Merry Christmas to everyone! Best Wishes and great DX for 2023!
With some big DXpeditions coming up i thought this very appropriate!
Category - Blog
VP5Y was operated by Tony VE3RZ an Doug VA3DF during the CQ WW CW Contest 2022. Located on Grand Turk Island NA-003.
OQRS open.
A team of five Western Washington DX Club members will activate Palau as T88WA Nov 3-14, 2022. 6m – 160m and CW, SSB, and FT8 modes.
The team will keep the Twitter updates going @T88WA
November 3, 2022 – First of all, a big thank you to DX Engineering for emergency donation and shipping to Palau of an MFJ Ultrasonic RFI device for tracking down RF noise at the Bai near Choll Village where we were going to make our QTH. It was intractable S9 noise across all bands coming from underground cable and telephone wires running all along the island under the power poles.
Our big news after being shown six other sites is that we found a killer site with an expansive view across the ocean to North America. We can’t report on every detail of the twists and turns of our
continuing attempts to get on the air, but an episode of Survivor was filmed here so we decided to call our adventure episode Ham Radio DXpedition Survivor. We reasonably expect sometime tomorrow we will get our first station on the air and continue building out the antenna field from there. We know the high bands have been hopping and we are also going to work hard to bring you the low bands, including 60m FT8. Our grid square will be PJ77hr and we will be operating at the entrance of the Badrulchau Stone Monoliths, a very unique archeological site akin to the monoliths on Easter Island.
We have much work today and tomorrow to transfer our 1500 lbs of gear and get our first station on the air.
We are working out new operating and basic survival logistics on our new “Field Day” style operation, sans air conditioning, running water or electricity. It’s all coming together. We will work you soon.
See our photos on Twitter. New photos coming soon… @T88WA
@T88WA Twitter:
@T88WA Twitter: This evening we arrived for our 23h layover in Guam. One leg of the #JourneyToPalau left tomorrow evening. We were informed that due to the storm, our equipment delivery is delayed to the morning of Nov 3 instead of Nov 2 as previously planned.
Since our last Bureau dispatch, shipping costs have now started to reduce as freight availability begins to return back to pre covid levels which is really great news.Also good news is the benefits of Brexit, we no longer have to pay 20% VAT, shipping cards from one part of the European Union to another, this has saved our QSL work around £1,000 a year since leaving the EU.
However, the World Customs Organisations new regulations means that Bureau QSL boxes are now considered as a “Commodity” and are therefore subject to a customs tax on arrival at the destination country, they are no longer Value “0”. Some Bureaus will not pay the tax and some cards will be destroyed or returned to sender. We are working with IARU Bureaus to try to ensure these cards arrive with the recipients.
I recently discussed this matter of customs tax on Bureau parcels with the President of IARU, Tim Ellam VE6SH while he was at the 2022 RSGB Convention, Tim informed me that he had discussed the matter with the UPU (Universal Postal Union) and there was no way that the IARU could intervene to help resolve the issues.
It is clear that while most of the Bureaus are providing a world class service in supporting their members in their QSL exchanges, some Societies are either no longer financially able to provide the service or are really struggling to meet those costs. Regardless of what many of you believe, the Bureau QSL service is NOT free, the road ahead is uncertain for the Bureau. I urge you if possible, to QSL direct so that you are not disappointed should your bureau QSLs not arrive.
I would like to thank Tim Ellam VE6SH for looking into these matters and thank you to all the volunteers doing an amazing job at the world IARU Bureau societies. THANK YOU!
Next Operation V47FWX October, SSB ONLY
Please note this is a holiday type operation. G0FWX, Gary will be operating at the QTH of John V47JA.
Gary visits St Kitts a couple of times a year, beautiful island with lots to do and i get to play radio whilst here.
Activity will be when time allows.
QSL Via M0URX OQRS.
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is “Why can’t i see my LoTW match?”
In most cases this is because you have not uploaded your Qs to LoTW from your log. OQRS sends to LoTW automatically or depending on the DXpedition QSL policy. So ALWAYS first check your LoTW account to be sure that YOU have uploaded your QSO to LoTW before contacting me.
I do not upload to LoTW. OQRS does it. So, if you have checked your LoTW account and you have uploaded, you can also check on OQRS by searching and requesting QSL, you will see the LoTW status from OQRS.
If you think there is an issue use “Not in Log?” button but only if you have checked your LoTW first!
Sorry that I am not able to upload logs to eQSL or QRZ.log, please do not ask.
Please always remember to use OQRS for your inquiries as emails may not be answered. Thank you
Next Operation 21st – 30th August 2022, SSB ONLY
Please note this is a holiday type operation. G0FWX, Gary will be operating at the QTH of John V47JA.
We visit St Kitts a couple of times a year, beautiful island with lots to do and i get to play radio whilst here.
Activity will be when time allows.
QSL Via M0URX OQRS.
Update from Andy G3AB / 5Z4VJ. Andy is no longer a member of RSGB and Bureau cards will NOT be received Via Bureau. Please ONLY make your Bureau request using