T32C Christmas Island 2011

[Download PDF] [www.t32c.com]

To the members of the Board or Committee of  (SK6LK)

President: Roland Johansson SM6EAT
Vice President: Gunnar Toresson SM6CYX
Treasurer:  Lars Lind SM6NT
Secretary: Lars Carlsson SM6EPS

From Neville G3NUG, Team Leader T32C DXpedition to Kiritimati

Dear Roland, Gunnar, Lars and Lars
I hope I have addressed this note to the current members of your club’s Board or Committee. If not please forward this email to the appropriate person(s).

I am writing to you about the forthcoming DXpedition to Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in Eastern Kiribati being organised by the Five Star DXers Association. This will take place in September to October 2011 with the callsign T32C. See our web pages for further details.  www.t32c.com

The attached brochure gives a great deal of information about our forthcoming operation and we would be grateful if you could forward this to your club members and to friends.

We would like to contact as many of your members as possible. On our part we are taking a huge number of antennas (both for transmitting and receiving) and excellent radios (16 Yaesu FT-5000 transceivers and 16 VL-1000 linears) so your members should be able to hear us.

We will be writing articles nearer the time describing wire antennas with which everyone should be able to make a contact. Best times and bands to make QSOs will be shown on our web pages and these will be updated regularly based on actual data.

Please ask your club members without good antennas to be patient. We are on Kiritimati for a long period including four full weekends. Most people should be able to get through in the final two weeks of the operation particularly on weekdays.

We believe that some members of European clubs, particularly those who are recently licensed or are returning to the hobby, may never have made a contact with the Pacific. This is a great opportunity to do this.

We’d like to encourage clubs to run “fun” competitions such as:
•    First member to work T32C
•    Member working the most band-slots (30 slots are available)
•    First RTTY QSO etc.

We want to work as many unique callsigns as possible. The target is 40,000 uniques, this is tough but achievable and we have done it before.  Note that, from our past experience, on average every fourth QSO is a unique. We also have a target to make 150,000 QSOs.

We will be making a huge effort on LF and on the edge bands. We will have eight Beverages as well as many verticals (see the brochure). Altogether there will be 40 operators at T32C; 30 operators will be on site every day of the operation.

In the case of European clubs we intend to focus on every propagation opening. Generally these will be limited to a maximum of four hours per band each day. We will also make similar efforts to contact the Eastern United States.

In the case of UK clubs we want to contact between 1,000 – 2,000 unique callsigns. We have done this before. This is a tremendous challenge as many amateurs in the UK have limited space or cannot get planning permission to install Yagis or similar antennas. We would appreciate the support of clubs by encouraging their members to get on the air.

We are actively seeking sponsorship. With a project of this magnitude, the huge amount of equipment, antennas and other ancillary gear necessary needs to get to the island in a container weighing around nine tonnes. We are seeking sponsorship from DX clubs, societies and individuals. All members of the DXpedition are paying in the order of £3,500 (GBP) to £4,800 (GBP) each, (US$5,250 to US$7,200) to cover their own travel expenses, their accommodation and food on the island. This includes a contribution to the logistics costs of £500 (GBP) or US$750 per head. Sponsorship monies will be used to fund the balance of the costs of equipment including two 10 KVA generators, antennas, coaxial cable, computers and ancillary equipment, together with the cost of shipping and insurance from Europe to Christmas Island and back, and Customs and other legal paperwork.

Clubs and individuals can help the DXpedition by making donations through the sponsorship page on our website. All sponsors will be shown on the website and on QSL cards (subject to certain limits); links will be shown to the web sites of sponsoring clubs.

Much of the data normally requested by sponsoring clubs is set out in our brochure. There is some additional information below:

FINANCES:
INCOME    
Contribution by team members:       £128,000 (GBP):    US$192,000
Sponsorship to be raised:                £30,000 (GBP):    US$45,000
QSL income          £7,000 (GPB):        US$10,500
Raffle, video etc.        £9,000 (GBP):        US$13,500
Sale of used equipment:        £15,000 (GBP):    US$22,500
TOTAL INCOME        £189,000 (GBP):    US$283,500

EXPENDITURE
Team travel and subsistence:        £113,000 (GBP):    US$169,500   
Logistics:        £22,000 (GBP):    US$33,000
Power:        £16,000 (GBP):    US$24,000    
Team preparation and site surveys:    £12,000 (GBP):    US$18,000    
All other costs inc. equipment:        £28,000 (GBP):    US$42,000   
TOTAL PLANNED COST:        £191,000 (GBP):    US$286,500

DEFICIT        £2,000 (GBP):        US$3,000   

OTHER INFORMATION:
Internet services provided: Online log search using Club Log, propagation projections by country and zone and online QSL request forms. Further developments are planned.

Logbook of the World: Upload within six months of the end of the DXpedition.

QSL Management: Neville, G3NUG will again lead a team of up to 16 QSL managers using the internet-based StarQSL system to ensure rapid and efficient QSLing.

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Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Wishes and 73


Neville G3NUG
Team Leader T32C
Chairman FSDXA
g3nug[a]btinternet.com
www.t32c.com

Formerly Team Leader of the 3B7C (Jointly with G3BJ), 3B9C, D68C and 9M0C DXpeditions.
Elected to the CQ DX Hall of Fame in May 2009.