Ocean Washes Away Almost All Expeditioners’ Equipment

/
Ocean Washes Away Almost All Expeditioners’ Equipment

An enthusiastic team of operators felt swept away by the challenge of their recent Islands on the Air Expedition to the Pajaros [PAH hah rose] rocks off the Chilean coast. Then something else was swept away -- almost all of their equipment - by a steadily rising sea. 

A Honda generator. An IC 7000. Seven bandpass filters. Two multiband antennas. A 500-watt amplifier. This equipment -- and more - is all gone now from the Pajaros rock where the team on IOTA Number SA-100 began operating on the 18th of August as 3G1P. Ocean swells of up to 3 miles metres - considered the worst seen in five years - forced Cezar, VE3LYC; Felipe, XQ7IR and Johan PA3EXX to be evacuated by the Chilean Coast Guard three days later. Wearing wetsuits, the hams swam to the rescuers' boats, eyeing the carefully packed-up equipment they had to leave behind on the rock. Already, they were making plans to return for its retrieval.

Read More

Young DXPeditioners Prep for Guyana

/

A quartet of four young friends - all in their 20s, all seasoned DXpeditioners - can at last fulfill the dream they have shared since before the pandemic shut that dream down: A trip to Guyana to activate as 8R7X.

Whoever believes there aren’t enough young amateurs in the hobby need only look at this group of active amateurs, which includes some already prominent and involved young hams: Philipp Springer, DK6SP, Jamie Williams MØSDV, Sven Lovric, DJ4MX and Tomi Varro HA8RT. Listen for them from the 14th to the 24th of February. They will be operating CW, SSB, FT8 and RTTY on the HF bands.

Co-leader Philipp has been a ham since the age of 10 (so half his life already!) and is active in the IARU 1 Youth Working Group and has served on the board of the Worldwide Radio Operators Foundation. He and Tomi HA8RT were on the youth team Y82D at the WRTC 2018 in Germany.

A DXPedition Before a DXPedition

/
A DXPedition Before a DXPedition

Two DXpeditions to coveted DX islands are going to be sharing team members - and equipment - just a year apart!

The coming year, 2024 is a big year of planning for the 2026 DXpedition to Peter 1 Island (pron: Peter One Island), which ranks eighth in ClubLog's most-wanted DXCC list. Like Bouvet Island, this remote volcanic island is one of three Norwegian territories in the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic Regions. The DXpedition of 19 operators is being led by Ken LA7GIA, Cezar VE3LYC, Dave WD5COV and Adrian KO8SCA and is planned for 14 days in February of 2026.

Dave and Ken are also part of another high-profile DXpedition taking place a year before Peter 1 Island: that is the 3YØK DXpedition in January 2025 to Bouvet Island, now the 11th most wanted on the ClubLog DXCC list. For an EU angle on the Bouvet trip, Emil DL8JJ, a friend of ICQ Podcast and recent activator of Rockall Island will be one of the three on-island 3Y0K operators (there will also be other operators controlling 4 remote stations on Bouvet from the warmth of their home shacks).

Read More