Author - Tim Beaumont

Over the weekend of January 28th several TX5N team members met in Northern California to consolidate, test and pack the TX5N equipment for shipment to Raivavae, Austral Islands. After reviewing several transportation alternatives, we located a firm in Tahiti that will accept our shipment and transport it to the island via cargo ship.

We have approximately 1,000 pounds (450kg) of equipment on the way to Tahiti. The equipment inventory includes Elecraft transceivers and amplifiers, a Flex PGXL amplifier, two SteppIR BigIR antennas w/80 meters, various mono band VDAs, an NA4RR hex beam and a 160m vertical.

All team members have their airline and hotel reservations to Papeete, Tahiti with onward passage to Raivavae. The operating location will be Pension Tama Raivavae, a small inn which has hosted many previous DX-peditions.

Each team member will have a small bungalow, and radio operations will be conducted from a dedicated building on the beach. Most antennas will be beach mounted. Being on the north side of the island we expect good working conditions.

There are several photographs of the Equipment Weekend activity at: TX5N
We are on schedule for this April, 2022 project. 73, Team TX5N

With the significant changes to International mailings now being enforced by world Customs areas, it has meant that this also effects QSL management and i believe that we are the only QSL management team in the world that has been working with our national mail provider, Royal Mail, to discuss mailing solutions and secure access to the right products to keep the direct and bureau QSL cards posted.
The products that we had been using for many years were getting more expensive and were not suitable in the current Covid and customs climate.

Royal Mail had made the decision that these products were going to be removed and replaced by a new stream of mailing products that had to be accessed only by an online mailing solution to give us the correct customs clearance for the Bureau dispatches, however we urgently still require IARU to discuss a unique commodity code to reflect the “0” value at customs of QSL cards. It is quite clear that we are a long way off from this if it happens at all, the result of this no action is that Bureau boxes are now attracting TAX and handling fees around the world which some IARU Bureaus are failing to understand and refusing to pay the TAX and i have to say that I predicted this as far back as 2017, which begs the question why has no action been taken to secure the future of QSL’ing?

For “Direct QSL cards” we are proud to announce that we have secured access to a new mailing product which secures a better package for our daily mailing of direct QSL cards around the world. Prices are considerably more competitive and means that there will be no price rises for your QSL requests going forward into 2022. This is great news for those that enjoy QSl’ing and excellent news for DXpeditions using our QSL services. We are very confident that our UK QSL managers are the only worldwide QSL providers that work with our national providers to give you the best QSL service out there today.

Kapp Linné – Isfjord Radio

Finally, our eye fell on Kapp Linné a place where also Isfjord Radio is located. From this location we have a nice open view towards the QO-100 satellite and no mountain tops to make life difficult for us.

During the month of April, it is still very cold winter weather, so Kapp Linné is not accessible by boat because the sea is completely frozen. The only way to get there is by snowmobile. Via the mainland, this is a trip that takes at least five hours in temperatures of -20° a -25° Celcius. If the weather is very bad, this can quickly increase to seven hours.

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Thank you for the excellent feedback on my last Blog entry regarding the Universal Postal Union UPU’s postal regulations called Electronic Pre Delivery Advice Data that was introduced in 2017. I have had some emails asking for a further explanation and understanding of the new postal regulations. 

The reason for the new regulation was to prevent terrorism by ensuring that every parcel sent internationally was linked “electronically” directly to a person both the sender and the recipient. Also so that every parcel can clear customs more quickly through the new S10 Bar Code system.
It is no longer enough to send a Bureau parcel by address only as done in the past.
The sender must now provide the following, full name, email address, telephone number of sender & recipient and UPU commodity code.

January 1st 2021 these regulations were enforced worldwide.
I informed IARU of the new customs laws back in 2017, however they felt that making the data public was against GDPR so did nothing. 

• It is important to remember that QSL cards as documents are exempt from these regulations. BUT…. Without following the regulations it is down to the customs officers in your country to enforce the regulations.
  
  The customs officers will do one of 4 things:
  1. Allow the parcel to its destination.
  2. Add a customs TAX + handling fee to the parcel and forward on.
  3. Return the parcel.
  4. Destroy the parcel.
  
  So doing nothing is not an option as it will lead to all of the above! We are currently relying on |Number 1, the customs officer allowing the Bureau parcel to be forwarded  on to the Society.

I have a problem putting a UPU commodity code 9705000090 on the parcel the nearest code is for Post Cards, but this could / will result in a TAX being put on the parcel. As this code does not distinguish between commercial product or hobby document.
Ideally we need IARU to pay for a UPU commodity code to show the parcel contains QSL Cards with no value and show as documents. So as you can see this is what the new worldwide customs regulations are about for shipping bureau parcels.

I have no control over your customs officers decision. Bureau card delivery is now at serious risk. The very survival of the Bureaus is in the hands of the IARU, who at this time and for the last four years have ignored this situation developing. 

Andy, 5Z4VJ continues his activity from Nairobi, Kenya. After a break for his summer holidays Andy is back and has installed his Hexbeam on top of the apartment building at 40m above round. 

Please note that Andy’s logs will be uploaded periodically to OQRS. Always check the “LAST QSO DATE & TIME” on the log search before requesting your QSL. 

Very important  – Andy has uploaded his  CQWW SSB entry to OQRS. Due to Andy’s work commitments Qs from before CQWW have not yet been uploaded. These Qs are not missing, busted or lost, please be patient. Please do not email me, just wait. Thank you.

PJ4BAR Bonaire Amateur Radio Club was recently active with the first activity and the QSL card has now been designed.
OQRS is open and logs will be uploaded to LoTW as they come in from club activities.