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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2009
I'd like to take this time to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.
This is a season of giving, peace, understanding and goodwill among all. I hope that this Christmas will find you among friends and family with good food, good times, and good memories. And I hope too that Santa lines the bottom of your Christmas tree with all the Amateur Radio goodies that it can hold!
Wish you a very happy new year, many nice DX contacts, a lot of pleasure with our hobby and see You in 2009 again!
After a lapse of nearly five years, the call 3D2AG/p will be activated from the small isolated island of Rotuma (OC-060) in December 2007 by Antoine, also known as FO5RK.
The expedition is planned to start on December 15, and last until January 20 or so, depending on transportation schedules.
Antoine will leave for Rotuma from Suva, Fiji via an inter-island shipping vessel, which takes 48 hours to reach the isolated island some 500 km to the northwest.
There is no mains electricity supply or adequate supplies of fuel or any other commodities on the island, so all necessary items will need to be taken by boat. The equipment for this expedition will consist of the following:
Rig: ICOM IC-706MKII, 100 Watts (no linear)
Antenna: 20-10 m (including WARC bands): Spiderbeam 5-band (kindly donated by Con, DF4SA); 80-30 m: Inverted-V. This will be the first time that a Spiderbeam antenna activates this DXCC entity
Power supply: 120 a/h battery charged by three solar panels; supplemented if possible by generator-derived electricity (if adequate fuel and oil is available)
Modes / Bands: CW / SSB, 80-10 m6 m if openings.
Frequencies: usual DX frequencies +/- QRM; split if needed. We listen for QRP signals!
QSL Route: via 3D2AG / FO5RK in QRZ.com, Direct Only please with adequate Airmail SASE (1 valid [not antique or collector’s item!] IRC or 2 green stamps minimum first-class postage). Please put your country and ‘Airmail’ label on the envelope; self-adhesive types are preferred. Requests without adequate return envelopes will be delayed.
QSL cards: nice color panoramic cards for this expedition are being produced by UX5UO.
Operating schedule: This being a single-operator expedition, the station cannot be activated all the time, especially if on battery power. However, depending on propagation the best bands / times will be selected, with priority on combinations favouring the most QSOs in a wide area in the time available. For reasons of power conservation, there will be no 160m operation; digital modes (PSK / MFSK/ RTTY) will depend on the availability of power to run the portable computer. Please note that during DX operations QSOs will be limited to call / signal report exchanges; there will be time for ragchewing later when propagation changes. In pileups, please LISTEN carefully for split frequency and call area rosters, and do not call upon other stations. Discipline is the key for orderly and good QSOs which are 100% in the log. From past experience, the following bands / time slots are useful starting points from Rotuma:
USA: 1800-2000 UTC 20m longpath;
2200-0200 UTC 15m – 10m shortpath
0400-0600 UTC 20m shortpath
0600-1400 UTC 30m / 40m / 80m
EUROPE: 0400-0700 UTC 20m longpath
0600-1200 UTC 40m / 30m
0800-1200 UTC 15m shortpath
1800-2000 UTC 20m shortpath
JA / ASIA 2100-0300 UTC 10m / 15m shortpath
0500-0800 UTC 20m shortpath
0800-1200 UTC 15m shortpath
0600-1400 UTC 40m / 80 m
0800-1200 UTC 6m (if TEP)
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