VK0EK Heard Island Dxpedition 2016

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Following his visit to the Australian Antarctic Division offices in Hobart, Tasmania, Expediton Organizer Dr. Robert Schmieder made the final decisions that will define the expedition.

The expedition is scheduled for Jan., 2015. It will use the Belgian vessel Cmdr. Fourcault, taking a team of 35 persons. The vessel will sail from Capetown, South Africa, and will go directly for Heard Island. After landing the team and equipment by helicopter, it will stay at the island for 30-days, providing support, emergency capability, and movement of personnel and supplies to various locations on the island. Following recovery of the team and equipment, it will return to Capetown. The entire journey will take about 50 days.

The central goal of the expedition is to discover previously unknown species, colonies of life supported by the heat from the volcano, organisms that have exceptional ability to withstand rapid and prolonged temperature change, and evidence of environmentally-driven speciation in populations with minimal or no predators or niche competitors. The expedition will contribute to our understanding of the limits of life in extreme environments and to the dynamics of biodiversity in the Antarctic. The expedition is part of a worldwide effort to map and describe the biosphere, in particular life at the edge of life.

The team will be made up of several sub-teams, each with its own goals: The mountaineering team will carry out the first-ever traverse of the 9000-ft. volcano, mapping and searching for unknown life supported by the active volcanic heat and emissions. The cryptobiology team will search for previously known species in the rocks, gravel, soil, ice, and on plants and bones. The marine science team will explore the lagoons, the shallow subtidal areas, and will search for a reported new species of killer whale. The communications team will use amateur radio to make up to 150,000 individual contacts worldwide using the callsign VKØEK, and provide real-time reporting of data and images to the internet, including automatically updating websites that display the activities of the team. The documentation team will record the logs and data, shoot still and video images, and atempt to observe unusual atmospheric and planetary optical and meteorological phenoma. These five activities will be presented on separate real-time interactive websites.

The expedition will be carried out under the auspices of Cordell Expeditions, a nonprofit research organizatioon that has done expeditions to remote islands for more than 30 years. For further information, please contact Dr. Schmieder at schmieder@cordell.org, and visit the expedition website http://www.heardisland.org.

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VK0EK The DXpedition from Cordell, the expedition is scheduled for January 2016. It will use the Belgian vessel Cmdr. Fourcault, taking a team of 35 persons. The vessel will sail from Cape town, South Africa, and will go directly for Heard Island. After landing the team and equipment by helicopter, it will stay at the island for 30 days, providing support, emergency capability, and movement of personnel and supplies to various locations on the island. Following recovery of the team and equipment, it will return to Cape town. The entire journey will take about 50 days. The team leader is KK6EK.

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NEWS RELEASE

We are pleased to announce that Cordell Expeditions has reached a tentative agreement with the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) for use of the vessel S. A. Agulhas for the 2016 Heard Island Expedition. Formerly it serviced the South African National Antarctic Program (SANAP) research bases: Gough Island, Marion Island, and SANAE IV in Antarctica. With the commissioning of the new Agulhas II in 2012, the S. A. Agulhas was designated for training and research cruises.

With the use of the Agulhas, many aspects of the Expedition are greatly enhanced. Foremost is the safety and reliability of the vessel; it is designed and proven for operation in the Southern Ocean. It is equipped with heavy-lifting cranes, four laboratories, helicopter deck, and 8000/m3 of cargo space. The vessel will remain with us at Heard Island, providing support, personnel exchange, and emergency response.

We have been allocated 40 berths, which we will divide about equally between the scientific team and the communications (mostly amateur radio) team. Also onboard will be 80 cadets undergoing training for maritime service, and we look forward to working with them. Because of the larger team, we are able to shorten the stay on the island to 20 days, making the entire voyage from Cape Town and return 45 days, rather than 55 as previously planned. This enables us to carry out a full-service, all-band, all-mode amateur radio DXpedition, using the callsign VKØEK.

The vessel will depart from Cape Town, South Africa in late December, 2015, for the 12-day cruise directly to Heard Island. It is expected that the entire stay at the island will be during January 2016, with return to Cape Town in February.

Currently we have room for additional team members, and we welcome inquiries from potential participants. We estimate that the participant cost will be roughly $15k, all-inclusive (Cape Town?HI?Cape Town). We have established local teams in the San Francisco Bay Area and in South Africa to help plan and coordinate the expedition. We would welcome help with any aspect of this project.

The expedition website is http://www.heardisland.org and the DXpedition website is http://www.VK0EK.org.

