N0UU Tahiti to Easter Island Schedule FO/N0UU & VP6UU

I have operated minimally from the National Geographic Endeavour in the Antarctic and found the company and crew to be helpful and friendly. K9PET has now formalized amateur radio operation from the ship and is scheduling amateur operation as:

While all of the trips are interesting to the casual DXer, the repositioning trip scheduled for October 2006 from Tahiti to Easter Island seemed ideal for my annual adventure with Lindblad Expeditions.

This ship was built for heavy use and yet can enter waters most cruise ships could not consider. The small passenger list means that all passengers can be ferried to anyplace with a beach in a short time. This is ideal for "shoot and scoot" DXpedition activities, all in much more comfort that Don Miller or Gus Browning could ever have imagined.

A few comments:

Amateur radio is not the primary reason for these cruises. Most passengers I've found to be interested in the natural world, are well traveled and are well informed professionals. One of my goals on these trips is to spread the word that DXing is an ideal conservation activity and will "leave only tracks". I hope to use a short time on one of the sea days to present a 'sea school' on DXpeditions.

The March cruise to Tahiti could not stop at Ducie or Henderson as the weather was too rough.

Although K9PET has supplied support equipment which is stored on the ship, no rig is provided. I shipped a TS-480SAT, a Samlex 1223 power supply, a couple of 35' fiberglass masts, and miscellaneous equipment to Lindblad's Tahiti shore agent through LuggageFree. Pricey, but the box arrived safely.

I'm also carrying a second TS-480SAT and one of the new Gamma Research HPS-1a supplies as backups.

Marc, K9PET, has a SteppIR vertical stored on ship and I will check it out, but I hope to mainly use the homebrew vertical dipoles I've shipped. They are made out of RG-178, are light and quick to set up. Slightly elevated, as modeled in EZNEC, they should have better low angle radiation and slightly more gain than a ground mounted monopole.

ACE-HF indicates that with daytime operations, propagation will mainly be to the Americas and Pacific Rim and best on 15 Meters. Operation will be on SSB.

Probable frequencies: 21.290 up 5-15 41.215, up 5-15, 18? Subject to change.

I have received the calls: FO/N0UU and VP6UU.

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I will QSL all contacts through the ARRL Outgoing QSL service.

E-mail is available through the ship's Internet connection, but at $0.40 per minute, will be used sparingly: N0UU@tri.net, at least until the spamers find that address.

Travels:

Sat 14 Oct Bora Bora No operation planned..recover from flight..relax with XYL, Jo Ann
Sun 15 Oct Makatea
Mon 16 Oct Fakarava
Tue 17 Oct Raroia
Wed 18 Oct At sea
Thu 19 Oct Pukarua
Fri 20 Oct Mangareva
Sat 21 Oct At sea
Sun 22 Oct Pitcairn No operation planned..sightsee..plenty of hams on this island
Mon 23 Oct Henderson
Tue 24 Oct Ducie
Wed 25 Oct At sea
Thu 26 Oct At sea
Fri 27 Oct Easter Island License not yet arrived..hope to operate 1st night of CQWWPhone

Daily ship reports can be found at:
http://www.expeditions.com/dersearch/dailyexpeditionreports.asp

Wish me luck and good DX to you all,
N0UU