ARRL outage
Category - Blog
November 3D2Z Rotuma DXpedition to Partner with Youth on the Air (YOTA) Americas;
Young Amateur Operators to Participate in DXpedition via Remote Radio
In the interest of bringing more young amateur radio operators into DXpeditioning, the Pacific Islands DXpedition Group, Inc. (PIDXG) and Youth on the Air (YOTA) Americas are pleased to announce a partnership involving the upcoming 3D2Z DXpedition to Rotuma in November. Youth on the Air is a program for and by young amateur radio operators with the expressed goal of building skills and fostering lasting friendships and mentors with younger
operators.
Rotuma DXpedition organizer Gregg, W6IZT will be taking two of his NexGenRiBs as a complement to the 6 member DXpedition on-island team. Gregg says, “Following the success with the remote radio used at the recent CBØZA Juan Fernandez DXpedition, we will have two remote stations available to young amateur operators through YOTA on Rotuma. It is our hope that 75% of the remote contacts made from 3D2Z will be made by the youth participants.”
Nineteen year old YOTA member Kees, WØAAE will coordinate the scheduling and operation by the remote YOTA operating team. A freshman aerospace engineering major at Iowa State University, Kees was the 2023 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award recipient. He coordinated participation in the Americas for December YOTA Month and is active with remote operation for young hams through RHR.
YOTA Camp Director Neil Rapp, WB9VPG said that he welcomes this partnership with the youth members of the YOTA organization and the PIDXG DXpedition to Rotuma. “I think this is a great opportunity for our young operators to experience a DXpedition and enjoy operating in pileup conditions.”
The 3D2Z DXpedition is scheduled for November 15 to December 4. In addition to the young operators who will be involved with the remote-side of the operation, one of the on-island team members is 23-year old Jamie, MØSDV, who was one of the members of the recent 8R7X DXpedition to Guyana. Additional members of the 3D2Z team include veteran DXpeditioner Hal, W8HC; Nathan K4NHW; and Mike, WØVTT. Gregg says that they are awaiting word on the sixth member of the team, another young amateur operator who will be named soon.
8R7X – Guyana 2024
I am pleased to say the 8R7X cards went out on time and you should see them starting to arrive in your mailboxes either today or tomorrow.
12 mailbags to 67 Countries by Royal Mail Priority Air Service.
MM0UKI will be active again, this time with 5 experienced Operators from the Flannan Islands, EU-118 (Scotland).The Expedition will begin August the 1st and plans are to remain for 48-72 hours, Weather and Sea dependant.
The Team will have 3 stations using a Hexbeam + wire antennas. The plan is to use the 6m to 40m Bands using CW and SSB Only. There is no planned FT8 operation.
VK5FIL Expedition to OC-261/VKFF-0175 DX NewsUpdate from Grant (VK5GR);
”Its not long now and we will be off on another adventure! Our 6 man team is in the final throws of preparing to depart Adelaide and head to Flinders Island off the coast of Eyre Peninsula! Almost all of the planning is complete and gear is being packed ready for the crossing in the barge. Lets hope for good weather!
If all goes to plan, VK5FIL should be on the air by ~0800z 14th April from IOTA OC-261 & VKFF-0175. We will have 4 stations operating at the homestead and a number of the operators are also bringing their portable parks equipment as well to activate VKFF-4307 and VKFF-1717 in the days that follow while we are there.
For anyone interested, I had a lengthy interview with Eric Guth 4Z1UG/WA6IGR for his QSO Today Podcast.
You can find the interview on this link, scroll down to episode 495. If you are still awake at the end, please let me know any feedback 😉 Also be sure to click on the show notes button (beneath my image) for more useful information.
QSO TODAY AMATEUR RADIO PODCAST – QSO Today Podcast
Credit to Nodir EY8MM for the photograph.
As the 2023 – 2024 financial tax year comes to an end, it is time to take a look at how our mailing facility has worked over the last year. Overall 28,936 items of mail were posted at a cost of £26,359.90. We post QSL Direct cards, bureau parcels and magazines using the various products as shown in the table below. With 13,751 more items posted this year, with Solar Cycle 25 this last 12 months providing much increased propagation on HF.
DX’pedition QSL costs are very competitive as always and we welcome talking to DX teams about mailing your QSL cards in the future.
The past 12 months though have been financially very challenging, postage costs up 10%, pulp paper costs up 15% and Customs charges across the board on QSL bulk shipments in and out through customs have hit us very heavily. We have tried to keep our QSL charges down to the lowest we can.
Standard postal rates have increased significantly in most countries worldwide due to the dwindling number of letters posted globally as people use electronic technology which has largely replaced the postal system in recent years. This means that the postal costs are spread over much lower volumes both nationally and worldwide and THIS is the driver of increased postal costs. In our hobby we still use the mail system to ship our QSL cards and therefore we must expect that increase to hit us. As an example, Royal Mail letter volumes in the last 12 years have dropped from 14.3 bn down to 7.3 bn per year.
While most people use OQRS (Thank you) we still get a number of incoming direct letters. The problem being is that most of the incoming letters do not include the correct QSL costs, because most fail to read either my QSL policy or the DXpedition QSL policy. This increases our costs further and also costs us time as we have to email to let people know that they failed to QSL correctly. My advice is use OQRS ONLY!
More customs charges on Bureau shipments outgoing continue, many Bureaus refuse to accept the shipments and we will not guarantee any cards requested using the IARU Bureau system. Customs demand a recipient name on these shipments but the IARU refuse to provide this for GDPR reasons. Well, this will inevitably close the Bureau system as we know it going forward. Someone has to take responsibility for this if the Bureau cards are to be securely sent and received by the IARU Bureaus. It is now completely out of our hands. If you want a QSL card use the direct option on OQRS is the only advice i can give.
Enjoy your DX! We as a team promise to provide you with a QSL service that works for both the DX’er and the DXpedition Team.
Its almost time for Gerben’s trip to Pitcairn as VP6G. Please see the information and link to his website below;
Operator: Gerben PG5M
Dates: April 4 – 14
Bands: 40-10m
Modes: CW and FT8
Antenna’s: DX Commander (40-10m) and a Hexbeam (20-10m)
I will run two stations (if antenna situation permits), primarily CW and additionally FT8 (using MSHV).
Website; www.dx.to/vp6g/
QSL manager: Charles M0OXO
Thanks, Gerben – PG5M
EIDXG are now QRV as 7P8EI will from Lesotho. Following their other successful Dxpeditions 7Q7EI, 9N7EI, 5V7EI, V26EI etc, this is one Team not to miss!
Apologies to anyone that had access issues this morning. We were alerted to an issue on M0OXO Bespoke OQRS around 4am UK time.Thanks to colleagues and of course barclayjames.co.uk, the system was restored and was back up and running this afternoon.
Apologies again for any inconvenience.