Latest News and Press Releases

This is where you will find the latest news and press releases by the DXpedition group.


August 17, 1999 Initial DXpedition Announcement
October 10, 1999 Clipperton 2000 DXpedition Web Site Announced
January 9, 2000 Travel plans and other info
February 6, 2000 Final Operator List

Bulletin #9

March 8, 2000

The Clipperton team has made 69,400 QSOs as of 0000Z on March 8. They are going QRT at 1800Z on March 8. They plan to operate 30/40/80/160CW all tonight. The SSB schedule was not available at the time of this last schedule with the island (because it is a 1150 foot walk to the SSB tent!). The surf conditions have been acceptable with the boat crew mastering this Clipperton menace.  Lets all hope that the seas stay steady for their departure.

The pilots and webmaster of the Clipperton2000 Expedition would like to congratulate the team and would like to thank all of those DXers who took the time to send in their comments, either to a pilot or by jotting their comments in the Web Guestbook. All comments from both sources were read, summarized, and passed to the team nightly. The team appreciated all inputs....and the DX community appreciated their fantastic effort getting Clipperton back on the air.....Safe Journey Home!

Wolf OE1WHC will give attention (including a recorded ON-AIR "interview") to the Clipperton 2000 adventure in his program "Intermedia" on Radio Austria:
Friday, March 10: 1630Z (6.155, 13.730) and 1930Z (261, 1.476, 5.945, 6.155) to Europe
Saturday, March 11: 0430Z and 0830Z (6.155, 13.730) to Europe, 0830Z also to Far East (21.650) and Australia (21.765)
Sunday, March 12: 1130Z (6.155, 13.730) and 2130Z (5.945, 6.155) to Europe

Bulletin #8

March 7, 2000

The Clipperton team indicated that last night they have reached 60,386 QSOs.

They will be on 30 Meters (transmitting on 10105) for the next 12-14 hours starting around 0500Z - 0600Z.

Unfortunately they will begin to tear down stations tomorrow leaving two CW and two SSB stations on the air. Additionally, satellite QSOs were made today on AO-10. They indicated that their satellite and RTTY stations will be disassembled around 1500Z on March 7.

This may be the last bulletin regarding the team on Clipperton. We will provide status of the Shogun on its return trip to San Diego.

The support team for the Clipperton2000 Expedition congratulates the Clipperton team for an outstanding job.

Bulletin #7

March 5, 2000

As of tonight, 96 hours of operation has resulted in 50,135 Qs setting a new record for Clipperton and joining the ranks of the top 25 expeditions for QSOs. Another two days could result in 70,000 Qs or more.

When FO0AAA is on 40CW and 80 CW, the 80 CW transmit frequency will be moved to 3501 in order to avoid interference from harmonics. Additionally, the team will begin to listen up over 025 when on CW. Please listen carefully to the op's direction. Six meters has been poor with openings mainly south with an estimated QSO total of about 100.

The operation will continue to run at the same rate until 1500Z on March 8. At this time the team must break down the sites and be ready to leave the island by 0030 March 9.

Bulletin #6

March 5, 2000

The new 30M frequency will be 10110 due to heavy QRM reported in the Scandinavian and northern Europe areas.  72 hours of operation has yielded in excess of 39,316 QSOs. The data reveals that W/Ks are about 35% of the QSOs.which is quite similar to the 1992 operation. The propagation paths are now being watched.

From the Island by James 9V1YC

The guys are feeling good but are tired as a result of round the clock operation which requires each operator to do a full 9 hour shift each day.   Most operators are averaging 2-4 hours sleep per day.  Here is the station rundown:

CW: A3S, A3WS, 40m vertical, 30m vertical, Battle Creek special (40/80/160), 80 inverted-L.

SSB/RTTY: A3S, A3WS, HF9V, 6 ele 6m yagi, MA5B mini beam, 80m inverted-L

Full time (24 hour) op positions: 2 x SSB, 2 x CW, 1 x RTTY, 1 x 6m

Op schedule is based upon 8 x 3 hour shifts. Only the 2 SSB and 2 CW positions are assigned, as we have a full time dedicated RTTY and a part-time dedicated 6m op. Everyone does 3 shifts a day (9 hours total) with no more than 2 consecutive shifts at a time. Each shift is given a reccomended band to attack, and priority is given to Europe from 1500z -1800z and Japan from 0000z - 0300z on the high bands.

So far we have been evenly hitting all areas with no problem, and pileups have been extremely well behaved. Europe is loud, and easy to work, and everyone seems to be having an easy time (as evidenced by our logs which are overflowing with EU!!).

