IOTA News from OPDX

3 December, 2018

Island activities:

AF-037. (Update) Members of the F6KOP Team will be active as 9LY1JM from Banana Islands, Sierra Leone, between January 9-21st, 2019. Operators mentioned are Frank/F4AJQ (Team Leader),
Jean-Luc/F1ULQ/AK8DX (Co–leader), Patrick/F2DX, Andreas/DL3GA/AB8AY, Jimi/F4DLM/AF7JJ, Jean-Baptiste/F4ERY, Frank/F5TVG, Julien/F8AVK, Herman/ON4QX/KM6CPP and Eric/ON7RN.
Activity will be on 160-10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY, PSK and FT8. There will be 4 stations on air: 4X Kenwood TRX-590s into VDA antenna 10 to 20m & Spiderbeam mast for low band 30 to 160m. QSL via F5GSJ, direct, by the Bureau. Also, QSL via ClubLog or LoTW. For more details and updates, see: https://9l2019dx.wordpress.com

AS-153. Members of the West Bengal Radio Club (VU2WB) will be active
as AU2HAM from Ganga Sagar Mela Island between January 10-17th,
2019. Activity will be on various HF bands. QSL via VU2NRO.

NA-057. Tom, N9EAW, is now active as HQ9T from Roatan Island (NA-057), Honduras, until December 18th. Activity will be on various HF
bands using CW and SSB. Equipment is an Icom IC-7300 transceiver into a dipole antenna. QSL via N9EAW direct.

OC-022. Emmanuel, F5LIT, will once again be active as YB9/F5LIT from
Bali between January 27th and February 6th, 2019. Activity will be on various HF bands. QSL via his home callsign, direct or LoTW.

OC-042. Christian, F4EBK, will be active as DU3/F4EBK from Luzon
Island sometime in February and March of 2019. He plans to participate in the ARRL International SSB Contest (March 2-3rd). QSL via info on QRZ.com for DU3/F4EBK.

OC-113/OC-279 (Reminder) Operators Cezar/VE3LYC and Adrian/KO8SCA will operate . as TX0A from Maria Est Atoll in the Acteon Group (OC-113), and as TX0M from Morane Atoll in the Morane Group (OC-297P) between December 4-18th. 
The only amateur radio activity from the Acteon Group took place more than 28 years ago by Robert Berry (FO5BI/P). He operated in April 1990 from the Marutea Sud Atoll. This IOTA reference is currently ranked #6 on the Most Wanted IOTA Listing, needed by 98% of the IOTA members.

Since at the time of this operation there will be 1126 IOTA references activated to date, compared to 340 current DXCC entities, the rarity of
this IOTA group corresponds to #2 on the DXCC Listing. 
The Morane Atoll is the only counter of the New IOTA Group OC-297. It fits the "Remote Island Group" criterion (IOTA Programme Structure
B.1.3). Both Atolls are uninhabited. 
The plan is to operate from each Atoll for 5 full days. Activity will be on CW, SSB and 40-10 meters concentrating on the bands that will exhibit
the best propagation conditions within specific time windows for each region. 
They will maintain one station on 20 m as long as the propagation will permit in order to maximize the number of unique stations logged. This is a complex and extremely expensive project, and they need your support to defray some of the considerable costs incurred! All donors will be timely acknowledged on their Web site at: https://tx0a-tx0m.weebly.com
QSL via VE3LYC, direct, by the Bureau or ClubLog's OQRS.

PLEASE NOTE: Since the Webmasters of the new <www.iota-world.org> have decided NOT to post or dedicate a Web page to announce upcoming IOTA operations, PLEASE send your IOTA operations information to the OPDX and we will post it here in an upcoming bulletin......

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