[SFDXA] Ham radio on front page of WSJ

[Bill]

 From Mike W4UM and Mark WC3W:
(photos not included)

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.”

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 world-wide 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 compiled 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.
/
//Dom Grzyb during his 2015 trip to North Korea.//
//PHOTO: DOM GRZYB/

“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.

/Tommy Horozakis operating from Campbell Island south of New Zealand in 
2012. photo/

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 vessel. “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 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 during a DX-pedition to the Wallis and Futuna 
islands in the South Pacific in 2019./

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.”

By John McCormick
May 6, 2021 10:46 am ET
Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john at wsj.com
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