T30DX
OH Pacific 2006
Republicof Kiribati
31.12-25.01.2006
Veikko, OH1AWW
Veijo, OH6KN
Ari, OH6DX
Jouko, OH1RX
Merja, XYL to OH1RX
1. the OH PACIFIC 2006 DXPedition
1.1 Destination Kiribati
Country Data
OFFICIAL NAME: Republicof Kiribati
CAPITAL: Bairiki on Tarawa Atoll
SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT: Unitary Republic
AREA: 811 Sq Km (313 Sq Mi)
ESTIMATED 2000 POPULATION 78,800
Location and Geography
Kiribatiis located in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The country consists of 3 main island groups that extend over 3870 km (2,405 mi) from Banaba in the west to Kiritimati in the east and 2050 km (1,274 mi) from Teraina in the north to Flint in the south. Additionally, the three island groups cover an area of 3 million Sq Km (1.1 million Sq Mi) with the Gilbert Island group consisting of 17 islands or atolls located over the equator, with the Phoenix Island group in the east consisting of 8 islands or atolls while the Line Island group is located to the north and consists of 8 islands or atolls, and contains the largest coral atoll in the world, Christmas Island. All the islands are low-lying coral atolls below 4 metres (13 feet) above sea level, except for Banaba which rises to 87 metres (285 feet). There are no rivers on any of the islands, although most enclose a lagoon. Major Cities (pop. est.); urban Tarawa 25,200 (1990). Land Use; forested 3%, agricultural-cultivated 51%, other 46% (1993).
Climate
Kiribatihas a tropical maritime climate that is uniformly hot and humid, tempered by sea breezes. From March to October the islands experience the NW trade winds and from October to March westerly gales and heavy rains prevail. Average annual precipitation varies from 3,000 mm (118 in) in the northern Line Islands to 1,500 mm (59 in) in the central Gilbert Islands to 700 mm (28 in) in the southern Line Islands. Average daily temperatures range between 28 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) and 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit).
People
The principal ethnic majority are the I-Kiribati, who are overwhelmingly Micronesian. Other minorities include Europeans and Chinese.
Languages
The national language is I-Kiribati, a Micronesian dialect and the official languages is English..
Modern History – WW II TO 1990
The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were annexed as British Crown Colonies in Nov. 1915. During WWII they were occupied by the Japanese until they were expelled by the Allied Forces. On Oct. 1, 1975 the Ellice Islands separated from the Gilbert Islands to form a separate dependency called Tuvalu. On Jan. 1, 1977 self-government was introduced with full independence granted on July, 12, 1979 as the Republic of Kiribati with Ieremia Tabai as President. In 1983 the United States ratified a Treaty of Friendship with Kiribati. Also in 1983 and 1987 President Tabai was re-elected.
T30DX
The OH Pacific 2006 pedition scope is to activate Tarawa Island T30 (OC017) for the period of Jan 4 – Jan 22 2006 by the team of Finnish radio amateurs: Veikko Pekola OH1AWW, Ari Hyvönen OH6DX, Veijo Kontas OH6KN and Jouko Häyrynen OH1RX. T30 is 59th in the most wanted list at DX Magazine 2004 Survey. However, the activities on low bands have been infrequent, so the low band position is much higher, especially from Europe and US east coast. We will focus on special effort for Europe and East Coast US on 160-80-40-30 metres. However, all the HF bands will be served.
QTH:
Our confirmed QTH will be Mary´s Motel, in Bairiki, Tarawa. Ideally by the sea with reasonable space to erect the antennas.
T30DX call sign is preconfirmed by local administration. We would like to thank Mr. Mote Terukaio, T30MT for kind co-operation.
1.2 Schedule
The schdule of the trip will be:
Date
|
Activity
|
Comment
|
31.12.2005
|
Departure from Helsinki.
|
|
03.01.2006
|
Arrival at T30
|
|
04.01.2004
|
T30DX Operation begins
|
|
22.01.2004
|
Operation shut down
|
|
23.01.2004
|
Departure from T30
|
|
25.01.2004
|
Arrival at Helsinki
|
|
2. Operation
There are two main targets for the operation: operation on the low bands and operation to Europe. The operation will be on SSB, CW, and RTTY.
QSO targets: total 20k Qsos. 40% on the lowbands 1.8-10 MHz). 30 % to Europe.
2.1 Operating frequencies
The transmitting frequencies will be as following +- qrm. The rx frequency will be up 2-8 for CW and UP 5-10 for SSB. Upper limit may be increased, if the pile-up would so requires.
Band
|
CW
|
SSB
|
RTTY
|
1.8 MHz
|
1.822
|
1.845
|
|
3.5 MHz
|
3.503 /
|
3.790
|
|
7 MHz
|
7.008
|
7.050
|
|
10 MHz
|
10.108
|
------
|
|
14 MHz
|
14.008
|
14.190
|
14.080
|
18 MHz
|
18.068
|
18.145
|
|
21 MHz
|
21.008
|
21.295
|
21.080
|
24 MHz
|
24.898
|
24.945
|
|
28 MHz
|
28.008
|
28.495
|
28.070
|
For RTTY and other digital modes, you should find us on typical digital spot frequencies.
2.2 Pilot stations
There will be several pilot stations to collect input from summit, mails, etc. to forward it to the pedition team. List of pilot stations to informed later.
