[South Florida DX Association] VU4 - ANDAMAN IS - MORE INFO

[NPAlex at aol.com]

Some may be interested in this information -
The author Charles Harpole K4VUD is one of my customers, just took delivery 
on a WARC band (12,17,30 meters) and 40meter Quad.  
Norm W4QN
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VU4, ANDAMAN ISLANDS (Update). A flurry of press releases were sent  out
this past week. In short, it is now offical, Bharathi, VU2RBI, has  received
permission to operate from the Port Blair, Andaman Islands. Her  press
release states:

'A special permission of Ministry of  Communications and Information
Technology, Department of  Telecommunication is accorded on 19th November,
2004 to Mrs. D.  Bharathi Prasad, VU2RBI (Team Leader) along with Mr. D.
N.  Prasad, VU2DBP, Mr. D.S. Varun Sastry, VU3DVS, Mr. S. Ram Mohan,
VU2MYH and Mr. R. Sarath Babu, VU3RSB, respectively to use  special
callsigns VU4NRO and VU4RBI and shift their location to  Andaman and
Nicobar Islands from 3 December  2004.'

The Chairman, Governing Council & Members of NIAR  & Hams wish the
members of Andaman Dxpedition team a grand  success.

For Dxpedition News / Site will be updated in  www.niar.org

All correspondence related to this Expedition  to  niarvu4 at gmail.com

73s D.Bharathi Prasad,  VU2RBI
Chief Co-ordinator,  NIAR
Team  Leader, Andaman Dxpedition - 2004

Word has it that she and her  team have permission to operate between
December 3-31st. Earlier in the week  (while Bharathi was waiting for
the official permission to be granted),  Bharathi sent out a press release
stating she was extremely grateful to the  DX Community for the encouragement
by their letters and E-mails. She states,  'It is your opinions/suggestions/
recommendations made to Mr. Dayanidhi  Maran, Honorable Minister of
Communications and others made it possible for  me and the National Institute
of Amateur Radio (NIAR is a national  organisation for Amateur Radio in
India is fully supporting me) to achieve  very good results.'

Please remember that funds are still needed for this  operation. Donations/
funds should be directed to:  National Institute  of Amateur  Radio
Raj Bhavan  Road
Hyderabad 500  082
India

Funds can also be sent to the Charles, K4VUD. Charles states, 'Any  and
all donations that come to me will be completely used to assist  this
DXpedition via the National Institute of Amateur Radio in India,  the
umbrella sponsoring agency who, BTW, is allowed to receive foreign  funds.'
K4VUD mail address is: Charles Harpole, 3100 N. Hwy. 426,  Geneva,
FL 32732 USA. Charles also states/recommands the following words to  the
DX community: 'This is truly an exciting moment for ham radio  DXing,
activating an entity silent for about 17 years. Please be on your  best
on-air behavior when calling. We want to show ham radio to the  India
government and the world regulatory bodies that we are a disciplined  and
worth while activity, fully deserving of precious spectrum space.  There
are no firm answers yet as to what bands/modes nor what  rigs/antennas.
This DXpedition is not a mass group of crack operators  arriving with tons
of gear. However, there is some possibility of a  continuing re-newal of
permits to VU4 by many India hams, thus, we have the  hope of more contact
opportunities in the future. Warm up the rigs ... here  we go !'
73, Charles Harpole