Harald (DF2WO) will be returning to Burkina Faso next week.
He reports that he now has his Visa and will be qrv from XT2 between the 8th and 22nd January 2018.
As usual he will be using a Hexbeam and Dipole Antennas running CW, SSB and FT8 Modes mainly on 80, 60 , 40 and 30 Meters.
He also hopes to replace the Hexbeam of local Ham Ibrahim XT2AGI who’s antenna was lost in a big storm over 12 months ago. Ibrahim has been off air ever since.
Qsl via M0OXO OQRS or Direct Post Mail
VI70HI is a special Callsign issued to Commemorate the first ANARE Expedition to Heard Island in December 1947.
It will be active from December 19th until Feburary 28th 2018.
All HF bands 160m-10m, SSB, CW, RTTY and possibly digital modes als
The party from the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE) arrived at Heard Island in December 1947. The 14 men spent 15 months at Atlas Cove, and constructed an entire small city, complete with a small power station, food store, mess, workshops, shower, toilet, electrical and plumbing stores, medical annex, biology lab, science lab, hen coop, dog run, and a large tractor. These men carried out meteorological, geophysical, upper atmosphere, and biological research, a program that continued for 7 years until the base was abandoned. Since 1969, ANARE has visited Heard Island every few years, mostly to check up on the ruins of the original encampment.
The first amateur radio contact was made in 1947 by Arthur Campbell-Drury who signed VK3ACD/Heard. During the following 3 years, a total of only 36 contacts was made.
A special commemorative QSL card will be available after completion of the activation via M0OXO our QSL manager.
OQRS will be available and LOTW.
*Please note this station is run from mainland Australian and not Heard Island*
6O6A will be a DXpedition to Somalia next month. LA7GIA, Ken, says it will be in conjunction with Doctors Without Borders. The Somali government invited hams to bring in an Amateur Radio operation.
The ops, LA7GIA and KO8SCA (Adrian) travel January 3rd hoping to be QRV by that evening local time and continue for 12 full days of operating on all modes and bands, 160 through 10.
Ken says that, however, it will be mostly a CW operation. He will have a pair of K3 rigs to a pair of KPA500 amps, two-element Yagis for 20-10, a BigIR SteppIR vertical for 40-10, for 80 a full-size vertical, an inverted L for 160, and 200-meter-long Beverages for receive, oriented towards North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and South America. There will also be K9AY and “BOG” backup antennas.
A fundraising effort is being organized with Doctors Without Borders. Donations received will be designated for “DWOB in Somalia.” Ken says no donations are being sought for the ham side of the activity, but donations to the Doctors group are encouraged. You can use PayPal for that, [email protected] or when doing your OQRS through the M0OXO website. If the internet connection is good, they will have instant Club Log and LoTW online logs. www.la7gia.com.
Qsl via M0OXO OQRS or Direct Post Mail
The Perseverance DX Group (pdxg.net) is pleased to announce their planned activation of Ducie Island (a Marine Protected Area), currently Clublog #29 most wanted. Planning has begun for an expedition in Oct/Nov, 2018.
Landing permission, visas and radio license have been issued. A team of 14 operators will be on the island for up to 14 days. The team will depart from Mangareva, French Polynesia aboard the expedition ship Braveheart. Seven (7) operating positions are planned for 160-10 meters, SSB/ CW/ Digital, including FT8.
The team includes: Dave K3EL, Pista HA5AO, Les W2LK, Heye DJ9RR, Mike WA6O, Jacky ZL3CW, Arnie N6HC, Steve W1SRD, Chris N6WM, Laci HA0NAR, Ricardo PY2PT, Walt N6XG, Gene K5GS, currently one open position to be filled.
Dindo DU1UD has announced his intention to activate the Most-Wanted IOTA in DU, OC-105.
He will activate Mapun Island, part of the Cagayan De Sulu Group of Islands in the Philippines during the ”First or Second quarter of 2018” This Group is currently shown as 3.4% (0.3%) claimed by IOTA chasers.
He will also make a return visit to the Tawi Tawi Group OC-174 (claimed by 13.4% of chasers) during the same period.
Dindo with be using an Elecraft K3 and a KPA500 Amplifier. He has VDA and vertical Antennas with him and his duration of stay is as always dependant on local conditions and safety of course.
