The QSL cards requested by OQRS were all printed (almost 2000 cards) and will be sent via the DARC bureau at the beginning of September.

The VK9DNX-Log is available on LOTW!

Report from our QSL-Manager Mario (DJ2MX): I would like to inform you about status of VK9DNX direct QSL’s. On last Friday the last big batch with VK9DNX cards has been sent out. The next step will be processing of all requests received via OQRS followed by answering the bureau cards.
Please notice that 3$US or 1 IRC are sufficient for return postage to destinations outside of Europe.
Once again the VK9DNX team wants to thank you very much for your support and donations. The planning of the next DXpedition just started.

Added some QSO statistics. Thanks to Bob, W4RQ, for the usage of LogStat. Also added a small list of our stations.

After a long flight back to Europe (and Indonesia) all team members arrived safely at home. No baggage got lost.
On our flight back we had some hours stay in Sydney. Bernd, VK2IA, picked us up at the airport and we did some sightseeing in downtown Sydney and had a lunch at the harbour with a great view to the opera. Thank you very much Bernd!
This week we will fix the design of the QSL card to order the cards as soon as possible.
The latest version of the online log is also available now.

VK9DNX is QRT! After 61.590 QSOs we had a power failure at 19.17z about 30 minutes after our sunrise. After an hour there was still no power so we decided to dismantle the stations. Later in the afternoon we had power again, but all stations were packed. Now we are waiting for our flight back home.
Thanks for calling us. 73s VK9DNX

Two days left to work us! With 57.000 QSOs in the log we are aiming the 60k goal. Despite the worse propagation (A=20, K=4) we are in good hope because we are still running about 3.500 QSOs per day. The antennas for the Low Bands will be taken down after our sunrise on Saturday morning. High Band antennas follow at noon on the same day. We will depart from Norfolk Island on Sunday morning 07:00 local time (Saturday 19:30z).

New pictures added!
50.000 QSOs are in the log! We celebrated it with some drinks.

Markus, Joerg and Dieter were at Jim Smith to disassemble the Logperiodic and some tower segments for maintenance. A local truck-mounted crane was used to put down the whole stuff. In future the antenna will be mounted at a lower height to reach it easily with a cherry picker.

Today we hosted VK9NL and VK9NS, Kirsti and Jim Smith, living legends of Amateur Radio. We had a very nice time together, introduced to them our team and showed them antennas, equipment and strategy of our Dxpedition. Jim and Kirsti came over from their home on the southern part of Norfolk Island and stayed several hours with us. They are very nice, humorous and friendly personalities who dedicated more or less her whole life to Ham Radio. We spent a nice time under the wawing flags of Norfolk Island and the Bavarian Contest Club, swapping many memories and endless stories of ham radio, and as Jim and Kirsti both are skilled DX-peditioners themselves, we could exchange experiences of former DXpeditions. This was definitely one of the highligths of our DXpedition and we enjoyed it very much.
Activity on all bands is still very high and we crossed the 45.000 QSO-line today. We are dedicated to fullfill the ongoing demand for VK9DNX on all bands and have three stations operating simultanously. While the operators were very busy to cater the needs of all those who still demand Norfolk Island, the rest of the crew was swimming in the rolling surf of the Pacific Ocean or enjoyed sunbathing on untouched sandy beaches.....

Today we installed a 6-meter beacon transmitting on 50.133 in CW. The stations consists of an IC-736 and a vertical dipole. If you can hear this beacon please let us know via DX-Cluster, and an operator will jump in a.s.a.p.
Everything else is going fine and many QSOs are filling the log. We still see some potential on 40 and 80m SSB. Not many QSOs have been logged so far. This weekend also sees the CQ WW 160 meters SSB contest. We will only give out points in this one, trying to surprise some of the active contesters... We do also see a lot of stations completing 9-Band QSOs with us. Most of these stations are in Asia and North America. Not one single European station has made it in the 10 meters log yet, so today there are only 8-Banders from EU in the log...

Today we reviewed the antenna concept. It turned out that the HF6V vertical should be replaced some 50 meters for better decoupling. We also rearranged the 30m Dipole from vertical (sloper) to horizontal for the next night. Checking our material revealed that we are running out of coax and rope, and have to visit the hardware store tomorrow. Plans for tomorrow are to shoot a Dipole on top of a 30m high tree, which can be used for 20, 80, and 160m. Since the sharp cliff is only 100m away, the effective height of this antenna will be about 100m in the air, at least on the low bands. We want to compare this Dipole to the existing (regular) Verticals and are very curious about the result... :-) We also need this as a separate antenna for 20m, which would allow us to use the Spiderbeam and HF6V on neighbouring bands.

Today we gave the higher WARC bands some decent appearance. On 12m and 17m we worked plenty of JA's in both SSB and CW. Later on 17m CW there was a first opening to EU. We were on the band from 04:00z thru 11:00z running like hell. Strategy was to keep the rate up and work away as many of the loud stations as possible to give way for the weaker stations in the next days... :-) [And the EU signals were *VERY* WEAK!] If we didn't hear you yesterday, we will hear you today or tomorrow or the day after... :-) On another radio we gave out QSOs for the ARRL CW Contest on the classic bands. We have also installed Beverage antennas beaming to EU and US, and now have almost perfect reception on 160m and 80m. Fact is, that we can hear much better than you may think. We will be on 80m and 160m EVERY DAY until March 4. There are many chances for a contact!

Good news for the Low Banders. Today we got the permission to use an extra property of the neighbour to put up the 160m vertical far away from the other antennas. The antenna is up now and the SWR is fine. We are awaiting the sunset. We will transmit on 1826.5 kHz and always receive SPLIT!!! Please don't transmit on our TX frequency and keep this frequency clear. Thanks. See you down the log.

Norfolk Island welcomes the BCC-Crew with sunshine and warm temperatures. The genuine and typical Norfolk pines are swaying in gentle winds. Norfolk is a green and lovely Island with a stunning coastline, nice beaches and a landscape which reminds us of English parks. A perfect holiday situation for swimming and sunbathing.
But in spite of leisure the crew was busy erecting antennas and operating. During the first night we were QRV with a butternut on 40m and with a quarterwave vertical on 30m. Nice pile-ups on both bands but low signals made it hard to copy. By the end of today we had a quarterwave vertical for 80m and another one for 40m into operation. A 5-band spiderbeam (10m to 20m)and another 2-band spiderbeam for 12m and 17m completed the highbands. Sorry we did not manage to put up something on 160m so far, because we wanted to use a favourable spot on the adjacent property. Tomorrow, we will negotiate with the owner of his lot to get permission for our 160m-vertical.
So stay tuned, we will inform you tomorrow or -ever better- you will hear us tomorrow night already on 160m.

All members of the team have already arrived on Norfolk Island and are enjoying the first beers. First station is already QRV. Tomorrow the next antennas and stations will be errected. First pictures will be available the next two days. CU on the bands. 73s de VK9DNX.

Most of the team members (DJ7EO, DJ9RR, DL1MGB, DL3DXX, DL5LYM, DL8OH) departed from Munich airport today after meeting at DJ2MX. DL6FBL and DL8WPX are in VK already.

21.01.2007

13.01.2007

22.12.2006

19.12.2006