Day 2 of our awesome Islands on the Air (IOTA) activity on North Stradbroke Island starts off where day 1 finishes, with the band providing superb opportunities for the 43DA/OC-137 team to work North American stations and a handful of others in the North Pacific Ocean area too.
The WX today is just what you’d expect in a Queensland island paradise – 27 degrees of sublime sunshine and a gentle salty breeze, with crystal clear blue water and the familiar sound of white-capped waves surging and receding in the distance from one of North Stradbroke’s golden sandy beaches.
From our station atop a ham friendly whale watching tower overlooking Moreton Island and others in the Queensland State (South Coast) South group, the breathtaking outlook provides the ideal start to our day of DX and after a couple of coffees (thanks to the XYLs Melissa and Kerry) the Yaesu FT-950 transceiver is fired up and ready to go!
Early on, 2LV357 David (5/6) and 2LV407 Martin (5/5) from the Lima Victor Radio Club are good signals, logged by 43DA148 Peter at opposite ends of 27 MHz. David is participating with gusto in one of his club’s contest events (See http://www.limavictordx.com/page/happy-holidays) and we gratefully accept a progressive number for our log to help him on his merry way.
With 43DA148 Peter on the mic and me (43DA001 Darren) on log duties, members from the World Radio DX Group are also prominent on the band with 43WRI04 Phil (5/5) and 2WR0360 Ray (5/9) worked on 27.385 MHz LSB, amongst a wall of US stations on the popular Americas’ calling frequency.
Veteran Big Gun DX Hunter 43DA021 Brian in South Australia is also logged at 00:30 UTC and Oscar Delta DX Group member 79OD150 Seth on Negros Island (OC-129) in the Visayan Islands group follows soon after at 5/5.
At 02:20 UTC, after a bucket load of delicious king prawns straight off the trawlers in Moreton Bay for lunch, we celebrate a very special contact with 133DA329 Mr Botoy in the Northern Mariana Islands. In modern times, this is one of the rarest DXCC in the Pacific Ocean and, therefore, high on the hit-list of keen IOTA Hunters such as 43DA148 Peter and myself who would no doubt trade in one of our 7 holidaying children for a postcard direct from the isle!!!
A licensed amateur radio op with years of experience on ham and 11m frequencies, 133DA329 Mr Botoy is positioned on the island of Saipan (OC-086), the largest of the 15 strong archipelagos in the Western Pacific.
At 02:50 UTC, with 43DA148 Peter on the mic, we’re again surprised to work another exceptionally scarce island station, 266CR001, on remote Kiritimati Island (OC-024). Also known as ‘Christmas Island’, this is a raised coral atoll in the northern Line Islands which is part of the Republic of Kiribati. According to the operator of 266CR001, the entire island is a wildlife sanctuary too, which only adds further intrigue to the contact for our team and so inspires some captivating research into the island on the internet in the minutes which follow!
At 07:16 we’re stoked to log our first EU station of the day, 233MU106 Victor in Romania, at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe. After Victor is logged with a low 5/1 report, the pile up begins and it’s all systems go for the OC-137 DXpedition team!
With 43DA148 Peter on log duties and me on the mic, whopping signals are logged from prominent IOTA Hunters 14IR001 Didier, 19DX056 Twan, 161EX016 Mariusz, 14DA024 Fabrice in the portable, 1SD019 Alex, 108AT019 Leigh-Ann, 56KP101 Peter, 30AT318 Emilio and many others, with an impressive 61 EU stations logged in total between 07:16 UTC – 11:23 UTC.
Obviously our team is ecstatic with the result and it’s XXXX beers all round in the whale watching tower as we monitor the band until the early hours of the morning and chat about the day’s events on the island; events that included a near miss with a wandering koala on the road and the opportunity to hand feed a pair of Laughing Kookaburras who decided to drop by the whale watching tower for a snack of shrimp (See right).
After sunrise, Big Gun DX Hunter 43DA020 Geoff in Far North Queensland is logged with a solid 5/9 signal and gets the ball rolling too with a spot on Cluster dk. Geoff also gives us some great news about a pending DA-RC IOTA DXpedition to 2 islands off the Northern Territory coastline in January 2012 with news set to be announced on the DA-RC website soon!
43DA020 Geoff is soon followed by 351 in Honolulu at 5/5 on the island of Oahu (OC-019) and 172AT115 Jean on Grande Terre Island (OC-032) at 5/7 whom is the last station in the log for Day 2 of 43DA/OC-137.
A credible 96 stations have been logged on this day, making it 215 in total in less than 40 hours of DX. Thanks to everyone who contributed to Day 2 by calling in to make the log, emailing audio recordings of our activity, or offering words of encouragement via text message, email, forum and/or mailing list.
Hi All,
Had lots of fun with the activation! Thanks to all for the opportunity of making some great contacts from OC-137 North Stradbroke Island.
QSL cards will be ready soon and you will be able to see the design on the DA-RC website!
The manager is 43DA001 Darren.
73 de Peter, 43DA148