HEARD ISLAND ON THE AIR - RARE DX!


HEARD ISLAND ON THE AIR
The Fifth Most Wanted DXCC Entity

A team of 14 amateur radio operators, all of them scientists or engineers, have arrived on Heard Island and have been very busy setting up what is basically a small city's work of accommodation, radio gear and antennas. They have also been working on specific scientific tasks of a marine and geographic nature along the way to this far-flung part of Antarctica. And they are now ON THE AIR.

 This much anticipated trip will see the group operating on all bands and modes for nearly three weeks, using the callsign VK0EK. 

 Heard Island is an Australian protectorate, part of a subantarctic island group (Heard Island and McDonald Islands) in the southwest Indian Ocean, some 4000 kilometers (approximately 2480 miles) southwest of Western Australia and 1000 kilometers (approximately 620 miles) north of Antarctica. If you draw a line from the tip of India right down to Antarctica, you'd be pretty close to Heard Island!

 You can get lots of up-to-date information and news on the expedition at the fabulous VK0EK website. Already, there are some fascinating photos to view, too. Over the next few weeks, please check out the site at:  http://vk0ek.org

 This activation of Heard Island is quite rare. It's a very difficult place to get to, and the climate is not very forgiving. I encourage you to take advantage of this DXpedition to either work VK0EK or listen to the operation at some stage during the coming few weeks.

My Own Little Heard Island Experience!

I'm one of the lucky ones to have already verified Heard Island. My first contact with VK0HI on 21 mHz was made on January 28, 1983 - some 33 years ago! The operator at the time was Dave VK3DHF. Several contacts were later made over the next month for the purposes of relaying third party traffic to Dave, who is the brother of my cousin's husband. 

 In those days, I was running a very early Icom IC701 transceiver - one of the first all solid-state transceivers on the market (manufactured in 1977-78 perhaps?) and a three-element beam for 10, 15 and 20m. Power output was somewhere near 100w. Not an especially sophisticated setup, but enough to make this rare contact!

 Here's my QSL card from VK0HI for a QSO we made on February 9, 1983 on 14 mHz. Great fun in those days! (Click on the images for an enlarged view).



Wishing you good luck with catching the Heard Island signal!

 73, 

 Rob Wagner VK3BVW




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Comments

  1. PE4BAS, BasMarch 24, 2016 at 10:34 PM

    Great story and adding a extra dimension to the Heard Isl. DXpedition these days. Nice QSL card. 73, Bas

    ReplyDelete

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