[DX-NEWS] VK9DWX News #13 - 30.10.2008
News #13 - 30.10.2008 The “VK9DWX-Willis Island DX-pedition 2008” is history. We closed the log with more than 95.000 QSOs (that’s our first merger of all logs except the VK9DWX/mm qsos during the voyage). A great adventure full of unforgettable moments and sweet memories lays behind us. We enjoyed a beautiful time of ham radio operation and are very happy of being able to serve so many hams around the world with a new one or at least with new and additional bandpoints for the DXCC. We enjoyed nice and trusty fellowship within our team. Our two rookies Josh, W4WJF, and Rhy, ZS6DXB turned out to be a real surprise for us: They not only slipped into the team very easily but they also shouldered the operating burden in amazingly good performance, they became a valuable support for the DXpedition. After 10 days of operation we welcome the sailing boat “Rum Runner” which brought us new supplies (food and fuel) as well as the exchange of our rookies: Josh had to leave and Rhy was coming to replace him. Also our DXpedition visitor Gerd, DK2JW, came in as well as Dale, VK4DMC, our valuable, trusty and very important support in Australia. They were very happy to have solid ground under their feet again, because the voyage was somewhat rough and not a real pleasure. We spent a nice evening with exiting talks and a few cool beers. They stayed over night with us on the island. Next morning it was time to say good bye, because the “Rum Runner” went back to Cairns. Operation on this DXpedition was a real challenge to everyone: Fresh to strong winds every day, some days so powerful that the tents were threatened to be blown away or at least heavily damaged. High tide climbed the beaches often higher than expected and swept over the feed points of the arrays, (perfect ground conductivity at least !!) disordering the radial system completely. Turtles are really heavy (some 75 kg!) and snagged the coax or other cable from time to time, but fortunately caused no major trouble with that. Hundreds (or were it thousands ??) of different birds, screaming (and smelling !!) all day and night and whom you might have noticed as the background noise in our SSB-QSOs. Small crabs, flies and moths were perennial companions in our tents, but luckily did not bite at all. Day after day the sun poured down and let the temperature soar to 35 to 40 degrees Celsius in the tents. Unfortunately we could not open tents due to the wind and the brightness of the sunlight: We simply would not have seen anything on the laptop-screens anymore. Fans were only of little help and not a real relief. In spite of these unfavourable conditions, the equipment worked to our satisfaction. No major faults to mention. Only internet access was limited to several hours a day, which made it impossible to update the log in shorter periods. Food was cooked on the MV Floreat daily and supplied to us day by day. A great hug to our chef Susy who did a marvellous job in feeding the team with delicious meals and perfect sandwiches as well as fresh fruit most of the days. MV Floreat’s skipper Marcus Oke inspected the weather forecast very thoroughly, took the development of wind and waves as well as the tide in consideration and came to the conclusion that Sunday would be the best choice for ferrying our material safely from the beach to the ship. Safety of all our members first and the material second was our biggest concern and we would never doubt the decision of our experienced skipper. So - sad to say - but we had to finish the CQWW SSB –Contest already by Sunday morning. We took down all the 4 squares, vertical, and Vertical-Array-Dipoles (VDAs) which served us as trusty companions throughout our DX-pedition and made these many contacts possible. To tear down the whole stuff turned out to be much easier than erecting it. We began very early in the morning - just on sunrise - to get most o the job done before the tropical sun would burn out our brains. It was a perfect manoeuvre, everyone knew what to do. We packed all material in boxes, pelicases and Skipper Marcus took all the stuff safely back to the MV Floreat. We did not miss a single item and nothing got wet at all. So we luckily managed to finish the complete work already by early afternoon. Once we were all back on the ship, the MV Floreat hoisted the anchors and headed east back to Cairns. We waved a last Good Bye to the island each of us with his own personal memories, leaving thousands of boobies, frigatebirds, hermitcrabs and green turtles in their ancestral environment. After Norfolk Island in 2007 as VK9DNX we are very happy having performed a new adventure with VK9DWX now in 2008. We enjoyed it very much and hope that we could meet at least part of your expectations. May be not every one could make it into our log. We are sorry for that and hope that there will be a next chance for you soon. We thank you very much for
