Author - Charles M0OXO

VP8PJ South Orkney Islands DXpedition

2nd January 2020
For Immediate Release
Press Release #9
Jan 2, 2020
 
South Orkney Islands DXpedition
VP8PJ
 
We are pleased to announce the call sign for the Perseverance DX Group’s expedition South Orkney 2020 will be changed to VP8PJ. In past years it was relatively easy to get a preferred VP8 call sign for the British Antarctic Territory. After a licensing administrative change, we were unable to obtain a VP8 call sign for operation from South Orkney and were advised to use /VP8. 
 
Alan, VK6CQ, a recent addition to the team, holds the call sign VP8PJ that was issued to him for operation from the British Antarctic Territory. After submission of a copy of Alan’s license, ARRL has issued us a new LoTW certificate for the use of this call from South Orkney for the duration of our expedition.
 
73,
Team VP8PJ
Please direct your questions to: [email protected]

OQRS Hints & Tips , here to help YOU!

29th December 2019

I have just added a new page to my website that deals with OQRS, how you use it and the other service that it offers. You can find the page by navigating to ”How to QSL” and using the drop down menu select ”OQRS Hints & Tips” (or use the link below).

The Page gives advice for the general User but also Tools for the Dxpedition Stations where we can offer Real Time Log Search, Band Activity Module and OQRS Support (with Busted/Missing Call & Express LOTW integration) and much more. Of course it also strongly supports the QSL manager workload automating the most time consuming QSL’ing processes.

You can find the article by navigating to the page on the link below. I hope you find this article useful. If you have any questions please drop me an email.

OQRS Hints & Tips https://www.m0oxo.com/direct-a-bureau-instructions/oqrs-hints-tips/

Christmas Mail

12th December 2019

Today was the last mailing day before Christmas with the next one planned sometime between Christmas and the New Year.

All  outstanding Dxpedition cards have been ordered and delivery awaited. In the meantime please let me wish you all a very Merry Christmas and thanks for your support during 2019.

Please remember M0OXO QSL Service is a self funded service. If you are happy with the service then please consider a donation for the continued upkeep of the Website, the OQRS Platform and Development and the Printing of Cards, Envelopes and other media. Thank you!

Choose your category!

12th December 2019

After a series of emails this week and many more in months gone by, I have to ask myself how educated we are and how would we expect our behaviour to be perceived by others? Many emails are ‘open’ emails and when I say ‘open’, I mean they have no greeting, no ‘Hello’, no ‘please’ and no ‘thank you’.

 
Whilst I do this work, should I expect people to be like this or should I expect more? They send emails that just have the open questions such as ;
 
‘I am not in your log but you are in mine, why?’
‘My card never arrived why?’
‘When will log be on LOTW?’
 
Now before we start by suggesting that the language barrier is an excuse, well I’m sorry. If you can write the above message in English (even with the help of ‘Google Translate’), then I am pretty sure you can be courteous too?
 
What is wrong with people? What is missing?
 
‘Hi Charles…’, ‘Hello OM..’, ‘Hi……’ would be a good start and what about ‘Please’ or even ‘Thank you’?
Your Callsign would be a huge help and what about a Name, I have one and I assume you do too?
 
I get really upset by these emails that just seem to get worse and worse, quite often leading to me questioning myself, ‘should I continue in this job?’
Respect is earned, I get that but there is no excuse for no manners. 
 
People can be arrogant, ignorant and on occasions pleasant, I wonder which category you would like to be in?
 

M0OXO.com website upgrade

8th December 2019

 

After eleven years using Joomla CMS for publishing my web content (which has been an integral part of my QSL Management System), it became apparent that it was time to upgrade from the Joomla platform and to progress with innovation.

The problem was, that Joomla was becoming increasingly difficult and more costly to upgrade to newer versions. I had to look around for newer Platforms which would still give me a good service but without a huge hike in costs. Some features of the site would clearly have to be redesigned or rebuilt and again, time and money are always an issue in these situations especially when the service is self-funded. Also I had the added problem that the Online QSL Request System (OQRS) is written using the latest PHP versions with which the old Joomla version cannot work. So after discussing this with my IT guys, it was clear that the most cost effective way to go forward was to migrate the site to WordPress.

