[SFDXA] K1N – Navassa Island DXpediton - From DX-World

[Bill]

  K1N – Navassa Island DXpediton
Saturday Jan 17, 2015

(click here for full DX-World Site with Images) 
http://www.dx-world.net/k1n-navassa-island/

K1N Navassa Island Press Release

Within two weeks the K1N Navassa DXpedition should be QRV with up to 7-8 
stations. Our exact departure date will be decided at the last moment by 
USFWS and weather windows. The team will be arriving at our staging 
point a few days before the earliest possible window and will be ready 
for a rapid deployment. As soon as USFWS has landed on the island and 
declared it is safe to proceed, we will start the helicopter flights and 
commence operations. We hope to have a basic camp established by the end 
of the first day and if things go extremely well, we hope to have 
several stations on the air by nightfall on the second day. Helicopter 
deployment will continue for a total of three days before the camp is 
fully established. A boat landing is not possible this time of year and 
also helicopter sling loads off our standby vessel are impossible. . So, 
additional equipment and supplies will be moved ashore with manpower. 
This will not be an easy project!

The K1N operation is your only opportunity in 32 years to work this #1 
Most Wanted Entity. It has been 22 years since the last operation and 
USFWS will not permit another operation for at least ten years. For 
these reasons, and in the spirit of worldwide cooperation and good will, 
we ask that if you already have QSOs with Navassa on certain bands from 
a previous operation, DO NOT CALL US ON THAT BAND! ClubLog Leader Board 
will be turned off for obvious reasons.

The latest details and pictures can be found at www.navassadx.com. This 
web page is now available in 44 languages, including, of course, 
Klingon! We are leaving no one out of this DXpedition because of its 
rarity. Our stations will be at “the usual” DX frequencies, listening 
up, but in some cases, down, for certain parts of the world’s band plan.

     It is absolutely necessary to listen to the instructions of the 
DXpedition operator

. We have a Facebook page to watch and a Twitter feed (@navassa2015) to 
follow for instant updates. We will be listening in the U.S. 
General/Advanced bands.

Band modes will be somewhat limited in an all-out effort to work the 
bands down to the last little pistol (and Klingon) for this unique 
opportunity. At least one station will be on 20 meters 24 hours/day. 
160M and 12M will be CW only and 10M will be SSB only. Other bands will 
in some pattern, alternating CW & SSB. At least one station will always 
be on RTTY, and we will operate RTTY on no more than three bands.

N2OO Bob, is our chief pilot. HK1R Jorge, is our South American pilot, 
JA1ELY Toshi, (assisted by Yuki JH1NBN) for Asia, MMØNDX Col, for 
Europe, V51B Andre, for Africa and ZL2AL Lee, for Oceania. Nodir EY8MM 
is our deep Asia pilot where propagation will be weakest. Our U.S. 
pilots are K2SG Tony, and KF5NYQ Brandon, is our youth pilot. You can 
contact your pilot via email; each pilot’s address is on his team bio 
page on our website. Pilots are your way to provide important feedback 
to the team on the island. Be concise and make your comments pertinent. 
The worldwide feedback will be prioritized, summarized and forwarded to 
the Island. Pilots will attempt to answer questions if they are able to 
do so. Pilots will NOT have access to the logs so do not ask about 
busted calls, log entries, etc. Logs will be uploaded several times 
daily to ClubLog.

As you can see in the following propagation prediction diagram for North 
America, we will have high grade communication on several bands 24 hours 
daily. The same is true for South America.

W1

VU
Contrast this to the predicted propagation to Japan and India

JA

SPEurope has some variability, but Poland shows an “average” propagation 
for the European continent. There should be 24 hours of daily 
propagation to Europe…on some band!

You should be grateful to have others standby while we work YOU for an 
All Time New One. It is only fair to ask that YOU stand by while work 
others for an All Time New One. As can be seen on the European diagram, 
we ask for patience in Europe while we work into deep Asia and other 
areas, as the band openings are nearly simultaneous. Please LISTEN to 
the operator’s instructions. We will not work stations from outside the 
area we are calling. With cooperation, everyone will get into our logs 
FASTER!

