Spratly Island DXpedition 2011 DXØDX
update 13 June 2010
Team Leader Chris Dimitrijevic VK3FY has just returned from The Philippines where he held high level discussions related to the DX0DX DXpedition being held in January 2011.
A series of meetings included one with the current Municipal Mayor of Paga-Asa (Thitu Island) where the DXpedition will be mounted. Later he met with the Mayor-Designate who will take office in September, and at that time current Mayor becomes the Vice-Mayor.
Other discussions were held with military authorities plus officials of the IARU member radio society, Philippines Amateur Radio Association (PARA) which is strongly in support of the DXpedition.
Chris VK3FY said, “Those face-to-face discussions enabled the amateur radio and humanitarian aims of the DXpedition to be fully explained and agreed, and also clarified the requirements of both local and federal authorities.
“The result has been universal support for the activity.
The next step is to complete the necessary immigration procedures for each non-Filipino national radio amateur that will be part of the DXpedition. Once that is completed a formal letter of approval is to be issued.
“The team is mindful that it not only has to meet the requirements of The Philippines authorities but also those of the DXCC Committee to have the DXpedition accredited.”
At the 2010 PARA Hamvention & 17th International Grand Eyeball June 4-6, Ed Valdez DU1EV, who will be on the DX0DX team, made a presentation on the two previous DXpedition to the island (DX0K 2005 and DX0JP 2007), and finished off by announcing the January 2011 DXpedition.
The announcement of such a major proposed activation, in terms of numbers of operators (30) and duration (3 weeks) resulted in a standing ovation being given to that news.
Ed DU1EV and Chris VK3FY spent a lot of time talking to some of the 300 delegates who were keenly interested to learn all they could about it.
The next few months will be extremely busy with further work on arranging supplies, logistics, customs clearances, and finalising sponsorship and funding support.
A multi-nation team of 30 radio amateurs will operate ten HF stations – CW (4), SSB (4) and RTTY (2), plus a VHF-UHF Station on 6m/2m /70cm & 23cm. That range of stations appears best suited in response to the known demands of the DX community.
Sponsorship support has so far come from ICOM America, Ham Radio Outlet, Spiderbeam, WX0B Array Solutions, Heil Sound and DX Engineering. Individual donations via PayPal are welcome.
“The team is highly motivated with each individual member preparing themselves for the trip to the Philippines and then on to island for this major DXpedition,” concluded Chris VK3FY.
For more details visit www.dx0dx.net/
Jim Linton VK3PC
DX0DX Public Affairs
|
