Christmas Island VK9XI (OC-002) & Cocos Keeling Island VK9CI (OC-003) October 2017
Latest news from the team is that Charles M0OXO has completed uploading both VK9CI and VK9XI to Logbook of the World. QSL Production is well underway too. Here are the cards that are being sent. Thanks Charles for your efforts!
Just in case you missed our online interview with Tom W5KUB while we were on Christmas Island!
The team has arrived safely into Perth around midnight tonight and said goodbye to Adrian KO8SCA, who flies home to New York. The rest of the team are returning to Melbourne shortly with the 200kg of equipment.
Many thanks to all those who have donated and contributed in some way, to enable us to have a successful DXpedition.
To the guys in in the pileups, thanks for testing our patients at times…. and we appreciate when asked, how the pileup stopped when we asked for other regions like Oceania, VK/ZL, Africa etc We had fun, we hope many got an ATNO…
To our NA friends, its s very difficult path and we did our best to work you on the east coast on the low bands. Conditions were often not favourable but we persisted.
Very 73 from the team until next time. de VK9CI / VK9XI
Charles M0OXO reports that the full and final logs for both VK9XI (thanks Cliff VK9VKL) and the VK9CI team have now been uploaded to Clublog and M0OXO Logsearch & OQRS.
Thanks to all the Team, a great job despite the conditions. Over 8000 contacts were made from each station!
Last word from Cocos (Keeling) Island from Luke VK3HJ – “all stations are now closed and the team is preparing to depart from the island.”
Thank you everyone for the contacts under at times trying solar conditions. Apologies to those who missed us – we really tried to reach you all – however conditions have proven very difficult indeed these past few days.
73 and Good DX de the VK9CI Team SK
Cliff has also confirmed that the extended VK9XI operation back on Christmas Island has also drawn to a close. He will be sending the final logs for VK9XI shortly to M0OXO for inclusion in log search for OQRS.
This is the last night operating on Cocos Keeling Island. Tomorrow we all fly home and tear down will start around 8am local, (0130z).
Currently we are taking one last chance to call NA & SA on 17m (18075 CW) . We are focusing on USA tonight in a last night concerted effort…. The path is tough and conditions not favourable but if you can hear us call us, we plan on being here all night!
For the next couple of days VK9XI will continue to be heard as well as VK9CI, although mostly on digital modes. Cliff, VK9VKL our resident Amateur Radio operator will continue operating under the expedition callsign VK9XI when he has free time until the 17th of October – mostly using FT8. Look out for him and give him a call, particularly if you missed the crew when the main station was active from the island.
This is your second chance to work the expedition call VK9XI!
Tony VK3TZ on Cocos (Keeling) Island
The team on Cocos Keeling Island has been hearing the comments from many areas about the lack of signals from VK9CI. We have honestly been trying our best, however the current geomagnetic storm has been making life very difficult. Even VK is struggling to hear us and only the paths to the north and east have been working for us.
In particular we are focused on calling for North America at the best times we have seen for that region, knowing how difficult a path it is. So far, we have found that the best times we have heard North America are around 0000z either Short or Long Path West Coast and 1100z on the Long Path for the East Coast, with 1100z being best pick on 20m and 17m. Due to the low signal levels we are concentrating on CW for NA. Please bear with us however as signals are very weak and often only at the same level as the tropical QRN noise and static here.
We also frequently ask the strongest stations to stand by as we try calling in other less easy to work regions such as South America, Oceania and Africa. We ask that those stations in other regions respect our wishes and standby accordingly as we really are trying to give VK9C to as many stations as possible who need VK9C as an ATNO (All time new one).
Please keep trying from your end, and we will continue to do our best from VK9CI for you. We guessed there must have been a reason VK9C was so high on the NA most wanted lists and now we know, It really isn’t an easy path! The following charts from VOACAP will hopefully help identify bearings and times for you!
We are QRV on 160M every day at our sunset and our sunrise and most of the hours in between.
Yesterday was our best 160M run. We worked a few US East coast stations. Signals were received as S4 to S6 at our sunrise.”
From Adrian VK9CI Team (KO8SCA)
Internet access has been improved. These were just posted by Luke VK3HJ on Facebook.
The following are some more from Lee VK3GK who write:
“Arrived at Cocos Keeling island last tuesday and its pretty hot….. 28C, 80-90% humidity, 24c overnight….. Its a beautiful island and really worth a visit, plenty of tours to do and things to see.”