Several new pages have been added and whilst I am still working on Text, Fonts and other issues on some pages, I hope you will find the site easy to navigate and find the information you require quite easily.

Many thanks to James at BarclayJames for the time and work he has put in to migrate the site, and for his advice and support which has been vital to the continued work here at M0OXO QSL Service.

So welcome to my new web page!

VP8/VP8DXU, South Orkney Islands

8th December 2019

2020 DXpedition

For Immediate Release
Press Release #8
Dec.3,2019
South Orkney Islands DX-pedition
VP8/VP8DXU
(AN-008)
Team Staffing
We’re sorry to report that Dave WD5COV had to leave the project,replacing Dave is:

Alan Cheshire VK6CQ
Originally from Scotland, Alan has lived in Perth, Western Australia for many years and was first licensed as G4EEL in 1975 whilst studying for his commercial Merchant Marine Radio Officer ticket. He holds degrees in Physics & Telecoms Engineering and is a consultant telecom engineer in the offshore oil and gas industry.

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2020 IOTA Honour Roll – Annual Listings – Reminder

8th December 2019
”IOTA enthusiasts, if you have been planning to submit an application for IOTA, consider doing it now before the late December / January rush. For those waiting for the very last QSL to secure their highest possible position on the 2020 Honour Roll and Annual Listing, you are reminded that the last date for mailing score updates to checkpoints for inclusion is 31 January 2020.
 
If postmarked after that date, and each year we receive some, they are processed in the normal way but the scores are held over to the following year’s listing. In countries where the postal service to the checkpoint is often subject to delay, it is best to mail cards early so as to avoid complications. It is important that participants who have not updated since the 2015 annual listings and wish to remain listed should make a submission before 31 January 2020.
 
Repeated for clarification: if the last Honour Roll or Annual Listing you entered was the 2015 or an earlier one, you will need to update to be listed in the 2020 one. Furthermore, if you have not logged into your record for more than two years, you will need to re validate your registration through [email protected]. Do not leave it to the last moment as you may run out of time.”
 
G3KMA October 2019 IOTA-World Website

VY0ERC, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut

8th December 2019

Logs have been received this morning courtesy of Alex VE1RUS & Pierre VE3KTB for their recent operations at the Eureka Station on Ellesmere Island (IOTA NA-008) in Nunavut. They are now QRT.
 
This will please a few of you as the Station is located in CQ Zone 2 and since he was active in several contest such as CQWW CW, CQWW SSB & WAE RTTY, I understand quite a few of you need this as your final Zone.
 
There are also several logs uploaded for their Satellite Operations too.
 
For the Weather men among us, current temperature up there is -19C (minus 19)
 
Logs are available for searching and QSL Card requests on the link below;
 
https://www.m0oxo.com/oqrs/logsearch.php 
 

A50BOC & A50BPC Bhutan

7th December 2019

De Max ON5UR

”Where do we go next…? The question that was haunted by different heads. Finally it’s time, we’re going to Bhutan.

It was quite exciting days… behind the scenes, there was a lot of work in Japan and Bhutan to get all the official documents in order. Almost daily we received messages from ms ishidade the secretary of Zorro jh1ajt. No news, still no news, something hope visa will be soon etc etc… finally yesterday came the redeeming news, all visas and documents were ok. Pfff what a nice feeling, only five days before our departure.

Callsign:
A50BOC (Bhutan Olympic Committee ).
A50BPC (Bhutan Paralympic Committee).
Kingdom of Bhutan.

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UK County Plaques

7th December 2019

This website has now had the new Pages added for the UK County Plaques (by the Most Wanted DX Plaques Team). There are 5 Plaques available in total;

All England, All Ireland, All Scotland, All Wales and the final one for working All UK Territories.

You can navigate to the pages by hovering your mouse over the MW DX Plaques header on the title bar above this entry. Information on the required contacts is listed on a separate page for each of the Awards.

We will have logging software that will cater for these Award Programme coming soon but at the time I write this, the programme is not quite ready to roll out so back to the Paper and pen for now!

Good luck with the hunting, drop me a line should you need any assistance.