In case he cannot travel to the Russell islands (OC-168), his second option would be the Florida islands (OC-158) which was more recently activated and claimed by the 18,7% of participants. The Florida islands are easier to access and offer plenty of accomodation, so it would be an easy-to-achieve backup plan.
Christian will carry 2 batteries and solar panels to run his 100w radio, in case there is no power available at any time of the day on any of the islands, specially on the Russell islands.
After activating either the Russell or the Florida islands Christian will continue the tour and will fly to Bellona island (OC-127), not activated since 2009 and claimed by the 19,7% of participants, where he will stay for 3 days. The flight is booked and confirmed, but not yet the accommodation, as there is a very nice resort on the island but on a very bad location for a good take-off into Europe, therefore he will first try to find a different place to stay with a better take-off but surely much lower comfort…
According to propagation charts, 12 and 15m band will be the best bands to work Europe, so he will take a VDA for 15m band and a vertical dipole for 12m, as well as other vertical dipoles for 17m and 20m in order to work other regions of the world with fair conditions.
In view of the high demand, short stay on the islands and the battery-powered station, Christian asks everybody to make ONLY 1 QSO on each island in order to put as many different stations as possible in the log.
For a better understanding, here is the schedule of Christian’s trip on March 2015.
As you can see, after the stay in the Solomons, Christian will do a stopover in Brisbane, where he intends to rent a car and access one of the islands qualifying for IOTA OC-137.
ALL QSLs viaM0OXO OQRS
Please do NOT send your card via the Bureau, it will NOT be received.
IF any kind soul would consider helping Christian with any donation after getting a few new IOTA references, … it would be much appreciated, in order to offset some of the costs involved… (Paypal [email protected] )