Those folks outside of NA, EU, or JA (e.g. ZS, YB, VK/ZL) should not have a problem, as everyone is under strict instructions not to exclude any of these areas - even when working a priority zone. We currently have a statistically healthy number of VK/ZL in the log - which indicates they are getting through. We also check periodically for these places during pileups - and even turn the antenna to be sure.

We are on the South West side about 400 yards south of 1992's campsite. Our SSB tent is situated about 1000 feet from the CW/Sleeping tents - and so far we have no interaction at all.

Bulletin #5

March 3, 2000

The FO0AAA team, slowed by very bad monsoon like rains were hampered from landing on the island as scheduled. They did get on shore, operating from the southwest side of the island near Clipperton Rock. Today (March 3, 2000) the team announced that they have made more than 14,000 QSOs in 24 hours. This may be a world record! They are active now on all the bands 160-6 meters. The team is now ready to activate the satellites but first must get the pass information from pilot stations as their computer assigned to the satellite station crashed and all data and prediction software was lost. Please watch here for future satellite information.

Bulletin #4

February 29, 2000

The team should be off Clipperton around 5AM Tuesday morning, February 29, 2000 (local time). They will then look for a landing spot on the island. The search for a landing spot could take a day just finding a reasonable approach to the island. Clipperton has very high surf which strikes a reef surrounding the island thus making the approach very difficult and dangerous. The team has indicated that they plan to come on with multiple stations to ease the pileups. If they can get the sight set up, look around 0000Z, March 1 on 10/15/20 meters. They have also indicated they will be active on the following satellites: AO-10, RS-13, UO-14, AO-27, SO-35.

Bulletin #3

February 26, 2000

The Clipperton team has passed the following information for distribution to the DX community. The stations that will be configured on Clipperton will be as follows 3 CW, 3 SSB and one full time RTTY station. The resources the team will bring to the island will support 7 full time, mode committed stations.

Bulletin #2

February 24, 2000

The callsign for the Clipperton2000 expedition will not be released until the team activates it on the island. This has been done to eliminate pirate stations ruining it for a lot of folks, not only for the op who thinks he/she logged it, but the additional work for the Clipperton2000 QSL manager. The team is presently signing N9NS/MM while aboard the Shogun.

Bulletin #1

February 23, 2000

As you all know, the Clipperton2000 expedition has been in preparation for the past year. The group left the San Diego area before midnight on Feb 22, 2000. Assuming the boat averages the same speed as was encountered on the 1992 Clipperton operation, it will be about 6 days of travel time to get to the island. It may take the good part of a day to find a safe landing spot and send the crew in to check out the landing site. Thereafter, one could expect about 10-15 hours to bring in equipment and setup the basic camp. As above, these assumptions are based on the conditions that were experienced during the 1992 Clipperton operation.

There will be 2 pilot stations for the Clipperton2000 operation. Alex (PA1AW) will be handling the European front and Jay (W2IJ) will handle the remaining parts of the globe.

The team will be using the standard DX frequencies. They are:

SSB: 50115, 28475, 24945, 21295, 18145, 14195, 7065, 3799
CW: 50115, 28025, 24895, 21025, 18075, 14025, 10106, 7005, 3505, 1828.5
RTTY: 28080, 21080, 14080

PILOT STATIONS

We are here to pass data to and from the team on the island and while they are at sea. We ask the DX community to forward their comments (pro and con) to the applicable pilot station. Please keep the message brief as we expect hundreds of comments early on in the operation. It will be our job to read all the traffic and summarize the data to be passed to the team nightly. The data passed will be used by the team to adjust, as required, the methodolgy used by the operators of the team. We will also be passing data to/from the families of the operators.

Data in the messages to the PILOTS may include: (1) Operator control of the pileups (2) Split operation procedures (too big a split, too small a split, etc) (3) time of day signals first/last heard and the paths (short, long) of these signals (4) all constructive comments

The pilot stations will also inform the DX community about the status on the island and possible (forced) changes in the operating procedures. The pilot stations will not answer any individual questions nor arrange schedules. The role of the pilot station is to assist the expedition, whenever possible, in being as successful as possible.

The Pilots email addresses are :

FOR W2IJ [email protected] (ALL BUT EUROPE)
FOR PA1AW [email protected] (EUROPE ONLY)

The Clipperton Website is http://www.qsl.net/clipperton2000/

73 and good hunting,

Jay W2IJ
Alex PA1AW


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Last updated on March 10, 2000