03 February 2012 - The Wanderer Returns

On 3rd February 2012, 49 weeks after leaving Southampton the container was received back from its world tour. The contents were unpacked, loaned equipment returned to its owners and everything else was cleaned, repacked and restored ready for the next FSDXA DXpedition .

All of the equipment inside the container was in perfect condition and despite being away for 49 weeks, suffered no damage.

02 February 2012 - QSL cards received from printers

Your QSL card may be in the post.  As of 2 February, cards have been printed/mailed for 50k QSOs (approx 23% of all contacts) including all donors. But please be patient, we are expecting to send over 50,000 cards confirming 150,000 of the 213,000 T32C QSOs. Images of the QSL card can be seen by clicking on the card below.

10 December - Post DXpedition Press Release

It's six weeks since the DXpedition ended so it's time for an update with answers to some of the questions you have been asking.  Read Press Bulletin #10

2 November - QSL Update

The Online QSL Request Service (OQRS) is now operational - To apply for your QSLs please follow the advice given at 'QSL Routes'

If you have made a donation to the DXpedition then your QSL cards will be mailed to you but please follow the advice given at 'QSL Routes'

For Buro and direct QSLs please use the process described in 'QSL Routes'

30 October - QSL requests

The automated QSL process is not quite finalised - please check back here for the latest status before trying to request your QSL cards.

26 October - QSO totals

The team are now back in Honolulu.  Provisional T32C QSO statistics are;

• Total QSOs:           213,169
• Total Uniques           48,914
• CW QSOs              102,216
• SSB QSOs               88,416
• FM QSOs                   1,765
• RTTY QSOs              19,225
• PSK31 QSOs                  13
• PSK63 QSOs              1.506

• 1.8 MHz QSOs            4,988
• 3.5 MHz QSOs            9,679
• 7.0 MHz QSOs           17,572
• 10.1 MHz QSOs         16,398
• 14.0 MHz QSOs         36,154
• 18.0 MHz QSOs         30,402
• 21.0 MHz QSOs          35489
• 24.9 MHz QSOs         25,265
• 28.0 MHz QSOs         37.091
• 50.0 MHz QSOs             110

• Africa                 1,128  QSOs
• Asia                 35,081  QSOs
• Europe              59,692  QSOs
• North America   109,327 QSOs
• Oceania               4,214 QSOs
• South America    3,691  QSOs

24 October - 2040z

All stations with the exception of 17m and 12m are now QRT.  The remaining two stations will close at 2200z.  The total QSO count will be close to 213k - We'll provide some accurate statistics when the team arrives in Honolulu.

73, good DX, and thanks for your support,
The T32C team.

22 October - 200,000th QSO made by T32C

At approximately 2212z on 22nd October the T32C DXpedition made QSO number 200,000.  The team wishes to thank all of our sponsors and the amateur radio community for making this possible.

21 October 

The QSO count is currently at 188.75k with 49% CW, 41% SSB and 9% RTTY. As you might guess we are working hard to exceed 200k.

During the day (local time) we are running a 6m beacon on 50.102.MHz. If you hear the beacon please put a note on the cluster and we will break the beacon and try for QSOs. So far we have had 99 six metre QSOs, mainly with the West coast USA and Hawaii. The beacon has been heard in Japan and South America.  We have also completed a number of 6m EME QSOs.

With just a few days to go to the end of the DXpedition we are beginning to plan the station close down. There will be a phased shut down beginning at 1600z on Monday 24th October, with the last station closing by 0100z on Tuesday 25th. We will keep the 'high rate' stations running as long as possible.

If you look at the on line log and QSOs that were previously in there appear to be missing, don't despair, query the log a little later, they will be there.

