20 October 2006
Tauranga, New Zealand
The Microlite Penguins Dxpedition to Raoul Island in the Kermadecs
went QRT at 2200 UTC on 17 October with over 40,000 QSO's in the
log. Operators were EI6FR, HB9ASZ, K9ZO, N0TT, N6MZ, VK6DXI, W7EW and
9V1YC. Total on-air operating time was just over 7 days (detailed QSO
statistics are below). Eight team members and only a week on-air made
this trip somewhat smaller and shorter than usual, but overall the
results were still within our goals, and the spirit of low-power
DXing.
Landing on Raoul Island involves a rather dangerous jump from a zodiac
onto a rock face, but thankfully the seas were cooperative and none of
the team slipped or was injured in the process. All equipment was
directly hoisted out of the zodiacs and onto a cable transport for
loading up on top of the island.
Transceivers consisted of six, brand new Icom IC-7000's kindly
sponsored by Icom America and antennas were all simple wire dipoles
strung up in the surrounding pine trees. With heights ranging from 120
to 150 feet, and situated on a cliff 300 feet above the beach, the
operating location was absolutely perfect.
Given the weak worldwide propagation at this point in the solar cycle
we still made every effort to work as many European stations as we
could. Our percentage numbers seem to reflect this effort - especially
on 10, 12 and 15 meters which turned out impressive QSO totals to all
parts of the globe.
Special thanks go to Icom America, the New Zealand Department of
Conservation, and of course the talented and dedicated crew of the R/V
Braveheart without whom this trip would not have been possible.
Almost all of the expenses for this trip were paid by the team members
themselves. But given the extraordinary expense it takes to charter a
ship to a remote island in the Pacific for two weeks we hope that each
and every DXer will help contribute to this endeavor, either by
donations with your QSL cards to our manager VE3XN, or by joining the
NCDXF - the Northern California DX Foundation.
Thanks for all the QSO's, and all the fun. See you on the bands from
the "next" one.
73
The Microlite Penguins DXpedition Team
ZL8R Final QSO statistics
North America 39%
South America 1%
Europe 26%
Asia 30%
Africa 1%
Oceania 3%
Band Total CW SSB RTTY BAND%
1.8 643 643 643 2%
3.5 3039 2488 551 3039 8%
7 6152 4702 1450 6152 15%
10 5161 4707 454 5161 13%
14 8793 4571 4222 8793 22%
18 5425 3531 1541 353 5425 13%
21 7889 3659 3659 571 7889 20%
24 2160 1148 1012 2160 5%
28 1168 604 564 1168 3%
Total 40430 26053 12999 1378 40430 100%
MODE% 64% 32% 3%
6M EME 5
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