As hinted earlier, plans have come together for our next expedition in 2019. This time I will have company, so that I can both ramp up the radio and have more of a holiday at the same time.

Joining me in the South Pacific this trip will be Oly VK5XDX (past expeditions include Norfolk Island) and Andrew VK5AKH (one of the contest team from the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group (AREG)).

We arrive in Tonga on Monday 23rd Sept 2019 and should be on air that evening. We will be departing Monday October 7th (on air up to 0800 on the 6th at the end of the Oceania DX SSB Contest). As well as being a general IOTA and DXCC activation we are targeting the hard to reach places (such as Europe) as well as participation in two contests – CQ WW RTTY and the Oceania DX Contest as part of our activities.  We are planning as a minimum 80-10m SSB, CW, FT8, RTTY with potentially other bands and modes to be announced later.

At this stage, the callsign still to be confirmed, but we will be applying for A35AG. That should be in place early in the new year. (The callsign granted in the end was A35JT).

Looking forward to working you all from Tonga in 2019!