The 'VK9DWX-Willis Island DX-pedition 2008' is history

We closed the log with more than 95.000 QSOs (that’s our first merger of all logs except the VK9DWX/mm qsos during the voyage).

A great adventure full of unforgettable moments and sweet memories lays behind us. We enjoyed a beautiful time of ham radio operation and are very happy of being able to serve so many hams around the world with a new one or at
least with new and additional bandpoints for the DXCC.

We enjoyed nice and trusty fellowship within our team. Our two rookies Josh, W4WJF, and Rhy, ZS6DXB turned out to be a real surprise for us: They not only slipped into the team very easily but they also shouldered the operating burden in amazingly good performance, they became a valuable support for the DXpedition.

After 10 days of operation we welcome the sailing boat “Rum Runner” which brought us new supplies (food and fuel) as well as the exchange of our rookies: Josh had to leave and Rhy was coming to replace him. Also our DXpedition visitor Gerd, DK2JW, came in as well as Dale, VK4DMC, our valuable, trusty and very important support in Australia.

They were very happy to have solid ground under their feet again, because the voyage was somewhat rough and not a real pleasure. We spent a nice evening with exiting talks and a few cool beers. They stayed over night with us on the island. Next morning it was time to say good bye, because the “Rum Runner” went back to Cairns.

Operation on this DXpedition was a real challenge to everyone: Fresh to strong winds every day, some days so powerful that the tents were threatened to be blown away or at least heavily damaged. High tide climbed the beaches often higher than expected and swept over the feed points of the arrays, (perfect ground conductivity at least !!)
disordering the radial system completely. Turtles are really heavy (some 75 kg!) and snagged the coax or other cable from time to time, but fortunately caused no major trouble with that.

Hundreds (or was it thousands ??) of different birds, screaming (and smelling !!) all day and night and whom you might have noticed as the background noise in our SSB-QSOs. Small crabs, flies and moths were perennial companions in our tents, but luckily did not bite at all.

Day after day the sun poured down and let the temperature soar to 35 to 40 degrees Celsius in the tents. Unfortunately we could not open tents due to the wind and the brightness of the sunlight: We simply would not have seen anything on
the laptop-screens anymore. Fans were only of little help and not a real relief. In spite of these unfavourable conditions, the equipment worked to our satisfaction. No major faults to mention. Only internet access was limited to several hours a day, which made it impossible to update the log in shorter periods.

Food was cooked on the MV Floreat daily and supplied to us day by day. A great hug to our chef Susy who did a marvellous job in feeding the team with delicious meals and perfect sandwiches as well as fresh fruit most of the days.

MV Floreat’s skipper Marcus Oke inspected the weather
forecast very thoroughly, took the development of wind and waves as well as the tide in consideration and came to the conclusion that Sunday would be the best choice for ferrying our material safely from the beach to the ship. Safety of all our members first and the material second was our biggest concern and we would never doubt the decision of our
experienced skipper.

So - sad to say - but we had to finish the CQWW SSB Contest already by Sunday morning.

We took down all the 4 squares, vertical, and Vertical-Array- Dipoles (VDAs) which served us as trusty companions throughout our DX-pedition and made these many contacts possible. To tear down the whole stuff turned out to be much easier than erecting it. We began very early in the morning - just on sunrise - to get most o the job done before the tropical sun would burn out our brains. It was a perfect manoeuvre, everyone knew what to do. We packed all material in boxes, pelicases and Skipper Marcus took all the stuff safely back to the MV Floreat. We did not miss a single item and nothing got wet at all. So we luckily managed to finish the complete work already by early afternoon.

Once we were all back on the ship, the MV Floreat hoisted the anchors and headed east back to Cairns. We waved a last Good Bye to the island each of us with his own personal memories, leaving thousands of boobies, frigatebirds, hermitcrabs and green turtles in their ancestral environment.

After Norfolk Island in 2007 as VK9DNX we are very happy having performed a new adventure with VK9DWX now in 2008. We enjoyed it very much and hope that we could meet at least part of your expectations. May be not every one could make it into our log. We are sorry for that and
hope that there will be a next chance for you soon.

We thank you very much for your cooperation and your understanding during times of heavy pile-ups and difficult traffic, especially on the low bands.

Thanks also to the many ham radio operators and other sponsors (like Ham Radio-clubs, -societies and -foundations) from all over the world who helped us with small and bigger financial contributions. Bringing this all together makes a DXpedition like ours not only feasible but also rather successful.

Good Bye Willis!
Thank you for this once in a lifetime adventure.

The VK9DWX Operation Team DJ5IW, DJ7EO, DJ9RR, DL1MGB, DL3DXX, DL5LYM, DL8OH, DL8WPX, SP5XVY, W4WJF, ZS6DXB

P.S.

When entering Cairns harbour after a smooth journey, Dale, VK4DMC already awaited us with his car and trailer and helped us to unload the MV Floreat. We sorted out everything which was to stay in Australia and which was to send back to Germany by cargo-spediton. In the evening we
iinvited the MV Floraet’s Crew (Marcus, Gordon and Susy) as well as Dale, VK4DMC for dinner. We dined in a fashionable steakhouse overlooking Cairns’ harbour in a stunning view and enjoyed a beautiful farewell dinner with those, who gave us so much support and help and made this DXpedition to come true.

Online-Log / QSO statistics

We are very sorry that in the last days of operation the online log was not available. Due to a crash of the database on our server we were not able to fix it from the island (not at a rate of 6 EUR/MByte... ). But now the online log is available again and also the QSO statistics.

Donations Update

We were very happy to see so many donations being sent from all over the world to support our DXpedition. Nearly most of them are online in our sponsor list. If anyone misses his donation please contact us via our contact form.

Online QSL Request System

Our Online QSL Request System (OQRS) is available now. Please support us, help to minimize our workload and use this OQRS. There you can choose between direct QSL card and bureau QSL card.

The advantages for you:
     * No need to send your QSL card (directly or via bureau)
     * Don't loose any money with direct post, just transfer your donation online
     * Get your QSL card earlier than through the old-fashioned way

The advantage for us:
     * Much less work!

We will not offer any spectacular QSL card! We will offer a fast QSL service! Remember VK9DNX? Exactly one month after we returned home from DXpedition we got our QSL cards from the printer. And only a few weeks
later the first direct QSL cards were on the way to their recipients. And exactly this QSL service we want to offer again.

So please help us and try to request your QSL card online and help to make a good service better. Thank you!

We would be delighted if DX editors would publish this information as widely as possible and DXers bring it to the attention of their clubs and fellow DXers.