Clipperton Island DXPedition 2024

The Clipperton Island DXPedition TX5S, has reached the island tonight. As of 02:00 Zulu, there were 9 team members on the island, with the rest of the team landing on the island tomorrow, preparing to stage equipment. More details on TX5S web page

Clipperton Island is is an 8.9 km2 (3.4 sq mi) uninhabited French coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and the only French territory in the North Pacific.

I’d expect radio operations to start tomorrow Jan. 19th. The plan is to stay for 14 days. It’ll be fun to hunt these guys. I’m expecting pretty hefty pile-ups.

 

73 de K4TOR

Added power winch on tower

Finally got to replacing the POS manual winch for the Optibeam OB12-4 tower with a 110 V 2000 lbs hoist. What a relief. The tower went up to 75 feet in about 60 seconds. No effort at all. So why is the hoist offset on the platform? Because the cable needs to be in close to the center of the tower.

April 18 – World Amateur Radio Day

Today is World Amateur Radio Day. 

World Amateur Radio Day is approaching! — BridgeCom Systems

Every April 18, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day. It was on this day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in Paris.

Amateur Radio experimenters were the first to discover that the short wave spectrum — far from being a wasteland — could support worldwide propagation. In the rush to use these shorter wavelengths, Amateur Radio was “in grave danger of being pushed aside,” the IARU’s history has noted. Amateur Radio pioneers met in Paris in 1925 and created the IARU to support Amateur Radio worldwide.

Just two years later, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, Amateur Radio gained the allocations still recognized today — 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10 meters.  Since its founding, the IARU has worked tirelessly to defend and expand the frequency allocations for Amateur Radio. Thanks to the support of enlightened administrations in every part of the globe, radio amateurs are now able to experiment and communicate in frequency bands strategically located throughout the radio spectrum.  From the 25 countries that formed the IARU in 1925, the IARU has grown to include 160 member-societies in three regions. IARU Region 1 includes Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Asia. Region 2 covers the Americas, and Region 3 is comprised of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific island nations, and most of Asia. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has recognized the IARU as representing the interests of Amateur Radio.

 

2023 Bouvet Island – 3y0j DXpedition

2023 Bouvet Island  – 3Y0J Dxpedition. What a feat to even be able to land on this forsaken island to activate Bouvet Island in the Antarctic for us radio amateurs to be able to work the station they were able to set up.

Bouvet Island is an island and dependency of Norway, and declared an uninhabited protected nature reserve. It is a subantarctic volcanic island, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, making it the world’s most remote island.