Bert - VK9XV
DXpedition to Christmas Island

Total QSO count: 30.000

New DXpedition: 18 - 25 May 2002
Operating on: 80M (3798 KHz)-40-20-17-15-12-10M (only SSB)
Equipment: Kenwood TS-50, 100 W,  Doublet
QSL preferable by the Bureau to PA3GIO
Christmas Island local time: UTC + 7 hours
Sunrise: 23:08, sunset: 10:40 UTC
IOTA: OC-002
Zone: 29 (CQ) 54 (ITU)

DX cluster, lookup callsign:    Search DXCALL ANY COLUMN

Year Band Mode Max number of spots to show

Previous activity:
6 - 13 September 2001: 8100 QSOs

Audio fragment recorded by K3XC:
8 September 2001, 12:06 UTC, VK9XV on 17M (wav-format, 72.8 KB)

Previous activity:
24 - 25 August and 2 - 13 September 2000
14000 QSO's (1400 on 24, 25 August and 2 September with mobile antenna Outbacker Perth)

Travel report, select language:   English  Deutsch  Nederlands

QSL:


Propagation time! VK9XV with the Outbacker Perth Mobile antenna



New pictures (all can be enlarged by clicking on them):


The Fairchild Metro plane, someone called it "The flying pencil", here before we took off in 2000 on Jakarta Airport to bring us to Christmas Island. My XYL in the centre keeps a close eye on two small rugsacks with my equipment, we agreed with the pilots that I have to take care of the radio's and there was room enough, not many travellers for Christmas Island.

VK9XV position from a 737 Merpati flight in 2001

This was the VK9XV set up the first two evenings... Thursday 24 and Friday 25 March and Saturday 2 September after my return from Cocos Keeling, the mobile ant. The Outbacker Perth you can see the coax to the balcony, from there I did operate into the night and... it did work!

On Sunday 3 September I set up the fishing rods, attached them on the steel sticks which I already put in the ground with a sledge hammer the week before, the fishing rods where on the cliff edge, a wonderful position indeed. The hill behind is southwest. Just in case I had a isolator in the palm, but it was not very tall and further from the ocean.

Looking north (yes indeed some USA signals used this path!) I was worried regarding my QTH but it turned out to be almost the ideal spot on the island: The northwest corner (Rocky Point) on a cliff with an uninterupted take off over the very deep (5000M) ocean from west to northeast.
Since I noticed that the Hill which otherwise blocked the path to the East just ended at that spot, my worries came to an end.

Looking north and the three fishing rods with the 2 x 20M with open feeder line on the cliffside.

View to the west. Short path to Europe....

Looking northwest.
The wonderful operating position, most days from 09.00 AM local until 03.00 AM in the night. On the left corner is the fishing rod with the feedpoint with open feeder line.
  (Left:) The superb location of VK9XV
This picture is from the nursery lookout (No 28 on the map)
  (Left:) The detailed map with the position of VK9XV

(Above and right:) The cliffside position...




Click to enlarge

Sunset. View from the balcony of the QTH.

Swells battering the position between October and April

Links:
SPOT VK9XV on DX Summit
Christmas Island Tourism Association
DXpedition VK9XX - VK9YY 1999
Dept. of Transport and Regional Services - Christmas Island
Dept. of Transport and Regional Services - Christmas Island - Photo Library
United Nations System-Wide Earthwatch - Christmas Island
Indian Ocean Diving Academy

Weather link:
Weather forecast - Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology


14 - 20 September 2001:     Cocos Keeling (VK9CQ) - IOTA OC-003
30 September - 3 October 2001: Kangaroo Island (VK6GIO/5) - IOTA OC-139
9 - 15 October 2001:     Lord Howe Island (VK9LO) - IOTA OC-004

Last update: 17 May 2003