15 October 

Many thanks for all of the feedback you are sending - every mail does get read, but there are far too many for individual responses.  Some themes are:

• We love the nice complements about the operation and are glad that you are enjoying it as much as we are.  It's very rewarding to provide a QSO to stations who didn't think they could make one.
• With 140k QSOs in log so far, you can imagine there are a few busted calls.  When you report a suspected bust, we keep the mail and will investigate after the DXpedition.  Unfortunately we are unable to check or correct QSOs whilst we are on the Island. If in doubt, please work us again.
• Many thanks to all of the people who make donations, they are very much appreciated.  Again, I don't have time to update the sponsors page whilst here, but will do so when I return to the UK in mid November.
• We receive a lot of requests to be on specific bands/modes at particular times.  If we honoured every request we would be on all bands using all modes 24 hours a day.  
• There are a lot of requests for us to publish a mode schedule.  This gets set each day at the team meeting and varies according to the maintenance requirements that day. We try to operate every mode on every band each day - please look on the cluster to find out where we are at any time.
• There have been a number of mails expressing the view that we are not taking RTTY seriously - NOT TRUE!  So far we have made 12063 RTTY QSOs - the world record for any DXpedition is 18132.  We expect to be close to that record by the time the DXpedition ends.
  
  

Last night we made our first attempt at EME contacts.  We did copy fragments of some of the bigger EME stations, and they did copy us. We will be QRV each day from our moonrise to moonrise plus 2.5 hours. Unfortunately we are suffering very serious QRM from a telemetry station and we may need to change QRG during the evening.  We will log into ON4KST moon chat whilst QRV so the latest information is available there.

14 October 

We have been asked to be more precise about our 80/160m scheduling at European sunrise.  Starting today (Friday 14 October), we will operate CW on 80m for two days at European sunrise, then we will operate 1 day on SSB. The pattern will be repeated, so CW days will be 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24 October. SSB days will be 16, 19, 22, 25 October.  On 160m we are always on CW from our sunset to Western European sunrise.

Read about the T32C entry in the Oceania DX Contest

10 October 0200 GMT 

The T32C team are pleased to announce that a few minutes ago the DXpedition made its 100,000th QSO.  We wish to thank the Amateur Radio community for making this possible by spending the time to make contact with us. This feat is especially rewarding to the team, who just two weeks prior to the start of the DXpedition learned that the container with all of the radios, antennas, generators, IT equipment and more was not going to arrive in time for the operation.  With the help of our sponsors and other radio amateurs we borrowed and hand carried sufficient equipment to have up to 9 stations operational at any time.

Read more in Press Bulletin 8.

6 October 0200 GMT 

Currently at 60k QSOs,  56% on CW, 40% on SSB and 4% RTTY.  We are making a effort to increase the RTTY percentage.

Of the 60k QSOs, 54% have been with NA, 24% AS, 17% EU, 3% SA & 2% OC.  We have worked EU on 160m on both the sun rise and sun set paths.

More details are available in Press Release 7

3 October 0300 GMT - Raw scores by band for the Ociania SSB contest are;

• 160m      167 QSOs
•   80m      515 QSOs
•   40m      991 QSOs
•   20m    1230 QSOs
•   15m    1796 QSOs
•   10m    1538 QSOs

2 October - 18:00 GMT 

The DXpedition has been operational for 36 hours now and there are 19,500 QSOs in the Log.  49% NA, 15% EU, 32% AS, 2% OC and 2% other.  The Log was uploaded to Club Log at 0700 GMT on the 2nd October.

1 October  -  10:00 GMT 

The DXpedition is now QRV on 9 bands, 160m to 10m. At 12:00 GMT the stations on the non WARC bands will switch to SSB and compete for 24 hours in the Oceania SSB contest.  The WARC stations will continue on CW.

30 September 2011

Antenna erection is complete, final work is under way on building the stations, IT infrastructure and interoperability testing.  The plan is to be QRV by 10:00 GMT on 1st October.

