NEWS UPDATE – E6AG website now up and running.
JUNE 25 — This will be a one man holiday style Dxpedition with family, and so operating will be at times limited. I will try and plan some days when I will definitely be active (working around solar storms etc if needed) and publicise them at little closer to the day. Other days will be family time, and completely dependent on what we are doing while exploring this island paradise.
Station
The plan is to take a 500W station with a vertical folded monopole for 40m – 6m, which with a tuner may prove partially effective on 80m as well. The principle activity will be on digital modes (so I can operate when the family is asleep) but there will be some SSB activity as well. The rigs will be an Elecraft K3+KPA500+KAT500. The antenna has been designed and built by Steve VK5SFA. Follow this link for details. The digital interface will be a Microham Keyer II (which I hope to figure out how to get it to do FSK with the K3 before I leave ).
Dates
The trip will see us arrive in Niue on September 12th (Niue time) and I expect the station to be active by end of day on the 13th (VK stations please remember Niue is on the other side of the date line, so this will be well into the 14th of September for VK/ZL). I am in particular planning on being active during the CQ WW RTTY contest on the weekend of the 23rd/24th of September. Last day will be Monday 25th of September (as we fly home on Tuesday 26th via New Zealand).
QSL Details & Website
I will be arranging QSLing via OQRS (service TBC) and provided the Internet feed is reliable enough I hope to post logs daily (I am told it operates a bit “when it feels like it” so not sure just how good or bad it will be). An expedition Website is under construction and should be available in a few weeks. Look out for www.e6ag.net
Callsign
I have been in touch with the Niue authorities and have reserved the callsign E6AG for the activation. Licensing paperwork is still in progress however so this isn’t 100% confirmed (although I don’t expect it to change at this stage).
Status
We have reservations but not confirmed bookings for the airline (should be locked down in the next 24hrs) and we still need to confirm the accommodation so things could all head sideways yet, I also need to contact the IOTA team and confirm what their requirements are to confirm the activation so it can count. Other than that, leave from work is booked for everyone so as far as we are concerned we are going!
Wish me luck, and hope to hear you all on the air from the South Pacific!
