Bouvet Island update

Before last weekend there had been a report by Mehdi, F5PFP, indicating that he has talked to Petrus, ZS6GCM (3Y0E), via the Bouvet Island satellite phone and was told Petrus is currently unable to transmit due to a problem with his transceiver.

However, on December 30th, Petrus 3Y0E and Rhynhardt ZS6DXB had a conversation via satellite phone. Petrus was happy to confirm that the radio and antenna are working.

He made a couple of contacts on December 30th with some ZS and PY stations. Rhynhardt ZS6DXB and Petrus 3Y0E will be trying a new strategy to get 3Y0E into pileups. 3Y0E will, until further notice, be calling CQ between 1600-1730z on 14200 kHz only.

3Y0E will work simplex until Petrus gets more acquainted with the radio equipment. Please note that no pre-arranged skeds "contacts" can be arranged with 3Y0E. Petrus is still having some E-mail problems, and as soon as they are resolved, they will publish the 3Y0E logbook on the 3Y0E Web site.

There has been a number of false cluster reports over the last couple of days and they urge anybody that hears Petrus 3Y0E calling CQ to record him and forward the recording to: zs6dxb@kats.za.net

The official 3Y0E operation Web page address is: http://www.3y0e.com

Source: OPDX