Mount Evelyn DX Report: BUSY DXPEDITIONS IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

A35JT Expedition to Tonga

BUSY DXPEDITIONS

IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Amateur radio operators and shortwave listeners have been enjoying a big uptick in DXpeditions across the southern Pacific Ocean in recent weeks and this activity looks set to continue across the next few weeks.

The activation of so many islands has created some wonderful opportunities for DXers to hear and work some new countries and remote islands on shortwave. Let's have a look at what's on offer:

Tonga - A35JT
As I write this post, A35JT is currently very busy making thousands of contacts on SSB, CW, RTTY and FT8 on all bands from 160 through to 6m, including some successful Moonbounce on 6m! The team blog reports:

It has been a busy 3 days here in Tonga and we now have over 3000 contacts in the log. The station build has taken longer than anticipated. However, we finally have the three stations operational since Wednesday night local time. We will be stepping up our efforts to target Europe and USA east coast from Thursday, particularly after the team gets some rest following the build.

A35JT Expedition to Tonga

So far we have seen success to Europe on 160m greyline FT8 and CW as well as to North America on their Sunrise. We are also seeing Europe at 1800z short path 20m and on 17m in the Tongan evening hours. We will look for North America on 15m during the day today as well. We have added an 80m inverted V as well in the coconut trees to see if we can get both 80 and 160m running concurrently. We will announce more openings we see over the next 24hrs.

Conditions were very good on Wednesday from 17m and below. We have yet to look at the higher bands but will start those today.

A35JT Expedition to Tonga

We have two remaining station bugs we will have to workaround. One is that the HF is knocking out the internet (we are on a DSL line here). So we are seeing frequent dropouts (particularly on 30m where the phone line and antennas are very close together). The other is that we had a power supply failure on one of the laptops, so we are having to hot-swap the power supply back and forth between station 2 and 3 when they are both running. If we vanish suddenly it could be we didn't swap it fast enough. 🙂

A35JT Expedition to Tonga

* * *

I have made two QSOs already on 40 and 30m and the signals have been strong....but, of course, I live in SE Australia so I guess that is to be expected! The station will continue operating until October 7. There is plenty more to read about this expedition to Tonga on their excellent website, so I encourage you to check out https://vk5gr-iota.net/category/2019-a35jt-oc-049-tonga/.

Tokelau Islands - ZK3A
The Tokelau Islands are not often heard on-air so this one should create plenty of interest. Although the expedition does not officially get underway until October 1 and finish on Oct 11, an advance party is already making CW contacts as I write this post (Sept 27). There is a big team of 19 operators on this trip, so expectations are high that many DXers should be able to make contact with Tokelau.

The team will also help ten (10) young locals in becoming Radio Amateurs and has arranged for a call sign (ZK3RT) to be granted to the Tokelau Club Station which will have equipment donated by ZK3A (a fabulous gesture!). Like Tonga, ZK3A is expected to be operating across all HF bands and including 6m on all the popular modes. This is certainly one to watch out for! Again, there is a very informative website to keep an eye on, which includes propagation information, QSL details and a real-time logging page so that you can see where their activity is throughout the expedition. Check them out at https://tokelau2019.com/

Western Kiribati - T30GC
Following on from another recent expedition to Kiribati, T30GC will be activated from Tarawa Atoll between October 7 to 23 by a small team of three operators across most shortwave bands. More information at http://c21gc.com/

Pitcairn Island - VP6R
Another big DXpedition will be on-air from October 18 to November 1 at Pitcairn, sporting an experienced team of very keen DXers. Using the call VP6R, their website reports that the equipment has already safely landed on the island in anticipation of this activation. With the sunspot cycle currently at its minimum, the team is focusing on the low frequencies, specifically targeting the 160, 80 and 40mb. They will also be active on the 2019 CQWW SSB Contest on October 26 and 27. Follow their progress at https://pitcairndx.com/

Recent Activations
The popularity of the Pacific Islands can also be seen in recent activations of Western Kiribati - T30L, Nauru - C21WW, South Cook Islands - E51SFS, North Cook Islands - E51WL (a local resident on the island), and Loh Island (Vanuatu) - YJ8RN. All of these were worked here at Mount Evelyn over the past six weeks or so. Indeed, I managed to contact T30L on 80, 40, 30 and 20m during their recent DXpedition.

Wishing you good luck in hearing and working with these stations in the coming weeks.

73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW