PY0S St. Peter & Paul Rocks

The Araucaria DX Group is pleased to announce it has received permission from the Marinha do Brazil (Brazilian Navy) for a DXpedition to Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo (Saint Peter & Saint Paul archipelago). The operation will take place in the October – November 2025 time frame. The actual dates will be announced later.

The St. Peter & St. Paul rocks are located at 0 deg 55.2’ N and 29 deg 20.9’ W, about 60 miles north of the Equator, approximately 600 miles from the city of Natal, on the Brazilian mainland.

St. Peter & St. Paul rocks, PY0S, is No. 14 on Club Log’s Most Wanted List, and No. 3 in Asia. PY0S was last activated in 2012. Since then permission to land and operate from the rocks has not been granted. Our Radio In a Box (RIB) capability enables us to make this activation possible without the operators being physically on the rocks, thereby meeting the key requirement of the Navy for a very small footprint operation with minimum human presence. According to the permit two of us will be allowed to land each day for a limited time to refuel the generators and make any necessary repairs. We plan to deploy five RIB-s for a total of 6 stations. Operators will be working from the boat anchored a short distance from the rocks. We plan to be active from 160 to 6 m, on CW, SSB and FT8. There will be six local operators: Adrian, KO8SCA, Fred PY2XB, George, AA7JV, Mike KN4EEI, Peter, PY5CC, Tomi, HA7RY, as well as a number of remote operators. The RIB equipment, which makes this operation possible, was developed with the support of the Northern California DX Foundation.

The St. Peter & St. Paul archipelago is unique as the only place where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, as five small rocky islets, pierces the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The largest of these is Belmonte, with a total area of 5400 square meters (1.2 acres). Not all of this area is dry. Large waves often wash over some parts of the islet. The Brazilian Navy maintains a permanent research station on Belmonte which is manned year around. Our upcoming operation is not only aimed at making this No.14 DXCC entity available to DX-ers but also to increase world-wide awareness of this unique rock formation and the role the Brazilian Navy plays in scientific research and study of this extremely difficult and rare environment.

The RIB concept was developed for operations where human presence is severely restricted. RIB-s contain one or two Flex Radio HF transceivers, as well as power supplies, control modules and power amplifiers, all housed in a weather-tight case. Add power, an antenna and a UHF control link, and they can be remotely operated without human presence.

We will be making future announcements as we finalize the dates, callsign and complete required formalities. Additional information will be added to py0s2025.com <http://py0s2025.com/>.

For more information on the Araucaria DX Group to

www.araucariadx.com.br <http://www.araucariadx.com.br/>
For future announcements visit https://py0s2025.com/

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Charles M0OXO

I was born in the 1960’s and have lived all my life in the Coal Mining Town of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, Northern England. My parents were all from this area of Yorkshire and my father worked in the main Industry of the local Collieries as a face worker. I have been married to my wife Debbie for 38 years and we have two children and two grandchildren.

I have been licensed for around 20 years after my interest was re-kindled when I retired from my role as a Police Officer within South Yorkshire Police Force. The latter few years were spent as Radio Operator in the Force Operations Control Room at Sheffield, before my career ended.

IOTA chasing is (and always has been) my real passion, as climbing the ladder to reach Honour Roll status was always my main aim. The 1000 Islands Trophy is still out of reach but I am heading in the right direction. I am currently a Board Member of IOTA Ltd.

In my free time I am a keen Photographer of Wildlife but the QSL Manager role is my main passion within Ham Radio.

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