[OKDXA] Heard Island rescheduled to January 2015 due to cost

[Bert Aaron]

The following announcement posed on Cordell.org web site:

15 May 2013 PROJECT RESCHEDULING AND RESTRUCTURING

We wish to announce that the expedition to Heard Island has been rescheduled
for January, 2015. The primary reason for this decision was the cost of
using the preferred vessel, the Marion Dufresne to put the team on Heard
Island for the required time. In spite of extensive negotiations and
rescheduling of the cruise, it became clear that the cost of using this
vessel will exceed $1 million, and therefore the total cost for the project
would be about $1.5 million, as we noted earlier. In spite of our plan to
increase the team size to 50 (which the M-D can accommodate) to partially
cover this cost, we reluctantly concluded that sponsorship at this level
would be impossible. We have therefore decided to delay the expedition to
January, 2015, to allow more time to restructure the project, locate a more
suitable vessel, and bring the cost more in line with projected available
resources.

One benefit of this rescheduling will be to enable the mountain science team
to carry out the exploration of Big Ben on the 50th anniversary of the first
ascent (in 1965). The 3000-meter volcano on Mawson Peak is currently
erupting, and study of the changes brought by this eruption will be safe and
significant during the 2015 season. A major component of the expedition will
be to document the effects of the eruption, the state and condition of the
flanking glaciers, and the changes in evanescent lagoons on the east slopes
of the mountain.

A second benefit of the restructuring is that we will plan for amateur radio
operations to be carried out over a longer time, up to 30 or more days.
Furthermore, the campsite will be located on the east side of Heard Island,
enabling paths to areas of the world that were not accessible in the last
operation (in 1997). With the requirement of the longer stay on Heard
Island, we will be assembling a new radio team with operators who are highly
experienced and dedicated to the challenge of activating Heard Island with
the new project requirements.

The third benefit of rescheduling is to have the time to develop
sophisticated instrumentation and systems for state-of-the-art real-time
communications with the expedition. We will have satellite links to enable
real-time reporting of the radio log (using a new version of DXA, which was
successfully used on previous DXpeditions (K7C and TX5K). In addition, we
plan to implement real-time interactive communications and reporting from
the mountaineering team as they explore the volcano, and to enable
scientific and educational groups to work interactively with the onsite
team.

The budget for the restructured project will likely be significantly less
than $500k. We plan for a total team of 12-15 persons, and we will solicit
team members with experience, motivation, and multiple skills. Except for
the organizing principals, we are starting anew to build the team for this
very different mission. We will work to keep the cost to participants below
$15k, and will expect the team to work together to find support and make the
appropriate preparations. Safety will be paramount.

We will post an update on 15 June 2013, including an updated Project
Description (under DOCUMENTS). For more information, please contact Dr.
Robert Schmieder, KK6EK Organizer and Expedition leader, Schmieder (a)
cordell.org, or Rich Holoch, KY6R, Co-planner rholoch (a) comcast.com.We
have posted updates on the expedition website www.heardisland.org