Dato: Tirsdag 9. mars 2010 06.00
Hi all,
I leave here on Friday (late Thursday GMT) for a 6-week trip which hopefully will see four all-time new IOTAs being activated:

> T32MI - Malden Island OC-279(P)
> T32SI - Starbuck Island OC-280(P)
> T32CI - Caroline Island OC-281(P) - also known as Millennium Island
> T32VI - Vostok Island OC-282(P).

For DXCC purposes all four islands count as East Kiribati, the same as
Christmas Island (Kiritimati) - OC-024. The other members of the team are Derek, G3KHZ; Steve, G4EDG; and Mike, K9AJ. All of them are primarily or exclusively CW operators, although Mike has said he might also do some SSB. I will be operating SSB only.
We are scheduled to depart from Christmas Island on SV Kwai (see
http://sites.google.com/site/sailcargo/about-the-boat) on 18 March and
return on 20 April and we anticipate spending three to four days ashore at each island. The sea voyage will be about 1800 nautical miles in total. We have a website at http://t32line.webnode.com which we hope to be able to update with the precise dates of operation from each island as we approach each one in turn. We do not know in which order we will be visiting the islands; that will be decided by the Captain and based on the weather and sea conditions. I think the
earliest we will be on the air will be about 20 March, but it may be several days later than this if the Captain decides to do a long run first.
 
Our scheduled SSB frequencies are 28460 (alt 28495), 24950, 21260,
18128, 14260 (alt 14195), 7078 and 3795kHz. I will normally be
operating split and listening up (usually 5 - 10kHz up) except on 80m,
where I will listen DOWN for Europe, typically 3785 - 3790 (but up
around 3799 - 3805 for VK, JA, W etc).

Scheduled CW frequencies are 28040, 24920, 21040, 18098, 14040, 10103,
7030 and 3530kHz. We realise that there are several other DXpeditions active
at the same time as ours and will do our best to avoid clashing with other
operations. We may therefore need to move from these frequencies if we
find they are already occupied.
The best propagation to North and West Europe, including UK, is likely
to be short path on:

> 40m at 0500 - 0730 and
> 20m at 0900 - 1200.

There is a possible short path opening on 20m around 1600 - 1700 and
maybe also on 17m around the same time. There is an outside chance of
an opening on 15m around 2000. (Thanks to Don, G3BJ, for these
propagation predictions.) There may also be a long path opening on 20m
between 0500 and 1000.

We will have up to four stations operating simultaneously, but since there are only four of us this is likely to be only at peak times. We hope to run two stations most of the time and at least one will be on CW. Three of the stations will be 100W, and one station will have an Acom 1010 amplifier. This will normally be used on SSB but may also be used on CW if no-one is on SSB. All antennas will be verticals situated close to the ocean.

QSL this DXpedition via SM6CAS.

I look forward to working as many CDXC members as possible and for
those of you who are IOTA chasers, giving you four new ones.

73,
Steve, 9M6DXX