Latest update on preparations

Hi Everyone

All of the equipment that I can’t fit on the plane has been sent to Gove ready to meet me for the boat ride over to the Island. I’ve been in touch with my Gove contact and the people on Bremer Island and everything is going to plan thus far.

There is no reliable internet connection on Bremer Island and so I won’t be doing any log uploads. Apparently there are spots on the beach where I may get mobile phone coverage which means during daylight hours I may be able to do the occasional announcements or spots on DXSummit and then I’ll walk back to my operating position. So it’s best to assume that I’ll have no internet connection and I definitely won’t have access to internet in my shack so please don’t send requests to me on the DX cluster while I’m operating as you’ll be just wasting your time.

Operating frequencies will be (+/- QRM):

14260

18150

21260 *

24950

28460

* In the 2100-0300 UTC period I‘ll try and be anywhere between 21270 and 21300 and listening up 5 to take into consideration the US Generals.

I know as an IOTA chaser myself I only worry about working a DXpedition once just to get the IOTA number. I might work them on a second band in case I wasn’t 100% confident about my first QSO. I understand that with the IOTA DX Marathon that you need up to three bands logged per island. Considering that OC-185 was last activated in 2004 and before that in 1999, we can assume that this will be the only OC-185 DXpedition for the DX Marathon period.

So I’m expecting many people will be trying to log me on three different bands which mean those operators with low power and modest antennas screaming into a pile up to get their first QSO can get very frustrated and disheartened.  Please rest assured I’ll be on 10m, 12m, 15m, 17m and 20m as often as possible (up to 16 hours per day) as per the schedule in an earlier blog posting.

Just before I go to the island I’ll put a blog up saying my schedule for the first evening on Wednesday April 18 and I’ll confirm my operating schedule for the rest of the week to assist you in finding me.

Thanks, Craig vk8pdx@yahoo.com.au