Tim Beaumont, Author at M0URX

IOTA DXpeditions June 2011

28 May 2011

During the month of June the United Radio QSL Bureau will have teams QRV from Scotland and Wales IOTA groups. Here are the details. Please follow my QSL information page VERY carefully please!

Please also be aware that for several weeks now high wind and gales have affected the Wales and Scotland coastline and this could affect the IOTA operations below. Please check the website links for updated information.
For each of the IOTA’s below will be a seperate QSL card, without the correct postal costs your QSL may be sent Via Bureau so please read my QSL information.

MS0RSD Isle of Skye EU-008
First off is the Dudley & District Amateur Radio Society IOTA week on the Isle of Skye EU-008 and QRV as MS0RSD, Simon M0VKY, Brian G0JKY, Drew G7DMO and Graham 2E0VPT will be activating the isle of skye in June 2011, 4th june to 11th June for 6 days.
Simon reports “we will be QRV on the HF bands mainly SSB and PSK31. Bands will be 80, 40, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 mtrs. we are also planning 2mtr SSB on the tuesday evening in the UKAC contest” Completed with 2,700 Q’s

MC0SHL Ramsey Island EU-124
GW/IOTA EU-124 – The Strumblehead DX and Contest Group once again have the necessary permission to activate Ramsey Island (EU-124), off the West Wales coast, from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds who own the island. This year will be a little earlier and will not be in the IOTA contest.

The team will be active using the club call MC0SHL 9th – 13th June. All bands from 80M through to 10M SSB will be used and again some RTTY is planned by G1VDP and M0OXO if the other guys allow them using MC0SHL.

Once more the operation will be using generators as power, although there may be mains power if the project is complete by the RSPB. Again radios used will consist of 2 Elekraft K3’s and a Yaesu FT2000 with Acom 1000 amplifiers. Antennas will consist of 2 x G3TXQ Hexbeams by ANT MW0JZE, 40M Vertical and 80M Vertical.

The activation is for the IOTA award and WFF award schemes. The team will be on from the farm for a few days before and after using MC0SHL for the World Flora and Fauna award (see http://www.wff44.com for award details). We have a special QSL card printed for both the HQ at the farm and for Ramsey Island – QSL via M0URX – and will be uploading the logs to ARRL Logbook of the World when we get back on the mainland.

World Flora and Fauna Reference for Ramsey Island is GWFF-072 and for the Club house on the Pembrokeshire Coast (Farm) is GFF-015. Completed with 6,024 Q’s

MS0INT/P Monach Isles EU-111
Again led by MM0NDX Col, the 2011 IOTA team includes EA3NT Christian, EA3OR Ramon, EA5KA Raul, EI6DX Stan, F4BKV Vincent and IZ7ATN Simon.

June 16: Depart Grimsay for Monach Isles, EU-111. Spend approx 24 hours on Monachs. Callsign: MS0INT/P.

Monach Isles are a small group of five low-lying Scottish islands lying about 4miles (6km) to the west of North Uist. They lie wild and exposed to the full force of the North Atlantic and experience gale-force winds on around 160 days of the year. The highest point of the islands is only 19 metres above sea level. This beautiful and remote location is home to a very special nature spectacle – 9000 Atlantic grey seal pups are born here every year. In progress “On Air Live”.

MS0INT St Kilda EU-059
June 17-20: St Kilda Archipelago, EU-059 activity until latest 0800UTC on June 20th. Callsign: MS0INT.
Three HF stations CW/SSB + 50Mhz (50MHz Trophy Contest included)

St Kilda Is an isolated archipelago 64 kilometres (40 mi) west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom. St Kilda was awarded Dual World Heritage Status in 2005 making it one of only a few places in the world in recognition of its natural and cultural significance. Getting to St Kilda is not easy.

OJ0UR Market Reef August 2011

17 May 2011

The United Radio DX Team will be QRV from Market Reef from 13th – 20th August 2011.
Team Leader, Max ON5UR will be joined by PA5R Jelmer, PD9DX Dervin & ON8AK Mark.
The team met together for the first meeting last week, the team discussed their travel plans, Max explains,

“Extra kilograms are often a big problem on airplanes. So we decide that Dervin and Jelmer will transport our equipment via land. A trip through Belgium (ON), The Netherlands (PA), Germany (DL), Denmark (OZ), Sweden (SM) and Aland Islands (OH0).

