Due to a clash of other commitments I've had to change the date of the DXpedition. Rather than postpone, I have brought it forward to March 10-14 and it's now only a few weeks away. So I'm getting excited already! This weekend I'll erect the antennas at home which I'll take to the island, namely Butternut HF9V vertical, 40m dipole with slingshot launcher and spider beam for 10/15/20.
I'll only be operating SSB, PSK31 and RTTY as I don't do CW. I'm also not licensed for the WARC bands so I'll be on 40, 20, 15 and 10m.
With PSK31 I'll be operating split to avoid the QRM nightmare, I did that on Fitzroy Island on 20m PSK31 to Europe and it worked really well and the QSO's were happening at one per minute rather than the usual 3-4 minutes per QSO.
At that time of the year there's a chance for long and short path 20m openings to Europe and the America's, so I'll be on the bands as much as possible, probably 18 hours per day with a focus on SSB but then going to digital modes if the QSO rate drops or I'm not being heard. 15m should also be alive and kicking to Asia and then Europe during the day and early evening. Hopefully 15m will offer something to the America's in my local mornings, I'll also constantly check 10m for openings. 40m PSK31 and RTTY has been great to North, Central and South America over the past few days on the dipole that I'll be using on the DXpedition, so I'll be sure to visit 40m in my local evenings for this part of the world.
I should have internet access at the radio and I'll be able to announce where I am and when I do band and mode changes. I'll also do daily updates on my blog during the DXpedition like I did to Fitzroy Island in October last year to let people know what the band openings are likely to be and where to find me.
Hope to see you on the bands de Craig VK4LDX
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