3. Equipment
The equipment will consist of the following three stations:
Station
|
Tranceiver
|
Linear amplifier
|
HF 1
|
ICOM IC756 Pro2
|
ACOM 1000 (1KW)
|
HF 2
|
Yaesu FT-847
|
FinnFet (500W)
|
HF 3
|
Yaesu FT-847
|
FinnFet (500W)
|
One station will be operational 24 hours a day and the sedond/third ones will be running during the high QSO times, propagation critical sunset/sunrise times and on RTTY.
The antennas on high bands will be multiband spiderbeam yagis and a vertical and on low bands vertical systems. The antenna locations will be close to the seashore (saltwater) to maximize the performance of the verticals. The antennas used will be as follows:
Band
|
Antenna
|
1.8 MHz
|
23 m high toploaded vertical with elevated radials
|
3.5 MHz
|
Two phased ¼lverticals with elevated radials.
|
7 / 10 MHz
|
Two phased dualband 1/4lverticals with elevated radials
|
14, 21, 28 MHz
|
3/4 element yagi
|
18, 24 MHz
|
3/4 element yagi
|
14 MHz – 28 MHz
|
Multiband vertical
|
4. Operators
OH6KN Veijo Kontas
Born 1959, licensed 1969. Active in the 70s in DX and contesting fronts. The 1980s and early 1990s was low activity time. Comeback in 1996 mainly focusing on chasing DX and band/mode points: today about 2200 band/mode points. The current contest station, Radio Arkala, can be seen on the web at www.radioarkala.com.. Currently Veijo is working at Nokia as a development manager of integrated circuits. Veijo is also the vice president at the Finnish DX foundation (OHDXF).
OH1AWW Veikko Pekola
Born 1946, licensed 1976. Veikko is the technical guru of the team. His main activities have been on the higher bands. He is the president of OH1AA, which is a very famous multi-multi contest station. Currently Veikko is working as laboratory foreman at the University of Åboakademi in Turku.
OH6DX / OH6LNI Ari Hyvönen
Born 1966, licenced 1991, main activities have been in HF contesting and chasing DX and band/mode points: currently about 2280 band/mode points. One of the founding members of the OH7AAC/OH7M contest team, which currently has an contest station at Leppävirta in eastern Finland. Currently Ari is working at Honeywell as software engineer in R&D.
OH1RX Jouko Häyrynen
Born 1957, licensed 1978, B.Sc. radio engineering and MBA. Jouko has carried several DX call signs like 9V1YB, 9M6JO, 9M8JH, VR2MJ, VU3NYN. He is also the founding member of the South China Sea DX Team that made the first succesful Dxpedition to Sptratly in 1991 as 9M0S. Other SCS DX Team expeditions recorded: A61AF, DU9F, TF3IRA,XX9X, XZ1N, BS7H, OJ0/N4GN. Jouko is a seasoned all round operator and has worked in the past as a professional maritime radio operator, too. Please find more about Jouko, a wireless professional in www.mjus.fi .
Previous Pacific operations
OH6KN, OH3JR and OH1AWW were the OH PACIFIC 2002 pedition team to Samoa as 5W0VK and Tonga as A35VK in Dec 2001-Jan 2002. The QSO results were 15k qsos (one station running), 40% on low bands. Total Eu percentage was 20% and 10% on the low bands.
OH6KN, OH1AWW, OH1RX activated Tubuai FO/A with call FO/OH6KN in January 2004. The results were 16k QSOs with 3600 Qs on the lowbands. The Eu percentage was 11% of total Qs and 16% of lowband Qs.http://personal.inet.fi/private/pcf2004/index.htm
Jouko, his XYL Merja and Veijo OH6KN were members of the organizing committee of the WRTC2002 held in Finlandhttp://www.wrtc2002.org/ .
5. QSL
5.1 QSL policy
The QSLs will be promptly printed and sent after the pedition. Direct QSLs will be replied first. The remaining QSLs will be sent via buro to those countries, that have incoming QSL service. Special arrangements can be done with QSLs going to those countries, that have dx foundations sponsoring the pedition. Those QSLs can be mailed as a one package to the incoming QSL buro or to the dx foundation.
5.2 QSL manager
QSL manager is Ari Hyvönen OH6DX
Address:
Viklonkuja 4 F 18
FI-78880 Kuvansi
Finland
6. Budget
The tentative budget for the trip is as follows:
Item
|
Cost
|
Flights (per person)
|
$3500
|
Accommodation (per person)
|
$1250
|
Total travel costl per person
|
$5000
|
Antennas, licenses, etc.
|
$1500
|
Insurance
|
$800
|
QSL
|
$1000
|
Freight cost of the equipment
|
$1800
|
Total for 5 people
|
5*5000$ + 4200$
= $29800
|
The bulk of the costs will be paid by the operators. There will be no other source of income, than the possible contributions by DX foundations and clubs. The logos of the sponsors will be displayed on the web pages and mentioned on the QSL cards.
7. publicity
7.1 Publicity
The publicity will be through the following channels: WEB pages, DX bulletins and after the pedition multiple presentations on different venues and articles in different internationally recognized radio amateur magazines.
7.2 Pedition WEB pages
The WEB page will be http://ohpacificdx.com The QSL logs will be available online and updated every few days provided that, there will be internet connection on the island.
7.3 DX bulletins
The pedtion will be communicated via the key dx-bulletins: Daily dx, 425 etc. as soon as the basic parameters are in place (e.g. call signs, and final team members).
7.4 Presentations and articles
We would be happy to provide articles, films and presentations after the expedition to entertain the information needs of the amateur radio community.
8. SPONSORSHIP
We would be greatful for all the donations to support our budget. For monetary support, please contact Jouko, OH1RX jouko.hayrynen@kolumbus.fi .