[ADXA] Bouvet Expedition Makes The WSJ

Sat May 8 09:34:51 EDT 2021

I believe the author, John McCormick, is a ham....K9 something that I 
can' recall off the op of my head, and works for WSJ.

ZN

On 2021-05-07 15:12, Steven Rutledge wrote:

> Ham-radio operators look to raise antennas in the world's remotest 
> corners
> 
> BY JOHN MCCORMICK
> 
> Of the many post-pandemic travel plans being hatched around the world, 
> few are as extreme as what ham-radio operator Dom Grzyb has in mind.
> 
> The semiretired Polish businessman looks to spend tens of thousands of 
> dollars this year to lead a group of eight to Bouvet Island in the 
> southern Atlantic, an uninhabited locale largely covered in glacial 
> ice. The odds aren't favorable.
> 
> High winds and massive waves batter ships entering the region. Among 
> travelers who manage to catch sight of Bouvet Island, which belongs to 
> Norway, some never make shore. Slivers of beach give way to steep rock 
> and ice formations that reach 100 feet and higher.
> 
> "It's the most remote island in the world," said Mr. Grzyb, 47 years 
> old. "It's also one of the most dangerous places in the world."
> 
> Adrian 'Nobby' Styles during a ham-radio expedition to the Wallis and 
> Futuna islands in the South Pacific in 2019.
> 
> Bouvet Island also ranks as the second most-wanted place in the world 
> to contact among ham-radio enthusiasts. These destinations lure the 
> most adventurous of the estimated three million operators worldwide to 
> set up temporary transmitting stations.
> 
> Ham radios, which connect users across great distances using updated 
> 19th-century technology, work anywhere an operator can tote generators, 
> fuel, amplifiers, antennas and the tools needed to make them work. 
> So-called hams have complied a list of 340 places that span the 
> toughest to the easiest places to contact, starting with North Korea 
> No. 1 and the U.S. No. 340.
> 
> Hams take pride in reaching the rarest outposts. On the other end of 
> the transmission are those who set up the temporary stations, such as 
> Mr. Grzyb, who in 2015 transmitted from the hams' holy grail,
> 
> North Korea. Their job is simple: Get there, power up, get home alive.
> 
> "We are crazy," said Tommy Horozakis, who lives near Sydney, Australia. 
> "To us, it's the thrill, it's the adrenaline rush, of being able to 
> work people on the other side of the world and bouncing your signals 
> across the ionosphere without the internet."
> 
> Mr. Horozakis, 53, is making plans to lead a November expedition of 
> about 10 people to an uninhabited island in shark-populated waters of 
> the Coral Sea south of Papua New Guinea.
> 
> "I won't be swimming too far away from shore," he said.
> 
> The destination is part of the Willis Islets, a group of three small 
> islands that includes two uninhabited sandy cays, and one that is home 
> to a weather station with an average year-round population of four. The 
> islands rank 38th.
> 
> The trip will include a roughly 35-hour voyage to ferry the team, along 
> with ham-radio equipment, tents, food and porta-potties. It will cost 
> about $5,000 a person.
> 
> Mr. Horozakis, who owns businesses in telecommunications and 
> pest-extermination, said a spike in Covid-19 cases could block him from 
> traveling between his state of New South Wales and Queensland, where he 
> has booked the ves- sel. "If it doesn't go ahead," he said, "at least 
> we've tried."
> 
> These excursions are called DX-peditions, with DX referring to?in 
> ham-radio jargon? transmitting over long distances. The missions, like 
> most international travel, were largely scuttled last year in the 
> pandemic.
> 
> Once activated at the remote locale, the temporary stations make tens 
> of thousands of contacts with far-flung operators, each exchange 
> lasting a few seconds. The prize for those back home is either a 
> postcard or electronic confirmation, plus bragging rights among peers.
> 
> Hams spend considerable time and money improving the reach and 
> performance of their radio stations
> 
> ADRIAN STYLES
> 
> to make rare and distant connections. In a digital world, where almost 
> everything can be replayed, there are no do-overs. Once a DX-pedition 
> ends, there may not be another activation from that spot for years or 
> decades.
> 
> Mr. Grzyb spent three days on Bouvet Island in 2001. He tried again in 
> March 2019. The team got within 63 nautical miles when the ship lost 
> its communication antennas in a storm and had to return to South 
> Africa. "It's for people who are a little bit crazy," he said.
> 
> In January 2018, a team sailed 12 days from Chile to Bouvet Island, but 
> rough weather kept its two hired helicopters from flying. After one of 
> the ship's engines failed in a storm, the captain had enough and 
> returned to port.
> 
> Adrian "Nobby" Styles expects smoother sailing. The 53-year-old, who 
> lives southeast of London and works in the food-supply business, has 
> set his sights on the Maldives islands?ranked 138th on the ham list 
> because it is more travel friendly. He has already canceled twice 
> because of the pandemic.
> 
> "Hopefully, it will happen at the end of September," said Mr. Styles, 
> who will need three flights to get to his Indian Ocean destination with 
> his wife, Maxine.
> 
> "She loves to lay in the sun all day and I can't do that," he said, 
> "but I like to play on the radio."
> 
> On 5/7/2021 12:31 PM, Steven Rutledge wrote:
> 
>> The front page story in the Wall Street Journal today featured the 
>> 2021 planned Bouvet expedition.
>> 
>> Steve, QQ
>> 
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