Update from Campbell Island DX

Ed Durrant, VK2JI has been keeping us up to date with the DX'Pedition to Campbell Island.

The groups arrival was delayed by a couple of days, as 11 metre swells causing the team to seek shelter off Stewart Island.

This delay meant the team arrived on Campbell Island on Saturday 1 December 2012, and set to work straight away setting up masts and antennas and where on air at 0500 UTC  using basic vertical antennas until the main masts and beams went up the next day.

Some good news that came on the second day was that the time the New Zealand Department of Conservation would allow the team to stay on Campbell Island was extended, as they could see that no large impact to the rare wildlife on the island would occur. Originally the rule was that the team could only be on the island from sunrise to sunset, which restricted the time that ZL9HR would be active for many areas of the world - now the teams will be allowed to operate a few hours after dark. However there will be no extension to the number of days the team will be allowed to operate.

The project members reported early success, with big pile-ups growing, Pilots are receiving floods of emails both asking for specific frequencies and modes as well as complimenting the team on their professional operation on air.

Logs are being uploaded daily via a satellite phone link but apart from this, communication to the team is very restricted as no cell phone coverage or Internet access is available from the Island.

The team completed operations on Sunday 9 December 2012, and arrived safely back on the New Zealand main land on Tuesday 11 December 2012, where the last of the contact logs where completed.

Current log status and to see  your contact has been recorded - http://www.ZL9HR.com