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 Previous: An Anniversary Worth Remembering |  Next: Lunar Round-Tripping on Ten Meters |
CAMPBELL ISLAND, Jan 15, 1999--The Kermadec DX Association's ZL9CI Campbell Island DXpedition has a good head start on the way to topping the QSO record set a couple of years ago by the Heard Island VK0IR DXpedition. During two weeks in January 1997, the VK0IR team set a new world's record by logging more than 80,000 contacts. After arriving on the island on January 5, the ZL9CI team hit the airwaves January 6 and put nearly 11,000 contacts in the log during its first 23 hours of operation. After seven days, the crew at ZL9CI racked up some 45,000 contacts to the delight of hams around the world.
The Braveheart, which transports the team off Campbell Island each evening. [Photos courtesy of the ZL9CI Web site] |
"What a blast!" said team member Lee Jennings, ZL2AL, in a press release January 8.
The ZL9CI DXpedition to Campbell--recipient of a Colvin Award grant via the ARRL--continues through January 24, with activity on all HF bands--CW, SSB, and RTTY. Plans to include SSTV had to be abandoned.
"Even though the solar flux is around 120, the team is astonished by the massive pileups," a January 9 team news release declared. "The CW members of the team are working over 200 per hour on a regular basis."
The DXpedition is keeping at least six stations on the air between the hours of 1600 and 1030 UTC (ie, off the air from approximately 1100 until 1600 UTC). New Zealand Department of Conservation restrictions prevent overnight stays on the island unless the team cannot leave by ship due to bad weather. That has happened at least once, providing a boost to the team's lowband efforts.
Operators at ZL9CI include well-known US CW contester and DXer Trey Garlough, N5KO (ex-WN4KKN). Others are Team Leader Ken Holdom, ZL2HU; Lee Jennings, ZL2AL; Brian Biggings, VE3XA; Declan Craig, EI6FR; Wilbert Knol, ZL2BSJ; Jun Tanaka, JH4RHF; Andrew Williamson, GI0NWG; Jason Christensen, ZL2URN; James Brooks, 9V1YC; and Murray Woodfield, ZL1CN. Four regional "pilot stations"--including two in the US--have been coordinating activities on the outside.
The ZL9CI operating site (before the team's arrival). |
In a news release January 8, Jennings said sea lions on the subantarctic island were terrorizing the team. "Thy lurk in the bushes and tussock and let out a roar that puts up the hairs on the back of your neck," he said. "We haven't decided which is worse--the sea lions or a pack of hungry amateurs looking for us on the low end of 20 meters." The sea lions have even chased team members, who now travel in pairs to avoid surprises. Jennings described the island as "cold, wet, windswept, wild and strikingly beautiful."
ZL9CI logs are available on the Internet, so stations can check to see if they are, indeed, "in the log." However, logs are not posted immediately. They are compressed, then sent via a PACTOR II link for access on the server, and they're typically available a couple of days later.
The ZL9CI team says that one of its objectives is to give "everyone, in every country, that elusive 'new one.'" The team notes that "100 W trap vertical stations" are being as successful as the big guns and adds, "We try to work everyone on an equal basis."
QSL to Kermadec DX Association, PO Box 56099, Tawa, New Zealand. See the ZL9CI Web site for QSLing details and for ZL9CI logs at http://www.qsl.net/zl9ci/.
| Previous: An Anniversary Worth Remembering | Next: Lunar Round-Tripping on Ten Meters |