For more information, please contact the organizer and expedition leader: Dr. Robert W. Schmieder, KK6EK, schmieder@cordell.org or co-organizer Rich Holoch, KY6R, rholoch@comcast.net.

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FLASH NEWS

We have been building the radio team over the past year, and we have more than half the projected 20 participants committed. Unfortunately, in the past two months, five team members withdrew, including the team leader, citing conflicts or the desire to participate in a shorter, less challenging DXpedition.

This circumstance has relatively suddenly left us short of a team leader and committed operators, and therefore we have decided to completely re-organize the radio team.

The first step is to identify a new team leader who is widely respected in the DXing community and experienced with organizing and leading DXpeditions to rare locations. The new team leader will have the authority and responsibility for rebuilding the radio team and for managing the amateur radio operations on Heard Island.

http://vk0ek.org/

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New Radio Team Leaders Announced

We are pleased to announce that we have made an informal agreement with Wayne Mills, N7NG and Martti Laine, OH2BH to lead the Heard Island radio team. They will have complete authority and responsibility to build the team, interface with the DXing community, manage radio operations on Heard Island, and other matters relating to the radio part of the expedition. Matters that concern the entire expedition such as safety, schedule, vessel, logistics, communications, facilities, and finances remain the responsibility of the Expedition Leader, Robert Schmieder. A formal agreement will be completed in the near future that specifies these various roles and responsibilities. We will provide more information as we move forward, and in the meantime we invite you to leave your feedback in this blog http://vk0ek.org

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During the past several months, we have made considerable progress and some signficant changes in the plan for the Heard Island Expedition. The most important change is the switch to the vessel Akademik Shokalskiy, operated by Heritage Expeditions. This switch brings numerous advantages, including:

* Departure from Fremantle, Australia, significantly more convenient to the numerous Australia team members.

* The vessel will stay with us for the duration at Heard Island, nominally 21 days. We are discussing the possiblity that the vessel will make a side-trip to Kerguelen during the stay on Heard Island, perhaps enabling additional activities from that location.

* Due to the higher vessel speed (14 kt, 16kt max) and the lower distance (2209 nm) of the Skokalskiy, the total trip duration is reduced to 35 days, rather than 45 days previously planned.

* Calculations by N6BV and KY6R indicate that radio propagation is optimum in November, significantly better than the previously planned for January.

* Carrying out the expedition in 2015 enables us to apply for a major grant (up to $100k) from the Explorers Club, available only for 2015.



During this period we have also increased the team roster, which currently has 28 members, more than the minimum of 25 needed for the vessel charter. The roster will be updated on this website in the relatively near future.

The budget for the entire expedition is $800k. Considering expected support, especially from the amateur radio community, we expect to be able to cap the participant expense at $18k. In addition, the team will be working on corporate in-kind donations that can reduce this to $15k.

In summary, we believe we now have all the core elements in place for the expedition, and have moved from the planning phase into the preparation phase. We will welcome your contributions of any kind, and still have spaces for a few more participants.

We sincerely thank the sponsors and donors to this point, and future support in advance.

For information, please contact the Expedition Leader.

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NEW EXPEDITION TEAM UPDATE



We are pleased to announce that we have more than the minimum number of team members required for the vessel charter, and also that the team is well-balanced between scientists and radio operators. This enables us to proceed with the preparations for the expedition, including acquisition of facilities and equipment, planning logistics, defining specific scientific and radio operation goals, development of software, fundraising, and other activities.

Approximately half the team will be carrying out exploratory science, searching for rare and unknown species of plants and animals. It is predicted that between 200 and 300 species live on Heard Island that are presently unknown. This comprises a significant part of the total biodiversity of this extremely isolated island, crucial for testing model predictions of the effects of global climate change.

The other half of the team will carry out a major amateur radio operation, using the callsign VKØEK. With the anticipated stay of up to 21 days on the island, we expect to log well over 100,000 contacts worldwide. Some aspects of the activity on the island will be seen in real time on the expedition website http://www.heardisland.org.

The full team, including the participants who will travel to the island, is listed here. Although participation is by invitation only, we welcome inquiries from anyone. The project is described in detail in the Project Description. Other documents are available on the expedition website. For more information, please contact the Expedition Leader: robert@schmieder.com.

10 October 2014

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UPDATE by Bob KK6EK

Team members, support people, sponsors, and interested persons — We have official confirmation from the vessel for the dates of the expedition:

Nov. 10 – Dec. 22, 2015

These dates mean depart/return Fremantle, Australia. The visit to Kerguelen is not yet confirmed–the skipper is working on that, so we’ll update you when we have news.

