NH8S qrv this morning for the first time on the Swains island DXpedition (IOTA OC-200). Very good signals 0800-1000+ so looks promising for the UK. Band conditions a little livlier too since the Solar Storms and poor K index over the last 6 days.
Swains Island has a total area of 460.9 acres (186.5 ha), of which 373 acres (150.8 ha) is land. The central lagoon accounts for the balance of 88 acres (35.8 ha). There is a small islet of 914 square yards (764 m2) in the eastern part of the lagoon.
The atoll is somewhat unusual, featuring an unbroken circle of land enclosing a freshwater lagoon cut off from the sea. Recent U.S. Coast Guard visitors to Swains described its lagoon as “brackish” and a source for the plentiful numbers of mosquitoes which plague the island. In April 2007, a member of an amateur radio expedition confirmed that the lagoon water was fit only for bathing and washing, and that fresh water seemed to be in rather short supply on the island at the time. According to a United States Department of the Interior description of Swains Island, drinking water on Swains is derived entirely from rainfall collected in two large mahogany tanks near the island’s copra shed.
Swains Island has a population of 37 Tokelauans, who harvest the island’s coconuts.
