[VHFcontesting] Going to EL84....

[Marshall-K5QE]

The K5N Grid Activation Group and the Grid Bandits would like to make 
this First Announcement concerning our upcoming DXpedition to EL84.  We 
plan to activate EL84 on July 11th through July 15th.  Currently, EL84 
is one of the rarest grids in the FFMA constellation.  The group has 
applied for the call K4N for this trip, since EL84 is in the Fourth Call 
District.  We have chartered the Yankee Capts, a fishing boat out of Key 
West(see www.yankeecapts.com).  Captain Greg is planning to anchor just 
inside the east edge of the EL84 line, so we will only be about 15-20 
miles west of Key West.

We plan to have two stations on board....Station1 will be running 24 
hours a day for Es and WSJT and will consist of a Pro2 and one of the M2 
new 1200W 6M solid state amplifiers.  The antenna for Station1 is 
planned to be a 6M5XHP with a rotator.  Station2 will also be a Pro2 
with a Lunar-Link LA-62 amplifier.  I am hoping to have a 6M7JHV for the 
antenna here with Armstrong rotation.  We will only operate Station2 
when there is no Es and Station1 is operating WSJT.  One exception is 
this:  we will operate Station2 on EME when the moon is favorable on our 
setting moon.

Our current itinerary is to leave port at about 4PM on Thursday, July 
the 11th.  We will set up Station1 as soon as we can and be on the air 
as quickly as possible.  We will then work on Station2.   We plan to 
tear down in the late morning of Monday, July the 15th and make our way 
back to port.

We are hoping to have an Internet connection down there via some kind of 
cell phone connection.  We will ask Dan-N5TM to make a "private" chat 
page for our operation so that people wanting to pass information to us 
or to make schedules for meteor scatter will have a place to do so.  
Dan's private chat pages are much superior to the public chat pages for 
our purposes.  Of course, anyone can cross post from the K4N chat page 
to Ping Jockey or the ON4KST 50MHz Region 2 page if they wish.

Operating frequencies are not cast in concrete, but I am considering 
operating Station1 on 50.165MHz when operating SSB/CW for Es.  Then 
Station1 can use 50.265MHz for FSK441.  Station2 will operate FSK441 on 
50.270MHz and will use 50.195MHz for EME. We will only try EME when the 
moon is in a favorable position for us on our setting moon....at least 
that is the plan at this point.  Both stations will operate on First 
Sequence when we are doing FSK441 meteor scatter.  That will allow both 
stations to be on at the same time without interference.

We are working hard on this project and time is short.  So, wish us luck 
and try to be on station to work us when we get there.  As always, our 
QSL manager is Joey-W5TFW and JD-N0IRS is in charge of logos, videos, 
and web pages.  If you work us, please send your QSL to Joey-W5TFW, not 
to the traveling members, who will not have any blank cards to send 
out.  Also, remember the SASE, because if you don't send an SASE, then 
you won't get a return card.

73 de Team EL84
Pete-K9PW
Bill-N5YA
Bill-K5YG
George-NR5M
Jason-N5NU
Marshall-K5QE