Mark and Max will fly from Brussels Belgium (ON) to Helsinki Finland (OH). Later that day we fly from Helsinki Finland (OH) to Mariehamn – Aland Islands (OH0).

The day after (Saturday 13 August) a small private boat will take us and our equipment to Market Reef. We cross our fingers for good weather, so that the boat trip is possible and that we have a safe landing at Market Reef. If the weather permits, the boat will pick us up again Saturday 20 August.”

20.05.2011: Good news from Helsinki, Licence, Market Reef received. The postman made my day. We received our official licence from the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority. Our requested call sign OJ0UR is approved.
Special thanks to Saija Lehtonen, Technical Secretary, for the help with our application.
24.05.2011: LoTW certificate has now been received. The log will be uploaded to LoTW as soon as I receive the log from the team.

The website is now live, for more information go to OJ0UR
Image above: Market Reef in February by Pekka Väisänen.
QSL Via M0URX

GR1VDP QSL

17 May 2011

GR1VDP QSL card is now at the print shop and will be ready to post soon.
This is a special prefix issued by the UK licensing authority OFCOM to celebrate the wedding of Prince William Windsor, second in line to the throne in the UK monarchy, to his long time girlfriend Catherine Middleton on the 29th April 2011. The call sign was only on the air during the time period 29th April 2011 and 9th May 2011.

QSL designed by Max ON5UR
QSL Via M0URX

4W6A Timor-Leste DXpedition. Press Release 3

11 May 2011

4W6A TIMOR-LESTE (EAST TIMOR) DXPEDITION SEPTEMBER 16 – 26, 2011 www.4w6a.com

PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 3 – May 11, 2011

Everything is on schedule for the 4W6A DXpedition. All the team members have now booked and paid for their air tickets from the UK, Malaysia and Australia to Dili, East Timor. A boat has been chartered to take the team and their equipment from Dili to Atauro Island, the site of the DXpedition, and back again. The accommodation on the island has been booked and the team members are now also booking their overnight transit stops in Bali, Darwin and Dili.

The DXpedition will be operating from generators which will be hired and picked up in Dili the day before the start of the operation. The generators have been booked and arrangements have been put in place for sufficient fuel to be transported to the island for our use whenever necessary.

It is hoped to be able to use an Internet connection on the island and, if this proves to be reliable, logs will be uploaded to Club Log and Logbook of The World on a daily basis.

The team is very grateful to the LA DX Group, CDXC (Chiltern DX Club)- The UK DX Foundation, the Oceania Amateur Radio DX Group, and the Northern Ohio DX Association, who are the first four DX associations to have offered sponsorship to the 4W6A DXpedition. Thanks too go to Tony Burt, VK3TZ, of Rippletech Electronics , who is kindly loaning three monoband vertical antennas for use on the DXpedition. We are also very grateful to a growing number of individuals who have also made donations towards the cost of shipping equipment to East Timor, the boat charter, the hire of the generators and the cost of fuel. All sponsors are listed, with thanks, on the 4W6A website at http://www.4w6a.com/sponsors.html. If you or your DX club also wish to help, there is a “Donations” page on the 4W6A website. Payments may be made by credit or debit card and you do not need to have a PayPal account yourself in order to make a donation.

4W6A will be QRV from Atauro Island (IOTA OC-232), Timor-Leste (East Timor), from 16 to 26 September 2011. Activity will be on all bands 10 to 160 metres, using CW, SSB and RTTY. The QSL manager is M0URX, direct (SAE plus 1 IRC / $2), via the bureau, or LoTW. The entire log will be uploaded to LoTW as soon as possible after the end of the operation or, if possible, even during the DXpedition. QSLs may also be requested using the QSL request form on the website.

IOTA Directory NEW EDITION

5 May 2011

Edited by Roger Balister, G3KMA and Steve Telenius-Lowe, 9M6DXX

Order your copy now!

The newly updated IOTA Directory is the essential guide to participating in the Islands on the Air (IOTA) award programme. This edition contains all the recent rule changes and island updates of this dynamic and exciting programme

The IOTA Directory is the complete, official listing of IOTA islands but is much more than just a simple list. A colour section contains fascinating reports of several IOTA operations from “Ulituqisalik Island” in the Arctic, through to the romantically named “Flint Island” in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Contesters will find the report and results of the 2010 IOTA Contest and details of the contest in 2011. There is much more besides with details of the latest IOTA Honour roll, Golden List, etc. The IOTA Directory provides everything you need to participate in IOTA, from lists of islands, grouped by continent, and indexed by prefix through to application forms and masses of information and advice for island hunters, award applicants and DXpeditioners alike.

