Category - Blog

14th – 24th February 2024

8R7x .com

Follow along four young and ambitious DXPeditioners
on their journey to 8R – Republic of Guyana.

The 8R – Guyana 2024 project is thrilled to announce a major achievement as the Guyanese Telecommunications Authority assigns them the special callsign 8R7X for the duration of their activity. After originally given a longer callsign, this is a big step for the project to smooth the operating process.

Furthermore, it can be said that all necessary paperwork has been finalized to ensure smooth travels and operations for the whole team.

Right now, the team is busy testing final pieces of their equipment. The antennas, a crucial part of the project, are already packed and ready to go.

The team will gather in Miami, Florida – USA, on February 12th, 2024, before flying to Georgetown, Guyana. On the day after, they plan to set up their equipment in this beautiful South American location.

Peter I Island DXpedition 2026 preparation has started!

Peter I is the #8 DXCC in ClubLog most wanted list.

We have secured a vessel, and we’re now building a team of 19 operators that will go to Peter I Island in February 2026 and stay there for 14 days. The vessel is a proper Antarctica vessel with 2 helicopters, two Expedition leaders and with all permits needed.

We are working closely with the Norwegian Polar Institute to obtain the landing permit. A website has been created and additional information about Peter I Island DXpedition will be released shortly. Fundraising is expected to start 2024

Team leader Ken LA7GIA, Co-leader Adrian KO8SCA, Co-leader Cezar VE3LYC and Co-leader Dave WD5COV.

Media Officer: James Gallo KB2FMH.

Because we are running the two DXpeditions through the same organization (Delta-Xray Group) there exist synergies as for the equipment, logistics and resources committed to execute these.

We’re building an organization of 25+ experienced DXpeditioners committing to and capable of executing some of the rarest and most difficult entities to activate. In the pipeline we have two exciting DXpeditions planned.

• 3YØK DXpedition to Bouvetøya January 2025 (#11 most wanted)
• We will stay up to 21 days on the island
• A team of 3 operators + support team of 4 persons + remote team
• Budget $440,000 where 2/3rd of budget is already secured
• $150,000 in support still needed
• ALL PERMITS IN HAND

We have signed a contract with a vessel owner with a proven track record in Arctic and Antarctic waters. The experienced Captain has been supporting expedition teams since 1997 and before that has been managing his own fishing trawler for decades. We’re also teaming up with Peter as responsible for landing us safely on the beach, similarly to what he did this year. We are three persons with previous experience from landing at the island. Peter’s experience, skill and determination is again an important factor for success!

We have been through some 3YØJ lessons learned where everything have been scrutinized to improve the next attempt. This time we plan 3YØK based on our previous Bouvet experience! We will go only with smaller Honda gasoline generators, and it will be a lightweight DXpedition but still with some yagis and amplifiers. Weight is reduced from 7 ton to 2 ton. Peter will be leading the support team of total 4 younger persons, that comes in addition to the radio operators.

We will also engage a remote team where AA7JV George will be involved with tons of remote experience from his Pacific trips. George will design, test, and supply the remote radio system adapted to Bouvet environment and we’re grateful for his contribution. The remote radio system will be Pelican Cases with radio and power supply, where we will taking four remote radios and 5 radios with amplifiers for the local operators. In addition to the 7 members that will be on the island there will thus be additional remote members providing you with QSOs.

Operators: Dave WD5COV, Emil DL8JJ and Ken LA7GIA

Media Officer: James Gallo KB2FMH

Visit our Facebook page and our website www.3y0k.com.

DXpeditions need funding before the team depart to pay for expensive shipping of equipment and for the charter of a vessel to get to the island. Quite often these expensive costs need to be paid at least by means of a deposit up to 12 months before the DXpedition. The best way that we can raise these funds is by using the teams Donation page on their website. This not only helps the teams funds but also if you are in the log your QSL and LoTW will be sent for you automatically.

To help you understand some changes we have made on OQRS, you may find this helpful.

The Pre-DXpedition Donation
Once you fill in the form on the donation page, the data on that form is automated onto an Excel file. Once the DXpedition sends me the first log update. I upload the Excel file to OQRS, this file is then populated to the relevant QSL address fields and your QSL is queued, while your LoTW QSL is automatically uploaded to LoTW. This is repeated for every log update that i receive. ALL your QSOs are covered by the donation. It is the DXpeditions IT team that must prepare the Excel spreadsheet correctly. I will provide the Excel spreadsheet to the team with all the needed fields laid out correctly. High end DXpeditions may attract 1,500+ personal donations and this has to be automated by the team. As you can imagine doing this manually would not be possible.

“Express LoTW” In recent times some DX’ers have said that they do not want a QSL, but want to request an early LoTW and not have to request a QSL card. So for this reason Express LoTW replaces the QSL request. You are not forced to pay for the LoTW upload and neither is it an extra QSL charge.
DO not use Express LoTW if you want a QSL card. You will NOT get one.
Express LoTW will upload all QSOs in the log so far…. It will NOT upload any Qs you make tomorrow so better waiting until the end of the Dxpedition before requesting may be a better solution for you?.

“OQRS Direct + LoTW” If you want the QSL and LoTW this is the option you should use.

“OQRS Direct” – NON-DXpedition logs are normally uploaded to LoTW when the log updates arrive either by me or the log owner. 

“Busted/Missing Call Requests” VERY IMPORTANT. Please do not send ANY busted or missing call emails – Use the “NOT IN LOG” Button on OQRS. All inquiries are handled on the system. NO EMAILS.

I provide daily updates of all Log and LOTW uploads on my Facebook page. If you are on Facebook, this is the place to keep bang up to day with activities surrounding the Stations & Dxpeditions whom I manage.

Please also remember, OQRS is self-funded so it is not always possible to do upgrades that you may think are relevant and/or worthwhile. A lot of thought is given to upgrades and in particular the cost implications that surround them.

(Thanks to Tim M0URX for his input)

”Hello,

After questions about missing QSO’s on the 15^th of October on 30m FT8 we have carefully investigated the logs again. We noticed some problems with the integration of WSJT-X and N1MM on a laptop in camp Red.

We have corrected this issue which resulted in 2000+ more QSO’s being added to our log.

Charles, our QSL manager, has added the missing QSO’s to his OQRS, Clublog and to LOTW (if applicable).

Sorry for this mistake, but finally the QSO’s are found and will be confirmed.

On behalf of the W8S Swains 2023 team,

Ronald PA3EWP”