Archive - October 2021

XT2AW Sponsor Update

Harald and his Sponsors give generously to provide for the School Children in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Thanks to your generous donations, our sponsored school children, some of whom have to walk 10 and more KM to school, have now received a bicycle.

I would also like to say thank you very much on behalf of the children and their parents.

A43MI / A44M Oman

A44M / A43MI Team will be active from Masirah Island, IOTA AS – 014, in CQWW SSB Contest, 30/31st October 2021 as A44M.
 
 
They will operate in Multi Op Category.
 
Outside the Contest they will be active as A43MI.
 
QSL via M0OXO OQRS

3Y0J Bouvet (Press Release #6)

3Y0J DXpedition to Bouvet Island, November 2022

We have reached our first payment milestone for the Marama vessel contract. Today we have paid the first deposit, and with this payment we confirm our plans of activating the #2 most wanted entity Bouvet. We would like to thank each individual and club who has contributed to this payment with their upfront support, especially thanks to our Lead sponsor NCDXF. It is a huge task and undertaking to go to Bouvet and we still critically need additional upfront support to close the budget.

We are happy to announce two additional operators to the team to make it complete with 13 operators. Dave WD5COV will rejoin us on this adventure to Bouvet. Dave is a well-known and recognized DXer and DXpeditioner who has embarked on over ten major DXpeditions including three in the top ten most wanted category.

In addition, we have included Peter in the team as a combined crew and dedicated FTx operator. Peter is an experienced captain and expedition leader with huge experience from offshore sailing, sailing in remote polar uncharted areas and specializes in supporting some of the most complex expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctica. He is experienced in safety evacuation procedures, MOB maneuver in cold water, beach landings in difficult locations and he is an experienced zodiac operator that will be based in Norway. He will be heading up the zodiac landing at Bouvet.

Our preparation for Bouvet includes planning, constructing, and testing a system for landing zodiacs safely, this will be tested in rough sea in Norway before and after Christmas. We plan for several systems and techniques to adapt to the onsite conditions. We plan for safely landing the zodiacs in different manners also with some swell, unmanned and with less risk for operators. And we prepare for the event that zodiacs are capsizing and we still can retrieve the equipment. We have done the first prelim sea trials of the zodiac equipment in Norway and will continue sea trials to further mature the concept. We plan for a gasoline powered winch system to lift equipment up the cliff, and this will be tested in Norway after Christmas. We plan to access the 25 ft cliff with professionals means, and if needed prepare for climbing and bolting a short route to gain access. We refresh our climbing experience, and some team members will be certified climbers. In 2022 we will practice safe rope access training and evacuation down the cliff with instructor also including emergency evacuation with injured operator. We will have IRATA educated instructors training with us.

We also have an extended off-island team of 5 Norwegian professionals and experts from the maritime industry assisting us. These are former captains and chief engineers with huge experience within RIB SAR vessels, maritime risk assessment and safety training. Some of them have stayed several seasons at Bouvet, stayed anchored at Cape Fie, have passed Bouvet more than 60 times and have done zodiac landing at the same spot. With all these upcoming events and the knowledge in the extended team – be rest assured this will be a well planned and executed project.
You can follow our plans from our website and the 3Y0J Facebook pages:

http://www.3y0j.no

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3093983840726129

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaMaR21075U

Thank you,

Ken Opskar LA7GIA, Co-Leader
Rune Oye LA7THA, Co-Leader
Erwann Merrien LB1QI, Co-Leader

VP8ADR & VP8BTR Falkland Islands

Logs are now available on M0OXO OQRS for Bob VP8ADR and Lyn VP8BTR.
 
Bob and Lyn are both active from their Sheep Farm at Walker Creek
on the Falkland Islands (IOTA SA-002, GRID GD08oa).
 
Qsl Cards for both callsigns are currently being prepared by UX5UO QSL Print and will be available in a few weeks time. OQRS is open where you can search both logs and order your QSL Cards either Direct or via the Bureau.
 

3D2CR Conway Reef – IOTA

3D2CR operation by Dominik Grzyb from Conway Reef, September 2021
 
IOTA Management regrets that it will not be able to accept for IOTA credit contacts made with the 3D2CR operation from Conway Reef between 18 and 25 September 2021.
 
Dominik has not been able to show that his FT4/FT8 activity complied with IOTA rule B.3.10 on which clarification was given in a Management News Item on 10 September. At Dominik’s request credit will also not be given for a small number of contacts made on SSB.
 
Management wishes to draw IOTA DXpeditioners’ attention to its policy of only accepting for IOTA credit contacts that result from contemporaneous direct initiation by the operators on both sides of the contact. Automated contacts, i.e. contacts not initiated and completed personally by both operators at the time of QSO are not acceptable in a programme founded on an ethos of recognising personal operating performance and skill.
 
Team IOTA, 23 October 2021

3Y0J Bouvet Island

Today we have finalized the procurement of all our 3Y0J antennas. All antennas will be supplied by our sponsors InnovAntenna, DX Engineering and Spiderbeam. We have run extensive HFTA analysis that shows our signals is predicated to be STRONG all over the planet. We will bring a mix of antennas with us with different material and technology. We have prepared a main antenna farm, backup antennas and a replacement strategy. We have focused on bringing quality products with us. You can expect our 160m toploaded vertical to be 21 m tall and our yagis will be 7 to 10m up on solid antenna masts that can withstand 35 to 44 m/s wind. We have various yagis with us. And we plan dedicated yagis for Asia, EU and NA/SA on a triplexer/diplexer system. We will run inband on 40-10m. All this will be visible on the antenna layout drawing. InnovAntenna will launch a new product DXR-3 Bouvet – a yagi designed for our DXpedition which you can soon buy at DX Engineering.

The antennas will soon be shipped to Norway for inspection and testing, we have a site off the west coast to test the equipment in harsh weather. Some low band verticals will be shipped to Arizona for assembling and testing, some yagis will be shipped to New York, and finally topband antennas will be sent to Hungary. This is truly an international project where all team members contribute with a common goal to activate Bouvet to give you that much needed QSO!

Let’s make it happen – support 3Y0J via PayPal bouvet@3y0j.no

3B8M Mauritius (2021)

3B8M will be QRV during CQWWCW 2021 and a few days before and after the contest. This will be a M/M operation by G0CKV (3B8HA, SM5CKV), JK3GAD (M0CFW), KX7M, M0SDV and W6NV.

The planned 2020 operation did not happen for well known reasons. Now for 2021 the licences and travel arrangements are all in hand. Travel bureaucrazy for covid is as challenging as LOTW certificates and not recommended for the cognitively handicapped or digital novices. We are working on it.

Charles M0OXO will handle QSLs for 3B8M and 3B8HA via OQRS or direct mail and logs will also be uploaded to ClubLog and LOTW. Read More

SV2ASP/A Mount Athos

If anyone needs a QSL for SV2ASP/A (SK), the late Monk Apollo from Mount Athos, now may be your last chance. Apollo was in the Docheiariou Monastery, whose Abbott says Monk Chariton has been taking care of direct QSL requests and is presently still doing so but that may end at some point. If you request your QSLs now it should still work. Mail to:
 
MONK CHARITON
DOCHEIARIOU MONASTERY
AG. OROS, GR-63087
GREECE
 
Thanks to the Daily DX ( https://www.dailydx.com/ ) for this news.