If the simple act of collecting QSL cards from around the world hasn’t appealed before. The multitude of islands and the fascinating IOTA programme laid out in this book will change your mind. The IOTA Directory is a must have if you are already involved or simply just interested.

VK8DX QSL

27 April 2011

The new QSL card for VK8DX, Oliver Bross, from the Northern Territory of Australia is now currently being designed. I am sorry for the delay in printing this QSL. Oliver has not long moved to NT, and Oliver is just settling into a new job, and managed to take some time out to do some photography recently for the new QSL card. I hope to have the QSL cards out in the post by mid May.
Oliver is one of the team members of the forthcoming 4W6A DXpedition to Atauro Island, East Timor in September 2011.

V85/9M6XRO QRV May

23 April 2011

John 9M6XRO will again be QRV from Brunei Darussalam from the 4th – 9th of May.
Listen for John on CW mainly, but may also be active on RTTY or SSB.
John says that V85 does not have allocation for 6m band as they still have low band TV.
QSL cards are available Via M0URX. Please follow the correct route on my Direct & Bureau Instructions page.
LoTW will be uploaded after the activity, when i receive the log from John.
OQRS is available for Direct & Bureau QSL with PayPal facility too.

Bureau Cards Posting

20 April 2011

I am starting to send out the Bureau QSL cards to the World Bureaus. The first dispatch will be posted on Thursday.

21/04/2011 Gross Weight       Total QSL
Germany       5.074 kg               1190
Japan            4.721 kg               1105
Russia          3.589 kg                 834
Italy              1,616 kg                 404
Ukraine         1.560 kg                 372
Finland           .924 kg              210
Spain            1.379 kg                328
France            .584 kg                132
Poland          1.190 kg                281
Sweden          .769 kg                178
Netherlands    .613 kg                140
Czech Rep     .827 kg                 206

A further 5 kg, 1,204 QSL cards posted to all other World Bureaus 23/04/2011

TOTAL 28 kg 6,584 QSL cards Cost £183.46 GB£

My compliments to the Hungarian QSL Bureau. Excellent service as always. On 05/05/2011 i received the following email just 12 days after i sent the Bureau cards.

I received T88ZM QSL card via bureau. Bureau card three months after the QSO is …hm…. very very fast!

Thank you for my new DXCC challenge point. Best regards, Alex, HA7UW

QSL’s In The Post

13 April 2011

I am pleased to report that 521 letters containing 1,665 QSL cards from the recent activities, 9M6XRO/8, 9M8Z/P, 9M8Z, KH0/G3ZEM, T88ZM, V85/9M8Z and V85/9M6XRO along with other QSL cards were posted today, 13th April. Some letters contained up to 11 different QSL card requests.

Bureau cards will be mailed out to World Bureaus in about 10 days time. I am still working through a box of 3,500 Bureau cards received recently. As soon as this is cleared all Bureau cards will be posted.

The UK government has slapped a 20% VAT charge on all letters to the European Union making QSL costs just that more expensive. This will not effect the $2 or 1 x IRC that i charge but will reduce the amount of money that I have available in which to sponsor DXpedition QSL cards in future.

No stamps are accepted as QSL postage, any received will be returned Via Bureau.

I would like to thank those who also contributed to the QSL printing costs, your kindness is very much appreciated by myself and the operators that I manage QSL cards for.

73 Tim M0URX

OQRS & Paypal

3 April 2011

Due to the complexities of QSL managing 70+ call signs and many of you wishing to request multiple QSL cards it has been difficult to incorporate this with Paypal. Online QSL Request Form is for Bureau AND Direct QSL request.

For Direct: Then go to the Paypal Transfers and pay for the total amount of QSL cards that you have requested. I have tried to make this as simple as possible.

No Stamps!
Unfortunately I am still getting British stamps for QSL postage. I DO NOT accept stamps! Your QSL cards will be returned Via Bureau! I DO NOT USE stamps to post my mail! These stamps are useless to me.

Author - Tim Beaumont