Friends-
The comments by Bill W0ZV and Garry NI6T about the preparations for the
Heard Island DXpedition are most welcome, and as Expedition Leader (with
ON6TT) I share many of the opinions and concerns they expressed, especially
about complicated logistics. Let me explain a bit about the reasoning
behind our plans:
First, we have shipped far more antennas than we will need. We have no
intention of putting them all up. We have had considerable input about the
WX on Heard Island from people who have spent time there. The biggest
danger is a sudden, unpredicted gust of wind that knocks everything down.
Were this to happen, we could well lose all our antennas in a minute, and
be sitting there with nothing. Our defense against this was to have backup
antennas, roughly 2 backups for every band. If we are lucky, we won't ever
have to take them out of the crates. If we are not, everyone will be
grateful for the backups.
Second, the layouts you see on the web pages, under "planning," are working
documents. We have shared them with you because we really do want your
comments. They do not, however, reepresent either what we will finally do
on HI, or the collective wisdom of our team. These are transient documents
that we use to communicate with ourselves, and should be understood in that
context. Your suggestions for improvement are most welcome, since we're all
working trogether on this.
Third, the additional logistics to carry backups and additional living
facilities was an increment on top of the minimum for life support. The big
step is getting on the vessel and getting a helicopter to HI. The addition
of a few more crates is marginal effort. Perhaps we have shipped more than
we will need, but we are very sensitive to the necessity to maintain safety
and efficiency, in the face of unpredictable circumstances. When it is all
over, we (and you) will be able to point to what we did NOT need. From this
side, we have erred on the side of ensuring success. I suspect that few
people would be willing to risk the heat attendant to deciding ahead of
time what we do not need. Fewer generators? Fewer antennas? Less medical
supplies? Less food and water? Would you be willing to make specific
proposals for what we should leave behind?
Finally, you might ask: Is this effort worth it? I can offer the following
for your consideration: HI is currently the #1 most wanted DXCC country
that does not have political restrictions. But this project is about more
than filling logbooks with a needed band-mode. It's about extending our
capability, developing techniques, defining standards for safety, and so
on. It is far more than activating a rare place; it's about extending the
state of the art. Taking the four-square arrays is an example of this. They
might be a problem, but they might also be absolutely great, great, great.
If you don't groove on risk and reward, you probably won't find this
expedition interesting. If you do, we will probably find you in our
logbooks.
So if you are only interested in advancing along your track of DXCC totals
and nothing else, you will only care about HI if you do not already have it
confirmed. If, however, you are interested in the broader aspects of DXing,
radio science, and expeditioning, you may well find something in this
project to excite you. To the extent that Topband represents the most
difficult challenge in DXing, HI97 should be interesting and fun. We hope
there are many of you in both categories; we want to help you with your
DXCC quest, and we want to advance the state of the art.
Regardless, the team of 20 amateurs deserves your respect for their
willingness to put their money and time up front, in order to provide the
DXing community with an interesting and useful event. We don't mind your
criticism of the technique, and we trust you'll be positive and
constructive, as both Bill and Garry have been. They are both gentlemen,
and make this gentleman's sport a pleasure.
Bob KK6EK
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* T H E H E A R D I S L A N D D X P E D I T I O N *
* January-February, 1997 *
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* Please look at our web page http://www.ccnet.com/~cordell/HI *
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* Administration: *
* Cordell Expeditions (510) 934-3735 (voice and fax) *
* 4295 Walnut Blvd. cordell@ccnet.com *
* Walnut Creek, CA 94596 *
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* Contributions are most welcome and will be fully acknowledged: *
* Northern California DX Foundation *
* P.O. Box 608 *
* Menlo Park, CA 94026-0608 *
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