Staging Equipment

Staging Equipment

Rebar Dead Man Used on Many Stakes

Op, Generator and Rest Tents

Masked Boobies Queued up to Use the Loo

Break Tent

Generator Shed

CrankIR

Dave K3EL

Partial of Antenna Farm

4 Square & Birds

SSB – Generators - CW

SSB / RTTY Tent

Luigi IV3YER – Heye DJ9RR – Gene K5GS

SSB / RTTY Tent

Plan- 6 stations running for 10 days 24 hours per day

Actual – 6 stations running for ~5 days 24 hours per day propagation permitting

- 6 x Elecraft K3 - 1 x Icom IC-7000 back-up

- 1 x Elecraft K2 back-up

- 4 x Elecraft KPA 500- 2 x Tokyo HyPower- 1 x Tokyo HyPower back-up

- 4 x generators 4 kw each- 7 x 200 liter drums ~1,200 liters fuel,- 2,000 feet RG-8X

Operations Plan

Antennas

• 160 m -  Spiderbeam 18m fiberglass mast – Inverted L 1/4 Vertical

• 80 m - Spiderbeam 18m fiberglass mast w/SGC

• 40 m – 4 Square

• 10 – 20M – Folding Hex Beam x 2

• CrankIR x 3

• BigIR x 3

• Pennant RX antenna

Antenna Plan

Actual Schedule

Day # Op.Day # Location ETA ETD NM Speed Hours

18-Mar Advance Tream Arrives in Mackay

25-Mar Day 1 Depart Mackay for Mellish 13:30 6.5 3626-Mar Day 2 At Sea 27-Mar Day 3 At Sea 28-Mar Day 4 Arrive Mellish Reef - Start set-up 13:2529-Mar Day 5 Set-up30-Mar Day 6 OP Day 131-Mar Day 7 Op Day 2

1-Apr Day 8 Op Day 32-Apr Day 9 Op Day 43-Apr Day 10 Op Day 54-Apr Day 11 Op Day 6 Shutdown / Depart - just a few contacts5-Apr Day 12 At Sea ~14:006-Apr Day 13 At Sea 7-Apr Day 14 At Sea 8-Apr Day 15 Arrive Mackay - Unload Boat 2:309-Apr Day 16 Sort - Repack

10-Apr Day 17 Sort - Repack11-Apr Day 18 Arrange Shipments / Sell Generators / Donations12-Apr Day 19 Leave Mackay

Then Reality Arrived

Cyclone Ita

What did we know and when did we know it?

- We knew it was the end of the cyclone season

- When we arrived at the island it was windy – approx 20 knots

- As the days went on the winds got stronger

- On about April 1st the skipper told us of a tropical depression forming to the North

- He said these events are known to form cyclones

- What’s the difference between a cyclone, hurricane, or a typhoon?

- The skipper was closely monitoring the weather

- At one point he said he “isn’t panicking yet, but if we saw him running we should be close behind him”

- We received radio reports of death and destruction in Honiara

- He was receiving NOAA WEFAX images and maritime Wx warnings every 4 hours

- On the early morning of April 5th we decided it was time to start packing

Forming of a Cyclone

WEFAX

Evohe crew: l-r Hamish, Lindsey and the Skipper Steve Kafka

Met / Nav Warning Forecast

Low Profile CrankIR

Wind’s Effect on OP Tent