Team Mellish returns to the reef in 2002 for a 10-day operation with antennas for all HF bands (inc WARC) and a team of dedicated operators intending to reduce VK9M's position on all the "Most Wanted" lists.

The following is a brief on what we are doing, and the logic behind it.

Modes - generally more CW than Phone.  Less than 15% of QSOs last trip were CW, so we can appreciate there is still a high demand for CW.  There will also be RTTY operation. 

160, 80 & 40M - We will be providing a serious low-band effort, as we did not have any low-band ops last trip.  Research has indicated that very little EU has been worked from Mellish Reef on 160M, something we will try hard at.

WARC - We didn't work any WARC bands on the last trip.  WARC was worked on the 1993 VK9MM DXpedition but relatively few QSOs were made, so we would like to give everyone an opportunity to work us on WARC bands.

6M & 10M - to take advantage of the good solar conditions.  Our 6M crew leader is a keen and experienced 6M DXer with 6M DXCC, so this quirky band will receive  the attention it deserves.  His team will make use of their time operating on 10M when there is no 6M propagation, although 50.145MHz will be monitored continuously and the 6M rig may be in beacon mode.

Frequency Selection - We have taken into account license types that may not have full access to band allocations, for example; Novice licensees all over the World, and U.S. General class to name two.  That is why you will note dual CW spots on 80, 40 & 10M CW.  Many DXpeditions overlook this aspect - not us!  

Quality Contacts - to persevere under trying conditions to make that QSO.

We will not be operating on the following;

Satellites - a lot of effort & equipment for such a small interest group, and we have to make the maximum use of the transport capacity we have, (sorry!)