A44M / A43MI Team will be active from Masirah Island, IOTA AS – 014, in CQWW SSB Contest, 30/31st October 2021 as A44M.
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:
https://www.facebook.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Thank you,
Ken Opskar LA7GIA, Co-Leader
Rune Oye LA7THA, Co-Leader
Erwann Merrien LB1QI, Co-Leader
Logs are now available on M0OXO OQRS for Bob VP8ADR and Lyn VP8BTR.
3D2CR operation by Dominik Grzyb from Conway Reef, September 2021Today 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 [email protected]
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
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:
I have updated the list of Callsigns I manage on my website to take account of some recent VK licence changes. You can find on the link here;
Nobby (G0VJG) will start his trip to Mauritius today as 3B8/G0VJG.
Today i was very pleased to hear from Arash EP2HAM in Tehran, the Capital of Iran. I managed to get a log update from him which has now been uploaded to M0OXO OQRS.