Deliberate QRM has been a major hindrance on both ends of the pileups in 
recent years and is worsening. There is a tab on our website where you 
can help us identify QRMing stations. This tab will not be active until 
the DXpedition comes on the air. By entering the data requested, and if 
enough data is entered, even with crude or rough beam headings, a “heat 
map” can be produced with mathematical analysis of the data. This was 
covertly tested during the recent FT4TA Tromelin DXpedition and even 
with limited data input; several deliberate QRMing stations could be 
identified within a very small area! Again, the more data that is 
provided the more accurate the “heat” can be put on offending stations. 
The QRM problem is one reason we are not publishing our operating 
frequencies, but we will be on or near the “usual” DXpedition 
frequencies. If we do experience QRM, we have planned tactics to 
minimize the malicious interference. Hint: Listen, LISTEN and LISTEN 
MORE for us….we might try to “wiggle” out of it! We will also try hard 
to keep our splits narrow as possible to avoid annoying non-DXers who 
have been known to “bother” a pileup.

K1N QSL information/manager:

Bob Schenck, N2OO

P.O. Box 345

Tuckerton, NJ 08087 USA

U.S.A. Direct: Minimum S.A.S.E. (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope)

World Direct: S.A.E. (Self-Addressed Envelope) plus minimum $2 or 1 IRC

OQRS Direct and bureau: via CLUBLOG

Regular Bureau: via N2OO c/o the W2 QSL Bureau

LOTW: Sooner rather than later.

We greatly appreciate the generous contributions from individuals and DX 
clubs around the world! We are just shy of meeting our transportation 
obligations and have yet to meet the cost of “the rest” of the 
DXpedition. As always, we encourage contributions to help meet the 
uncovered expenses. The team has contributed basically half of the 
entire cost and would appreciate any possible help. U.S. donations could 
be tax-deductible through NCDXF. (See instructions on website.)

The next press release will be when the landing operations commence. 
After that, daily progress and pictures will be posted on the website.

 From the K1N Navassa Team:

Bob K4UEE, Glenn WØGJ, Mike NA5U, George AA7JV, Ralph KØIR, John K6MM, 
Craig K9CT, Tomi KT4TTT, Lou N2TU, George N4GRN, Mike N6MZ, Jeff NM1Y, 
John W2GD, Gregg W6IZT & Jerry WB9Z

….we hope to see you in the logs!!!

It is now about 4 weeks before K1N goes on the air. The exact date of 
departure from the staging area will be dependent upon a combination of 
the date U.S. FWS transportation is available and upon weather windows.  
It is looking like K1N will be QRV the first two weeks of February.

Most of the team have their bags packed and are ready to go. Because of 
the helicopter logistics, this will be a no-frills-minimum-comfort 
operation for the team. Meals will be MRE’s. The container has been 
organized for a quick camp setup and quick radio/antenna setup to take 
advantage of every moment. It is estimated there will be two full days 
of helicopter shuttles to get everything needed to start operations. A 
small team of FWS personnel will accompany us, including armed Federal 
Law Enforcement Officers. Efficiency is not just for the team, but also 
for the DX community. It has been over 22 years since Navassa was 
activated and USFWS will not allow another operation for at least 10 
more years.  This is a ONCE IN 32 YEARS opportunity to work Navassa! 
Everyone can make the most of this opportunity by LISTENING to the 
operator’s instructions and following the cadence of the operator. We 
will not be working all modes on all bands, but limiting most bands to a 
specific mode, so that we can work the pileups down to the last little 
pistol.

Fund raising has been going well.  The team has contributed about half 
of the total budget. For those in the U.S., it is possible to make a 
year-end tax-deductible donation, directed through the Northern 
California DX Foundation. See our website and follow the instructions on 
the DONATE tab.

We have a Facebook page to watch and a Twitter feed (@navassa2015) to 
follow along.

For the KP1-5 Project,
Bob Allphin K4UEE
Glenn Johnson W0GJ
Mike Thomas NA5U