operators will be operating for about 4-5 daysduring the second half of 2015. More to follow. Number 30 most wanted on Club Log.S7, SEYCHELLES Look for Eric, OE4AAC as S79AC between January 17 and February 10. Operation in‘holiday-style’ from 40 to 10 meter using CW.  QSL via OE4AAC and OQRS.T8, PALAU Tevfik, TA1HZ will be QRV as T88HZ between March 5 and March 12. Operation from 80 to 6meter using CW, SSB and digital modes. QSL via homecall, direct or bureau.TG, GUATEMALA Dwight VE7BV will be active as TG9/call from January 22 until February 17. Operationin ‘holiday-style’ using SSB and CW.  QSL via homecall, bureau or direct, LoTW.TI9, COCOS ISL Dom, 3Z9DX will be active with Jorge, TI2HMJ from Cocos Isl as TI9/3Z9DX. Activefrom February 16 until February 23. Operation from 80 to 10 meter using SSB, CW and RTTY with 2 stations.QSL via 3Z9DX, direct or bureau, OQRS Clublog. http://www.nielsen.net/ti9a/qsl-info/V4, ST KITTS John, V47JA will be operating between January 20 and March 1. Activity from 160 to 6 meterusing SSB. QSL via homecall W5JON, direct only and LoTW.V5, NAMIBIA Werner DC8QT, Georg DD8ZX and Klaus DJ9KM will be operating as V5/calls from February9 until February 20. Operation from 160 to 6 meter using SSB, RTTY and PSK. QSL via homecalls.V6, MICRONESIA Madison, W5MJ will be QRV as V63MJ from February 16 until February 23. Activityfrom 160 to 10 meter using CW only. QSL via homecall.VK0, HEARD ISL VK0EK Another DXpedition from Cordell taking place between November 10 andDecember 22. A large team will be active led by Bob, KK6EK.  They might make a stop at Kerguelen but that’snot sure yet. More to follow. Detailed information on www.vk0ek.orgVP8, SOUTH SANDWICHVP8, SOUTH GEORGIAThe Intrepid-DX Group is announcing their next DXpedition in January 2016. A team of 14 operators will beoperating from Most Wanted DXCC n°4 and n°9. Operation on each island for about 10 days trying to give as

many as possible new ones. Plan is to be active from 160 to 10 meter using SSB, CW and RTTY. QSL viaN2OO and KU9C, OQRS,, bureau and direct. http://www.intrepid-dx.com/vp8/XW, LAOS Toshi, JA8BMK will be QRV as XW8BM between February 5 and February 25. Focus on 160 and80 meter. QSL via homecall.YJ, VANUATU Haru, JA1XGI will be QRV as YJ0XG during mid-April. Operation on HF using CW, SSBand RTTY. QSL via homecall.ZD8, ASCENSION ISL Look for ZD8D (DJ9KH, DK9BDN and DL6KAC) during February / March. Theywill focus on 40 to 160 meter, including 60 meter using CW, RTTY and SSB. QSL via DL9HO.

Announced IOTATHE REMINDERSEU-122 Rathlin Isl A group of operators will be operating as GI5O from July 24 until July 26. QRV on allbands with an entry in the RSGB IOTA contest. QSL via M5KJM, bureau.OC-210 Sangihe Isl Ronald, YC8ROP will be QRV on March 7 and March 8. QSL via homecall, direct andbureau, LoTW.SA-030 Flores Isl Operators will be QRV as CV5A between February 21 and February 23. QRV on all bandsand all modes. QSL via CX2ABC.SA-071 As Ilhas Paulo, PY2SEI plans to be active as PS2AI during June 2015. More to follow.

QSL preview by

Special callDL, GERMANY DJ90IARU  special call to celebrate the IARU’s 90th anniversary. Operation until end 2015.QSL via DL2VFR, direct or bureau.DL, GERMANY DG150ZRS special call to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the German Maritime Search andRescue Service. QRV until end 2015. QSL via bureau.DL, GERMANY DP7BVBG special call to commemorate Germany’s oldest train station at Vienenburg.Operation between June 1 and June 30. QSL via DF7AA. http://www.amateurfunk-vienenburg.de/F, FRANCE TM60TAAF special call to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the French Southern AntarcticTerritory. Operation during February 1, 6 to 8, 13 to 17, 19 to 22 and 27 to 28. QSL via F8DVD, direct orbureau. http://www.qrz.com/db/TM60TAAF/F, FRANCE TM5CW special call to promote QRP. Operation with 5 watts on the 5th day during the first 5months of 2015. QSL via F5SJB, direct.G, ENGLAND GB8MHC special call to commemorate the issue of Magna Carta 800 years ago. Operationuntil January 5. QRV from 80 to 10 meter using PSK, RTTY and SSB. QSL via Eqsl.