Mapun, also called Cagayan Sulu, island, southwestern Sulu Sea, Philippines. Low-lying and surrounded by 13 small islets and coral reefs, it has an area of 26 square miles (67 square km). Mapun was a centre of pirate activity by Muslims (Moros) in the 19th century. The island (together with Sibutu island) was inadvertently omitted when the United States acquired the Philippine islands from Spain in 1898, but it was purchased from Spain in 1900 and was part of the Philippines when independence was granted in 1935. Dry-rice agriculture, copra production, and trading are the principal economic activities. The Jama Mapun people constitute the great majority of the island’s population. They speak a Sama-Bajau language of the Austronesian language family, and most are adherents of Islam.
Further information will be announced in due course.
Qsl via M0OXO OQRS or Direct Post Mail
Qatar Amateur Radio Society members A71AM, A71EM, A71GO AND A75GM are confirmed operators who are planning to operate from Al Safliya Island (IOTA AS-088) as A70X from January 1-6, 2018. They might be joined by some foreign operators.
They will be on CW, SSB and Digital modes running power into a three band Yagi, 5 band Yagi and verticals for activity
on 160 through 10 Meters and they will be checking 6 Meters as well.
Qsl via M0OXO OQRS or Direct Post Mail
A qualified and very motivated team was made up. Our only and single objective will be to satisfy the amateur radio community.
As for Tromelin and Juan de Nova operations, the conditions of propagation, analyzed finely, will dictate our traffic. We know quite well this zone of the world and its characteristics; thus it will be a goal to satisfy the worldwide DX’ers and more especially those of the most delicate areas to contact: West Coast of America, Japan, and Oceania in particular.
We secured the transport by the payment of 50% of the invoice; that marks the point of nonreturn of the project. We are happy to count right now important actors of the amateur radio community among our sponsors. Soon, we will start contacting the clubs and associations to seek financial support, but as of now, you can support us with in an individual donation. As in the past, we endeavour to maintain the costs to their strict minimum without reducing the equipment engaged, nor the duration of the expedition. However, in spite of this permanent optimization, we need your support in addition to the already important part payed by the operators.
The website is now online, and will be fed in the coming weeks with articles about the preparation. A Facebook and Twitter account is also available.
We are impatient to talk with you about this new project during the upcoming hamfests.
This week two major events occurred and we are very happy to share both of them with you. First of all, we received all papers from the Mauritius authorities and our callsign has been confirmed. You will listen for us as 3B7A next April in your radios!
Then, we are very proud to announce that the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) has joined our project as a major sponsor. By reiterating the trust relationship with our team a great step has been made to reach the overall budget.
This is not yet a closed matter and we hope to receive many supports until our departure. Talking about this, we would like to greet our friends JJ3PRT, JA4BUA, JA4DND and JK1KSB. They are a very efficient relay in Japan for our team and thanks to them a Japanese section of our website is now available.
Our next communications will focus on logistics and radio operations.
So stay tuned and follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SaintBrandonDX/ and Twitter @SaintBrandon
“I am very pleased that participants in the CQ Worked All Zones award program will finally be able to use Logbook of the World confirmations in their applications for WAZ awards and endorsements,” said CQ magazine Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU, adding that “WPX program participants have made excellent use of this service for the past five years and we look forward to providing it to WAZ program participants as well.”
“We are excited about the prospect of supporting CQ magazine’s WAZ program through Logbook of the World, as it is something that many ham radio operators have been asking for,” said Greg Widin, K0GW, ARRL First Vice President and chair of the Logbook Study Committee. “We believe this partnership will enhance the amateur radio experience for many practitioners.”
CQ Communications, Inc. is the publisher of CQ Amateur Radio magazine and is the world’s largest independent publisher of Amateur Radio magazines, books and videos. Worked All Zones is the second-oldest active Amateur Radio award program, behind the International Amateur Radio Union’s Worked All Continents (WAC) award.
The new IREF Website has now been launched and can be viewed here.
https://irefnew.wordpress.com/
Please take a look at the new ”IOTA Expeditioner of the Year” Award too, an exciting new aspect from the IREF Board.
https://irefnew.wordpress.com/activator-award
After a delay, the QSL Cards for the recent trips from Christmas Island and the Cocos Keeling Islands are now printing at the UX5UO Print Shop.
Cards should be here and mailed in around two weeks time.
Again I apologise for the delay.
Around 8000 QSO’s were made from eacjh of the Islands during the operation in October 2017. The Team included;
Tony Burt VK3TZ, Chris Dimitrijevic VK3FY, Lee Moyle VK3GK, Peter Dernokos VK3FN, Luke Steel VK3HJ, Adrian Ciuperca KO8SCA and Cliff Tindall VK9VKL