[DX-NEWS] ARLD045 DX news
SB DX @ ARL $ARLD045 ARLD045 DX news ZCZC AE45 QST de W1AW DX Bulletin 45 ARLD045 From ARRL Headquarters Newington CT October 30, 2008 To all radio amateurs SB DX ARL ARLD045 ARLD045 DX news This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by NC1L, the OPDX Bulletin, DXNL, 425 DX News, The Daily DX, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all. MALTA, 9H. Anne, OH2YL will be QRV as 9H3YL from November 1 to 8. Activity will be on all HF bands using CW and SSB. QSL to home call. TONGA, A3. Ulli, DL2AH is QRV as A35AH from the Tongatapu Group, IOTA OC-049, until November 9. QSL to home call. OMAN, A4. Members of the Lufthansa Amateur Radio club and DARC club I09 are QRV as A43DLH until November 11 while guests of the Royal Omani Amateur Radio Society. Activity is on all HF bands using CW, SSB and various digital modes. They plan on using EME as well. They will also be QRV as A43DLH/p from an Omani Scout Camp. QSL via DK7PE. IRAN, EP. Sadegh, EP3HF has been active on 15 meters using SSB around 0900z. QSL direct. ANTARCTICA. Nicolas, F4EGX will be QRV as FT5YI from the French base Dumont d'Urville on Petrel Island, IOTA AN-017, from November to mid December. Activity is on the HF bands using SSB in his spare time. QSL to home call. GUERNSEY, Martin, G3ZAY and Michael, G7VJR are QRV as GU3ZAY and GU7VJR, respectively, until November 2. Activity is mainly on the HF bands using CW and SSB. They may also be active from Lighthouse WLOTA LH-0013. QSL both calls via G7VJR. ITALY, I. Special event station IY1EY will be QRV from November 1 to 9 to commemorate the radio experiments Guglielmo Marconi made on his yacht Elettra from 1919 to 1936. Activity is on all HF bands using CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK31. QSL via IK1QBT. BELGIUM, ON. Special event station ON55INR is QRV until December 31 to mark the start of TV broadcasting from Brussels from the Institut National Belge de Radiodiffusion. QSL via bureau. ARUBA, P4. Garry, K9WZB and Sharon, K7WZB are QRV as P40ZB until November 6. They may also be active from Lighthouse WLOTA LH-0033. QSL direct via K9WZB. GUATEMALA, TG. Emmanuel, TG9AHM has been active using RTTY on 20 meters around 2000z. ANTARCTICA. Bob, VK2ABP will be QRV as VK0BP on Davis Base from November 1 to March 7. He will be active in his spare time. QSL via VK2CA. CHAGOS ISLANDS, VQ9. Rick, KI1G is QRV as VQ9RD from Diego Garcia Island, IOTA AF-006, until November 11. QSL direct to home call. LAKSHADWEEP ISLANDS, VU7. A group of operators are QRV as VU7NRO and VU7SJ until November 3. Activity is on 160 to 10 meters using CW, SSB and digital modes. QSL VU7NRO direct via VU2UWZ and VU7SJ via DL9GFB. INDONESIA, YB. Ron, AA5DX is QRV as YB9/AA5DX from Bali until November 10. Activity is on the HF bands using CW and SSB. QSL to home call. VANUATU, YJ. Mat, JA1JQY and Kuni, JA8VE are QRV as YJ0AQY and YJ0AVE, respectively, until November 6. Activity is on 160 to 10 meters using CW, SSB and possibly RTTY. QSL YJ0AQY via JA1JQY and YJ0AVE via JF1OCQ. LATVIA, YL. Latvian amateur radio operators will use the special prefix YL90 during the month of November in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Latvia. ALBANIA, ZA. Raul, XE1MO will be QRV as ZA1/XE1MO from November 1 to 9. Activity will be on 40 to 10 meters using SSB. QSL to home call. NIUE, ZK2. Dave, N1EMC is QRV as ZK2DF. He has been active on 40 meters using SSB, listening up, around 0930z. QSL to home call. OPERATION APPROVED FOR DXCC CREDIT. The following operation is approved for DXCC credit: Iraq, YI9PT, 2008 operation. THIS WEEKEND ON THE RADIO. The ARRL CW Sweepstakes Contest, North American Collegiate ARC CW Championship, NCCC Sprint, IPARC Contest, Ukrainian DX Contest, High Speed Club CW Contest and the DARC 10-Meter Digital Contest will certainly keep contesters busy this upcoming weekend. The ARS Spartan Sprint is scheduled for November 4. Please see November QST, page 86, and the ARRL and WA7BNM contest web sites for details. /EX --- To unsubscribe or subscribe to this list. Please send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message body put either unsubscribe dx-news or subscribe dx-news This is the DX-NEWS reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org ---