29 September 2011

The team of operators for the initial two weeks are now on the Island and started erecting antennas and building stations this morning. Operations should start in the late evening of 30 September local time. Initially the antennas will be, vertical dipole arrays for 10m, 12m, 15m, 17m and 20m. Ground planes with elevated radials for 30m and 40m, plus a quarter wave ground plane with ground radials for 80m and a 18m tall T antenna with ground radials for 160m.  There will NE & NW beverages for 160m & 80m plus a K9AY for 160m. All antennas are within a few meters of the ocean on beach running East/West. Other antennas will be added as we gain experience in propagation patterns from T32. Read the details in Press Bulletin 5

26 September 2011

Yes - T32C has already been on the air and spotted on 10m and 20m.  This is not the full operation, but limited activity by Neville (G3NUG), Gordon (G3USR) and Franz (DK1II) who are the advanced team to the Island.  The rest of the initial team have now all safely arrived in KH6 and will spend today (26th) collecting the final items before flying on the 27th to T32.

22 September 2011 

Despite last weeks disappointing news concerning the shipping container, planning and implementation of the DXpedition is proceeding at great pace.

The team want to thank the amateur radio community world-wide for the generous offers of equipment and support 

An advanced party is now on Kiritimati sourcing locally available resources and team members have started to arrive in KH6 where they are sorting and repacking equipment arriving from around the world.

Yaesu have kindly loaned a further 10 transceivers, we have six linears and enough poles, wire and coax for an impressive array of antennas. This DXpedition will still make a 'big presence' on the bands.

14 September 2011 - Shipping container delivery update

The T32C DXpedition has suffered logistical problems in that the container with 6 tonnes of kit got as far as T30 (Tarawa), but onward shipping to T32 has proved impossible, despite our best efforts and promises from those involved in 3D2, T30 and T32. The ship that was due to bring our container from Tarawa has broken down and is being towed to Fiji for repairs.

WHAT NOW

So what happens now? The answer is that we will go ahead anyway. The team is complete and set to go, the hotel is expecting us, and the sunspots seem to be on the increase.

Thanks to Yaesu, our Global Sponsor, we will have ten FT-450D radios, which we will hand carry to T32, along with several lightweight linears. Yaesu’s support has been absolutely outstanding. We will also take enough hardware to set up verticals and vertical arrays for all bands 160 through 10. It may even be possible to run multiple stations on some bands, though not to the extent that we had previously planned. All our computer equipment was to be hand-carried in any case, so daily log updates to ClubLog will be unaffected. Unfortunately, unless our container makes an unlikely late arrival on the island, 6m EME will have to be abandoned, and we will not have the 4-square arrays for 30m and 40m. But we will do our best to set up phased systems or other antenna configurations to achieve gain, especially towards Europe where we will continue to focus our efforts.

TIMINGS

The expedition dates are unaffected, but we cannot realistically expect to have stations running on nine bands by the first weekend, though we will aim to be on some bands at least. As we will not have everything pre-kitted, there will be a lot of building and configuration work to do once we arrive. The good news is that we are there for nearly four weeks and will be operating through four weekends, so there should be plenty of opportunity to get into our log.

WEBSITE

As always, but especially in these new circumstances, the trick is to keep a close eye on our website. We will use the site to keep you updated on the latest happenings, and will be announcing in a few days how to use the site to get feedback to the team on the Island and check in Club Log that your QSOs are in our log.

Press Release #4

03 September 2011 - T32 most wanted survey updated.

Read the latest update to the T32 most wanted survey. It's not too late for you to influence the bands and modes where the DXpedition focuses activity - fill in the survey.

25 August 2011 - Yaesu FT-950 raffle winner announced.

The raffle draw took place on 25th August 2011 for a Yaesu FT-950 transceiver donated by our Global and Major Sponsors to raise funds for the T32C DXpedition. The lucky winner was Gary G0FWX.  The event raised significant funds towards the costs of the DXpedition. 

23 August 2011 - Presentation on T32 to UK propagation available.

Steve Nichols, G0KYA, a member of RSGB Propagation Studies Committee has produced a presentation on propagation between T32 and the UK during the period of the DXpedition.  It shows the predicted best times for contacts and also looks closely at the possible long path openings on 12m/10m.  Although focused on propagation to the UK, the tools and techniques used are applicable to propagation anywhere in the world.