G, ENGLAND G50FRS The Farnborough and District Radio Society celebrates its golden jubilee during 2015.http://www.farnboroughradio.org.uk/G, ENGLAND GB0SFE special call to pay attention to the history of Hall Place, a former communicationcentre during WWII. QRV until March 15.HB, SWITZERLAND HB200GE special call to celebrate that the Canton of Geneva joined the SwissConfederation in 1815. QSL via HB9AOF.JA, JAPAN 8J6HAM special call for the 14th West Japan Ham Fair. QRV on all bands and all modes untilMarch 1. QSL via JARL bureau.JA, JAPAN 8J125SSI special call to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the town Shisui. QRV until March.QSL goes automatically via bureau.JA, JAPAN 8J7DRS special call to mark the 3rd United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction inSendai. QRV until March 31. QSL via bureau.JA, JAPAN 8J7INORI special call to mark The Disaster Area, toward the future, operation on all bands and allmodes until March. QSL via bureau.JA, JAPAN 8N150KC special call to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the city of Kokubunji. Operation untilMarch 31. QSL goes automatically via bureau. http://8n150kc.jimdo.com/JA, JAPAN 8N100ICT special call to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hiraiso Solar Terrestrial ResearchCentre and the 75th anniversary of JJY, a standard time and frequency signals station. Active until November.QSL via bureau.LZ, BULGARIA LZ1748SMH special call to honour the martyr Hristo. Active during December. QSL viaLZ1KCP, direct.ON, BELGIUM ON70NUTS special call to commemorate the Battle of Bastogne. Operation until January 14.NUTS was the answer from General McAuliffe if he was asked to surrender. More information onhttp://on7kec.be/ON70NUTS/PY, BRASIL ZY7NAT special call to celebrate the anniversary of Natal City. QRV until end 2015 on 40, 20and 15 meter. QSL via PS7GL, LoTW.PY, BRASIL PP70FEB special call during January, call stands for the Brazilian Expeditionary Force thatfought with the Allied Forces in Italy during World War II. Operation on 40, 20, 17, 15 and 10 meter. QSL viaPS7AB, direct or bureau, LoTW.PY, BRASIL PQ60ICN special call to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Yacht Club of Natal. Operationuntil end January. QSL via PS7GL, bureau or direct, LoTW.S5, SLOVENIA S507SLG and S507PMC are special calls to commemorate Slovenj Gradec’s role as a peacemessenger city. Active until January 5. QSL via bureau.SP, POLAND 3Z2015NY special call to celebrate the new year. QRV until January 15. QSL via SP6IEQ,bureau or direct, LoTW.VE, CANADA CG350F special call to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Maple Leaf Flag.Operation between February 1 and March 1. QSL via VE3RHE direct or bureau, LoTW.VE, CANADA XM3G special call for the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Ghent, active on all bands and allmodes until January 4. QSL via VE3RHE, direct, LoTW or bureau. http://www.ve3rhe.ca/VK, AUSTRALIA VI16AC special call to mark the 16th Asian Football Cup until January 31. QSL viaVK3HF. For the same reason, look for VK16AC. QSL via M0OXO, OQRS.VU, INDIA AU1SV and AU5SV are special calls to celebrate the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, the firstHindu monk that was speaking at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1893 Chicago, IL. Operation from40 to 10 meter using SSB and PSK31until January 31. QSL AU1SV via VU2SMS and for AU5SV viaVU2SMN, both direct.W, USA W2HRU special call stands for Ham Radio University. Operation on all bands and all modes untilDecember 28 and January 4. QSL via N2MUN, direct or bureau, LoTW.YO, ROMANIA YO1989BV special call to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Romanian liberation. Activeuntil January 6. QSL via Clublog OQRS.ZS, SOUTH AFRICA ZS90SARL special call to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the South African RadioLeague. Active until April 30. QSL via bureau, direct and LoTW.

DXCC Timeline by IK8LOVUpdated daily, go to http://www.dx-world.net/ and click on the callsigns for more information.

List of antennas 3Y0F

Band (metters) Antennas q-ty

160-TX Vertical 27 m. with 8 radials 1160 (80)- RX Beverage antennas (S/N A, EU, JA) 380-TX Vertical 21 m. with 16 radials 140 Phasing verticals 10,5 m. 240 Vertical 10,5 m. with 16 radials 130 Vertical 7,5 m. with 16 radials 120, 15, 10 A-3S with rotator G-800 SA (9 m.h.*) 217, 12 A3-WS with rotator G-800 SA (7 m.h.*) 120 Phasing verticals 10,5 m. (4 m.h*) 215 -----------“--------- 7,5 m. (3 m.h*) 210 -----------“--------- 5,1 m. (2 m.h*) 217 Vertical 8,3 m. (3,5 m.h.*) 112 Vertical 6 m. (2,5 m.h.*) 16 5 el. Yagi (4-5 m.h.*) 1

*high over the ground

All antennas except A3S and A3WS are made by UN7PCZ (with 3 masts for A3).

Thanks to DX-world and ADXO.

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