[SFDXA] Djibouti J20DX IOTA DXpedition Thwarted by Bureaucracy

Bill bmarx at bellsouth.net
Thu Apr 18 22:03:43 EDT 2019


*Djibouti J20DX IOTA DXpedition Thwarted by Bureaucracy

*
04/18/2019

Djibouti J20DX IOTA DXpedition operators Col McGowan, MM0NDX; Jonathan 
Bowes, MM0OKG, and Christian Cabre, EA3NT, have thrown in the towel on 
their efforts to operate from two infrequently activated African islands 
— Moucha Island (AF-053) and the very rare Sept-Frères (AF-059). Their 
J20DX operation was set to run from April 16 – April 21, but McGowan’s 
and Bowe’s radio equipment was impounded by customs upon their arrival 
at the airport, despite the fact that Cabre had cleared customs smoothly 
2 days earlier. The team had “official radio licenses being issued by 
Djibouti Telecom” permitting them to operate radio without any 
conditions, they reported on the *J20DX website* <https://j20dx.com/>.

The operators were told that the Djibouti security agency would make a 
decision on whether they could obtain necessary authorization to 
retrieve their equipment, but time wore on along with official inertia. 
Due to time constraints, the delay quashed plans to activate AF-059.

“Nobody is more disappointed about that than us,” they said on their 
website Wednesday, expressing optimism that they would still be able to 
be active from Moucha or Maskali Island AF-053 and remain until Friday 
evening or Saturday morning. “Of course, this depends on the 
aforementioned bags being released by custom officials,” they added.

Still without all their gear, on April 18, they made the crossing to 
Moucha Island, picked a location to set up, and immediately assembled 
antennas for 20, 17, and 15 meters.

“Literally 5 minutes before the first CQ from AF-053, we received a 
phone call from National Security saying signatures were needed for the 
authorization letter to permit us to collect our impounded gear,” the 
J20DX team recounted. “This same letter would also allow us to depart 
Djibouti without any more issues at airport customs. However, we had to 
return to the mainland to get the letter.”

With the weekend in Djibouti being Friday and Saturday, this Thursday 
would be their last chance to obtain the important authorization letter 
prior to heading home. “Before we had even started, teardown began. Yes, 
we left the island 2 hours after arriving. AF-053 is now also 
cancelled,” they announced.

Upon reaching the National Security offices, the team said, 
unfortunately, “no authorization letter [was] to be seen.”

http://www.arrl.org/news/djibouti-j20dx-iota-dxpedition-thwarted-by-bureaucracy



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