The VK9LA, Lord Howe Island DXpedition

An International DXpedition including 16 radio amateurs from Australia, the USA, Poland, Greece and Italy will activate Lord Howe Island March 23 – April 3, 2009.

The March departure date is fast approaching and all team members are enthusiastic to go.

Team leader Bill Horner, VK4FW will travel to Lord Howe Island on March 22 to immediately begin unpacking.
On March 23, 4 others will arrive and the rest arriving as originally planned on March 24.

They will assemble 7 full HF stations at two separate sites as well as one for 6 meters. Modes of operation will be SSB, CW and RTTY. The stations will be equipped with mono band yagis and mono band vertical antennas to allow them to possibly have 2 actual stations on the same band simultaneously. There are also a quantity of wire antennas for the low bands. A full list of operating frequencies will be designed to enhance their plans.

Team member Victoria, SV2KBS visited Sofia in January to buy another ACOM 1000 1kW 160 to 6 meters amplifier for the VK9LA DXpedition, thus they will have two of them. Victoria was interviewed on Radio Bulgaria's DX Program on January 9.

With the rising fuel prices and the international economy crashing around them, they have been able to secure a vessel to freight all of their equipment in. The team is still trying to get more support to cover this cost.

The QSLing chores will be handled by VK4FW. They will set up an online QSLing system that will permit you to apply online to help cut your postage costs. QSL cards will be printed very quickly by UX5UO.

For direct QSLs send yours along with a self-addressed envelope and 1 IRC or 1$ to:

Bill Horner, VK4FW, P.O. Box 612, Childers, QLD 4660, Australia.

Source: Radio Bulgaria