Category - Blog

HD8CW & HC5CW/8 Galapagos Islands

17th November 2024
Edgar (HC5CW) will arrive on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos Islands (IOTA SA-004) tomorrow (Monday 18th November) and will be QRV as HD8CW. He will also take part in CQWW CW as HC5CW/8.
 
The station will feature two Hexbeam antennas for the 20 to 10 meter bands, a loop antenna for 40 and 80 meters, and will also operate on the 6-meter band. The equipment will include IC-9700 radios for satellite communications (FM and linear), IC-7300 for HF, as well as an Elecraft K3 and FlexRadios for remote operation in CW, SSB, and FT8 modes.
 
Edgar will also use antennas and tripods for Buddipole systems, two 7M Mastwerks System (2) and Buddihex Antennas (2) (see link below).
 
 
Qsl via M0OXO OQRS

3D2Y Rotuma

15th November 2024
Noa’ia from Rotuma!
 
Yesterday on Friday 15th November 2024, we woke up at 4am to depart Fiji bound for Rotuma. We arrived in Rotuma approximately 10:00 local time. Greeted by our host we made the short drive to our QTH where we participated in Mamassa, a traditional ceremony which welcomes us to the island. Soon after we got to work on the station.
The weather here is hot, which makes working during the middle of the day very challenging.  Nevertheless, we’ve been able to make extraordinary progress on the station build in a short amount of time. We spent some time organising the equipment, staging antennas and building the shack on the inside, and by 15:00 local time we were on air with one of our NexGen RiB’s, shortly followed by two local stations on 15m and 12m. We immediately made a number of test QSOs, experiencing our first Rotuma pile ups. During our testing phase we became aware of some issues with the live log uploads which we are addressing and you can expect to see this issue corrected by tomorrow.

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3B8M Mauritius

15th November 2024

3B8M will again be active M/M in CQWWCW 2024. Team in 2024 will include G0CKV (3B8HA), KX7M, 4O3A, 3B8GL, E70A, SM0CXU, YL3JA, YL2KL, YT1HA, YT7KM, YU6DX, YU9DX.

Kazu, M0CFW (JK3GAD) will in 2024 again be 3B9KW for a SOAB entry.

This is a field-day style operation. All antennas and stations have to be erected and assembled and then taken down in a few days around the contest weekend. Antennas at 3B8M are all vertical wires on Spiderbeam poles and next to the Indian Ocean with an unobstructed take-off in most directions. On 160 a toploaded vertical (umbrella) is used, on 80 an inverted-L and on 40 a vertical dipole. The 40m antenna is out in the lagoon on a rock. For 20, 15 and 10 VDAs are used and also omni vertical dipoles. Our VDAs are typically 2-element vertical dipole arrays (vertical yagis). In 2023 we also played with pairs of ‘stacked’ VDAs. We used stackmatch and control boxes from Jan at qro.cz . This allowed the operators on 20, 15 and 10 to select VDA 1, VDA 2, both VDAs or the omni vertical dipole. In 2024 we might add aluminium vertical yagis to the mix.

Noise is high on the LF bands in the tropics. Our location has low noise locally but propagated noise level is high when the bands are open. We have little space for receive antennas but as an experiment we have built a K9AY which we hope to put some 50m out on a rock in the lagoon. A receive triplexer makes the K9AY usable on 160-80-40. The K9AY setup also uses hardware from qro.cz .

In 2024 we will use a mix of K3, FTdx10 and Flex radios with SPE, Juma and PGXL amplifiers running 800W and will try some inband QSOs too.

https://www.m0oxo.com/oqrs/logsearch.php?dxcallsign=3b8m

VY0ERC Nunavut, Canada

15th November 2024
Pierre, (VE3KTB) is currently active from the Eureka Weather Station Base on Ellesmere Island, (IOTA NA-008) as VY0ERC and will remain active around work schedules until the 5th of December 2024.
 
I would expect Logs will be available after the end of the Operation but keep an eye on OQRS and this Facebook page should I receive anything sooner.
 

3Y0K Bouvet 2026

27th October 2024
The 3Y0K Bouvet 2026 team are still working on the vessel and helicopter contracts and we are in the final stage before signing the contracts. We are sorting out the last minute deals and are still looking for some more operators for Bouvet and Peter I team. Funding of these two DX-peditions also heavily depend on us getting a full team of operators onboard that contribute with their participation fee. Should you wish to join our team please contact [email protected] or Cezar VE3LYC directly.
 
We estimate to stay around the island for three weeks and the total duration should be around 38 days to Bouvet and a little bit less to Peter I. We do have all the helicopter and landing permits issued by NPI to go to onshore Bouvet and Peter I with a full scale operation. Planning these two DX-peditions is very time consuming where the logistics has to be coordinated with other expeditions and that is why it takes time to sign contracts. Our plans are to use the same vessel for both DX-peditions. First the vessel and crew will take us to Bouvet where we will do landing with a helicopter, then our equipment will later be shipped to South America and stored there before we return 1 year later to go to Peter I Island scheduled for departure late January 2027. Our plans are to go onshore Peter I with two helicopters first week of February 2027. This way of running the DX-peditions is a huge advantage for the #7 most wanted DX-pedition to Peter I. Island.
 
Thank you,
73, team Bouvet and Peter I

HD8CW & HC5CW/8 Galapagos Islands

24th October 2024
HC5CW and HC2AP will be active as HC5CW/8 and HD8CW from San Cristobal Island, IOTA SA – 004, Galapagos Islands, 19th- 28th November 2024.
 
They will operate on HF Band, CW, SSB, FT8.
 
Qsl via M0OXO OQRS

HC5AI & HC5CW Ecuador

24th October 2024

Edgar HC5CW and Pablo HC5AI, both from Cuenca, Ecuador have joined the M0OXO QSL service.

LOTW certificates have already been received and Qsl Cards are currently in design.