VK5GR Amateur Radio Adventures

 

Just received word from Niue that my license is waiting for me on arrival! Time to get excited perhaps?

One thing I am still to finalise is how to to get all of my equipment through customs without any of the ports along the way trying to charge import duty. Travelling internationally with large amounts of personal amateur radio gear is an interesting challenge, especially as I have to spend a couple of nights in New Zealand each way. I would love to hear from others who have done this before to see what experience they have had getting equipment through customs.

Drop me a note through my facebook page please if you can offer any insights!

Thanks to the team at www.voacap.com and in particular Jari OH6BG I am pleased to be able to offer personalized propagation charts showing when you should be able to work me and on what band.

Visit the Propagation page for more details.

With the announcement this week of the new FT8 digital mode for WSJT, I can see some significant advantages for DXPedition Digimode operation. The 1 minute  contact time is a significant improvement over JT65 and should allow even under poor conditions contacts to be made. So look out for E6AG on FT8 in September!

Details of FT8 can be found here: http://www.arrl.org/news/new-ft8-mode-included-in-wsjt-x-beta-release  

Welcome to my website where I will over the next couple of months post news and information about my forthcoming expedition to activate Niue, IOTA OC-040.

This will be a one man holiday style Dxpedition with family, and so operating will be at times limited. I will try and plan some days when I will definitely be active (working around solar storms etc if needed) and publicise them at little closer to the day. Other days will be family time, and completely dependent on what we are doing while exploring this island paradise.

Station

The plan is to take a 400W station with a vertical folded monopole for 40m – 6m, which with a tuner may prove partially effective on 80m as well. The principle activity will be on digital modes (so I can operate when the family is asleep) but there will be some SSB activity as well. The rigs will be an Elecraft K3+KPA500+KAT500. The antenna has been designed and built by Steve VK5SFA. Follow this link for details. The digital interface will be a Microham Keyer II (which I hope to figure out how to get it to do FSK with the K3 before I leave ).

Dates

The trip will see is arrive in Niue on September 12th (Niue time) and I expect the station to be active by end of day on the 13th (VK stations please remember Niue is on the other side of the date line, so this will be well into the 14th of September for VK/ZL). I am in particular planning on being active during the CQ WW RTTY contest on the weekend of the 23rd/24th of September. Last day will be Monday 25th of September (as we fly home on Tuesday 26th via New Zealand).

Callsign

I have been in touch with the Niue authorities and have reserved the callsign E6AG for the activation. Licensing paperwork is still in progress however so this isnt 100% confirmed (although I dont expect it to change at this stage).

Status

We now have confirmed bookings with the airline so we are definitely going and confirmed reservations with our accommodation as well. I also need to contact the IOTA team and confirm what their requirements are to confirm the activation so it can count.

So, wish me luck, and hope to hear you all on the air from the South Pacific!