ZL9CI - CAMPBELL ISLAND DXPEDITION JANUARY 1999

(Information Bulletin)

The Kermadec DX Association’s DXpedition to Campbell Island in January 1999, represents possibly the last chance for many years for a QSO with this DXCC< entity and IOTA island (OC-037).The New Zealand Department of Conservation is severely restricting access to the island and it is only with representation at the highest level of New Zealand government and continued hard work by team leader Ken Holdom ZL2HUthat permission to visit the island has been secured.

In addition, the remoteness of Campbell Island, located as it is in the sub-Antarctic ocean about six days sailing from New Zealand prevents easy operation from there. The licence for the team to operate from the island has been granted, a suitable vessel for the trip has been arranged (The "Braveheart", a 117’ ex - Japanese research vessel) so plans are in order to make this a very successful venture. An international team has been assembled ,a team which should ensure that DXer's in all parts of the globe are expertly catered for.

General

We will be using the IC system ("In Charge"). The Leader IC is Ken ZL2HU, the Logistics IC is Lee ZL2AL and The Antenna IC is Declan Craig EI6FR

I won’t go into the attributes, skills, professionalism and experience of the team members and our pilots, except to say, we are blessed with a superb team with a lot of 5BDXCC’s who have a helluva lot of hardware up in the air and are very skilled at getting the very best out whatever they are sitting in front of.

The operator mix of 4 Kiwis, 2 Yanks, 2 Irishmen, 1 Canuck, 1 Japanese op and one half Canuck, half Kiwi is a most interesting mix. The common denominator that runs through the selected team members is their awesome abilities and ham radio experience.

Further publicity releases on the Dxpedition will be from ZL2AL or EI6FR

The team lineup includes .....

ZL2HU - Ken Holdom ... led the very successful ZL8RI operation in 1996 and was a member of the Oct 1997 DXpedition team to Chatham Island and has previously operated from both Rarotonga (South Cooks) and Pukapuka (North Cooks) and will be back at both these ZK1 QTH's in the future.
ZL2TT - Ron Wills ... also a member of the ZL8RI team and has several Pacific DXpeditions under his belt,VK9RE, ZK2XF, ZK1ATT etc.
ZL2AL - Lee Jennings .. active DXer as ZL7AA on Chatham twice and also on Raoul Island ZL8RI
VE3XA - Brian Biggings ..well known Canadian Contester, DXer and antenna expert
K3VN - Al Hernandez ...Al's impressive record of DXpeditioning is well known and includes operations from South Georgia, South Shetland, the VP8SSI South Sandwich Island, the Kermadec's with the ZL8RI team and of course his participation in the VK0IR Heard Island DXpedition. His expertise is an invaluable asset to the ZL9CI team.
EI6FR - Declan Craig .. DXCC Honor Roll and well known in IOTA circles for several years. Is member of the IOTA DXpeditioning WestNet DX Group and has activated many IOTA island round the EI/G coast. Led the GI7J 1997 IOTA Contest winning team.
N6MZ - Michael Mraz ..like Al K3VN, Mike also boasts a proud DXpeditioning record.Has been active as as FT5XL from Kerguelen and was also a member of the VK0IR team. Recently Mike has been active as ZK1XXP and as N6MZ/KH9
JH4RHF - Jun Tanaka ..again Jun's impressive DXpeditioning pedigree speaks for itself. Over the years he's been active as JH4RHF/T32, /JD1 , KP1, FK , XF4L , 3D2CU , ZL9DX , and most recently from Pratas as BV9P
GI0NWG - Andrew Williamson .. Andrew has been an active CW contester for several years often guest operating from the top European contest station GI0KOW. Andrew is also a member of the WestNet Group and has been qrv from many IOTA islands. He was also a member of the British team for the WRTC.
ZL2URN - Jason Christensen ..it was a requirement that the team bring a Dept. of Conservation staff member to ensure the integrity of the Campbell environment. We are fortunate in having Jason aboard as the DOC's representative.
9V1YC - James Brooks James was part of the VK0IR team and made the video of that expedition. We are glad to have James on our team and we look forward to an excellent video of the ZL9 DXpedition being produced also.
ZL2DX - Chris Hannagan ..was QRV from Campbell in 1981/82/83 as ZL4OY/C and also on ZL8 in 1985 as ZL8OY and of course in 1996 as ZL8RI. (Chris is a non traveling Team member and technical advisor).

Timing of DXpedition

The team will depart New Zealand on Jan 1st, 1999 arriving Campbell on the January 6.

We will remain QRV until the 25th of January. Its hoped that this timing will allow all adequate time to QSO ZL9CI on the bands and modes they wish.

SSB,CW and RTTY will all be used and maximum use will be made of openings with the more difficult parts of the world. ZL9CI will be active on all bands 160M through 10M, the WARC bands and 6M. The modes will be SSB, CW, RTTY and some SSTV. An amazing antenna inventory has been assembled and it is possible that up to six stations may be active at any one time. Extensive propagation forecasting is being done and this together with information from strategically located pilot stations should be of great assistance. We will be taking six operational stations. At present, our time on Campbell is limited to the hours of daylight only (1600 UTC to 10.30 UTC ). We are limited to that ruling by the New Zealand Dept of Conservation (DoC).

 

Pilot Stations -

The following Pilot Stations have been appointed and email, packet addresses etc. will follow in a further bulletin.

West Coast USA - Ron Lago AC7DX
East Coast USA - Don Greenbaum N1DG
Europe - Rob Cummings GI0KOW
Japan - Joe Aoki JJ3PRT
Oceania - Bob Sutton ZL1RS
There will also be a Campbell Island reflector courtesy of VE7TCP which will be online about 60 days before the operation starts.

Budget -

The total budget for the ZL9CI DXpedition will be in the region of $85,000 of which the members of the team have contributed $33,000.

Some examples of the expenses are .....

Boat Charter - $70,000
Generator - $3000
Fuel - $1000
Fee for use of Met. buildings - $1250
Transport team/equip in NZ - $5000

And the list goes on and on .....

Donations received to date have been very encouraging indeed, however we >still require several thousand dollars to cover the ever increasing costs.

Contributions from DXers and DXing Clubs are definitely needed and can be sent to either ..

The Kermadec DX Association,
PO Box 56099,
Tawa,
Wellington,
New Zealand

or
The Kermadec DX Association (Europe)
167 St. James's Road,
Greenhills,
Dublin 12,
Ireland.

All donations will be receipted and in the event of the DXpedition not proceeding be returned. We would be delighted if DX editors would publish this information bulletin as widely as possible and DXers bring it to the attention of their clubs and fellow DXers.

73 on behalf of Kermadec DX Association and Campbell DXpedition team

Lee Jennings ZL2AL

 


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