2 August 2011 - Press Bulletin #3 released.

With just 8 weeks to go before T32C bursts onto the airwaves read the latest DXpedition status in Press Bulletin #3.

23 July 2011 - T32C DXpedition awarded ARRL Colvin Award.

The T32C DXpedition has been awarded the prestigious Colvin Award by the ARRL. This award is funded by an endowment established by Lloyd D. Colvin, W6KG (SK) and consistent with Mr. Colvin’s wishes and with the policies of the ARRL Board is conferred in the form of grants to support Amateur Radio projects that promote international goodwill in the field of DX.  Previously the FSDXA team has received Colvin Awards for the 3B7C and 3B9C DXpeditions.

15 July 2011 - Team training & planning day.

Approximately half of the team were able to attend a training day at Neville's (G3NUG) QTH.  As well as the formal presentations there were the informal discussions such as Clive (GM3POI) using his new antenna modelling kit to demonstrate some of the aspects of 4-square design.  The modelling kit is available at all good Little Chef restaurants!

We also learned that the final leg for the equipment container, between Suva (Fiji) and Kiritimati is scheduled to depart on August 16th on MV Komaiwai II.


Click to enlarge image

06 July 2011 - 1957 Operation from Kiritimati

Read a 1957 Short Wave Magazine article about operations from Christmas Island

10 May 2011 - Yaesu features T32C DXpedition in FT DX 5000 Advertising Campaign

Yaesu's new advertising campaign for the FT DX 5000 transceiver is featuring the T32C DXpedition, which will be using 16 of these transceivers each with a VL-1000 solid-state 1kW amplifier. 

9 May 2011 - EME operating details announced

Operating details for T32C EME activity have been announced.. Operation will be on 6m using a 7 element long boom Yagi with both azimuth and elevation control.  Further details can be found by selecting by selecting the 'Frequencies & Modes' and then 'EME Operation' menu items.

25 April 2011 - Equipment container reaches Suva

The container holding all of the T32C equipmet reached Suva, Fiji today.  It was offloaded from the Pacific Freedom cargo vessel and now awaits scheduled transport to Kiritimati in mid July.

17 April 2011 - FSDXA to be at West London Radio & Electronics Show

The T32C will be represented by Tony G4LDL at the West London Radio & Electronics Show on Sunday 17th April.  Please call by the Martin Lynch & Sons stand at the show and have a chat about T32C and FSDXA. Thanks to Martin for hosting us and more details about the show can be found at Radio Fairs

15 March 2011 - Where is the container?

Since reaching Port Said at the Northern end of the Suez Canal, positional information for the Vienna Express has been scarce - presumably to reduce information to the Somali pirates who hunt in the Arabian Sea.  However we now know that the Vienna Express docked at Jeddah on 9th March and departed the following day. The next scheduled port is Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates on 16th March. Container progress can be followed on the tracking page

24 February 2011 - T32C DXpedition equipment starts its long journey to Kiritimati

Seven members of the T32C team spent the day loading the DXpedition equipment into an 8ft by 8ft X 20ft container and said farewell to it as it started its voyage (long path) to Christmas Island.  Progress of the container on its journey can be followed on the tracking page, photographs of the loading can be viewed in the photo gallery and there is a 4 minute video clip of the loading/shipping.

17 February 2011 - T32C DXpedition featured in RSGB's RadCom

Page 79 of the March 2011 RadCom features the T32C DXpedition

3 February 2011 - Press Bulletin #2 released
Read Press Bulletin #2

26 January 2011 - Sponsored young operator named

Michael Zurch, DG1CMZ from Thuringia Germany was today named as the T32C sponsored young operator. Michael is an experienced contest and DXpedition operator and is currently working towards a PhD at the University of Jena. Read more about Michael here.

9 October 2010 - DXpedition announced

At the 2010 RSGB Convention Neville Cheadle, G3NUG announced the FSDXA 2011 DXpedition to Kiritimati. Read the associated  Read Press Bulletin #1