Thanks to Rodney Russ for arranging with the Shokalskiy for extra time in Fremantle in order to accommodate this need. Some team members would have been unable to participate had we not been able to return before Christmas. This is a nice present, and ensures that the expedition can make (and keep) the plans.

Bob, KK6EK (Cordell Expeditions)

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UPDATE by Bob KK6EK – It is with considerable pleasure that we announce the award of a $50,000 grant from the Northern California DX Foundation. For years the NCDXF has enabled major DXpeditions by ensuring that the extraordinary costs, particularly transportation, can be met. NCDXF support probably represents the most accurate indicator of eventual project success, and we are very grateful for the implied endorsement. The grant is contingent on completing the contract with the vessel, but this is considered a relatively straightforward process, probably complete by mid-April. With that, the expedition has obtained its major components (team, transportation, finances), so preparations of facilties, equipment, and logistics will move forward.

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Voyage rescheduled for March 6-April 20, 2016

Events over the past month have forced a significant change in the plans for the Expedition. In particular, Heritage Expeditions (Rodney Russ) promised to provide the vessel Shokalskiy for the voyage. From the beginning it was stated, and then included in the draft contract, that the vessel would stay in the vicinity of Heard Island for the entire time (3 weeks). However, about 2 weeks ago, when it came time to complete and sign the contract, it suddenly became clear that Russ had contracted for outside work during the time we were to be on Heard Island. Clearly, he intended to drop us off and then return 3 weeks later to pick us up. This was patently unacceptable from a safety and operational point of view, and when I tried to negotiate the point Russ became belligerent, claiming the Russians demanded a decision that very day, and abruptly cancelled the deal.

As a consequence, I was suddenly faced with the situation of a great plan and team but no vessel. I knew of only one alternative, namely the vessel Braveheart, owned and operated by Nigel Jolly, also from New Zealand. I reached Nigel by telephone at a conference in Rotterdam, and explained the problem, and then asked whether it might be possible that the Braveheart would be available for the voyage (I already knew that he had a charter for the best month January). After a few days, Nigel returned with a proposal: he could take us to Heard Island in March, 2016. Over the next week we discussed the basic parameters and he provided a draft contract taken from other contracts he had used. A few days ago he offered a 44-day trip leaving from Cape Town, South Africa, to Heard Island for 21 days, then on to Fremantle, Western Australia. The price would be US$350k. The major limitation is that the Braveheart carries only 14 passengers.

Faced with the awful choice between a smaller expedition with a smaller vessel, and a larger expedition with no vessel, I chose the former. After several days, I was able to get assurance from the AAD that the required vessel inspection could be done in Cape Town, that the Braveheart would be permitted to sail to Heard Island from Cape Town, that we could obtain the AAD-required Public Liability Insurance ( a $20million policy), and that our major sponsor, the Northern California DX Foundation would approve the change. With those issues satisfied, I made the decision to sign the contract for the Braveheart, and did so. At 6:00 PM California time, I put up a NEWS item on our website.

I know this development will be a bit of a shock for almost everyone, and it will significantly impact the role of some of you in the expedition. For any inconvenience or complication this will cause, I am sorry. For those who have put in payments on your fair share participation costs, if it turns out that you cannot go to Heard Island, you will receive your deposits back, with my appreciation for your faith in the project. Some of you, particularly the radio operators, will be able to go, so your payments will stay in, and we will expect the next payment June 30. If you are unable to go but still want to participate in some way, there will be ample opportunity for you to obtain specimens, data, help in preparations, and in many other ways enjoy the pleasure of helping make the project happen without the discomfort of the rock-and-roll boat ride that the Southern Ocean will treat us with.

Tomorrow I am traveling to Ohio for the Hamvention conference, returning a week from today. I should have email, so we can communicate, albeit sporadically. A soon as I can after returning, I will work on the next set of plans, and I will check with each of the participants on your thoughts and feelings. Even if you’re not a participant, I would welcome your thoughts and feelings. I want to thank everyone for your contributions, some very extensive, to date, and hope that you will continue to be part of this major expedition adventure. When it’s all over, I will, of course, write the book about it, and your part will be appropriately presented and appreciated.

Dr. Robert W. Schmieder, Cordell Expeditions.

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NEWS

http://www.heardisland.org/HD_pages/HD_news.html