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Members of the Provins ARC (F6KOP) will activate Robinson Crusoe Island (SA-005, aka Juan Fernandez Archipelago) between February 20th and March 8th. Callsign 3G0ZC is pending. The DXCC entity is rated #60 on Clublog #45 for DX Magazine and #32 at DARC. The last DXpedition to this IOTA (SA-005) was in 2013.

The team composed of 20 operators plans to be active with 8 stations on the air at the same time from 160-6 meters, using SSB, CW and Digimodes. A special effort will be made on low bands. Some WSPR activity is also planned. They target 100k QSOs. Their stations will have about 700W into Spiderbeams on the higher bands and verticals on the lower bands. The team plans radio contacts with schools to show their passion and promote the hamradio activity. Logs will be uploaded on a daily basis on Clublog and LoTW depending on the local internet access. QSL policy is to answer every request, direct or by the Bureau.

The operators are well-known, participating in DXpeditions such as Réunion, Mellish Reef, Bangladesh, Clipperton, San Andres, Bonaire, Cameroon, Uganda….Alain, F5JTV (Leader), Tony/F8ATS (Co-leader), Jean-Luc/F1ULQ (Co-leader), Norbert/DJ7JC, Heye/DJ9RR, Jeremy/EI5GM, Dave/EI9FBB, Patrick/F2DX, Jimi/F4DLM, Michel/F5EOT, Antoine/F5RAB, Stéphane/F5UOW, John/F5VHQ, Gilles/F6IRA, Günther/OE3GCU, Karl/OE3JAJ, François/ON4LO, Eric/ON7RN and Kenneth/OZ1IKY. Pilot stations are Col/MM0NDX, John/K6MM and Andre/V51B.

Look for a Web site to be online soon. A Facebook page is available:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/JuanFernandez2015/747628888649765

Press Release #1

After Tromelin, the Provins ARC, F6KOP will be on Robinson Crusoë Island SA-005 (Juan Fernandez Archipelago) from 24th February to 4th march 2015

A team of 22 operators from 7 different nationalities will be active on 160 to 6m

The web site will be online soon

QSL direct / buro / LOTW

Team Leader : F5JTV Alain, Co-leaders : F8ATS Tony, F1ULQ Jean Luc

Source : F6KOP

More information to follow.

73 de Maurice, F5NQL, KOP team 10

Communication Officer

Preparing and packing at F6KOP

In January 2015, About one ton of material is prepared by F6KOP for shipping by sea freight. There is a big box and 3 pallets containing particularly 8 beam antennas and masts, a dozen verticals, hundreds of meters of coaxial cable, a part of the amplifiers and laptops

Equipment shipped to Valparaiso

he sea freight left for Chile in early January. The BODO SCHULTE container Ship will have a stop on January 31, at Caucedo (Dominican Republic) before crossing the Panama Canal, and reach Valparaiso (Chile) in February.
Fingers crossed for all our material arrives safely …

3GØZC Licence arrived

Good news, Subtel, the Chilan Telecommunication Administration, confirmed that we will get our requested callsign : 3GØZC.

Building a new 30m four square

Norbert DJ7JC and Heye DJ9RR prepared and tested our new 30m foursquare (photos available). Good job guys!

Special DXpedition 6el. 6m DXBeam

DXBeam manufacturer (Patrick, F2DX) built a special F6KOP DXpedition version of his DXBeam 6el. 6m Yagi. This new antenna is packaged in a heavy duty pipe including dedicated operating instructions

F5JTV , F8ATS , F1ULQ , DJ7JC , DJ9RR , EI6JK , EI9FBB , EI9KC , F2DX , F4DLM , F5EOT , F5MFV , F5NTZ , F5RAB , F5UOW , F5VHQ , F6IRA , M0PLX , OE3GCU , OE3JAG , ON4LO , ON7RN , OZ1IKY will be active from Robinson Crusoe Island, Archipelago Juan Fernandez 24 February - 4 March 2015 as 3G0ZC
They will operate on 160-6m CW , SSB , Digital modes
QSL via F1ULQ OQRS , LOTW

Trip to Robinson Crusoe Island

The first part of the team we called “EDT” (Early Departure Team) will take off from Paris Orly on Sunday February 15th at 08:15 to Santiago de Chile (with a stopover in Madrid). The flight time is about 17 hours. 9 operators are concerned: F5JTV (our team-leader), F8ATS (co-leader), F2DX, F5EOT, F5UOW, F5VHQ, F6IRA, DJ7JC and DJ9RR.

The purpose of this early departure is to convey a ton of material that has been shipped by boat last month, and should arrive in Valparaiso (Chile) shortly before us. After customs clearance, we must ensure that pallets go to Robinson Crusoe Island which is 700 km away (2 or 3 days by boat needed). We will also carry with us the remaining material that has not been shipped by boat, including some of the amps, transceivers, computers and antennas.

Robinson Crusoe AirportEDT should arrive in Robinson Crusoe around February 20th with a 10 seat aircraft (about 2 hours flight) to finish with such a small local boat (about an hour) because the airport is away.
Once on the island, there will still be a lot of issues to address (location of stations, accommodation etc.). We also intend to spend these few days before the arrival of the main group to start installing some antennas, or at least accurately define their location. Wait and see …

Almost a week later, the second part of the team consisting of 14 operators will take off from Paris Orly on Saturday February 21st at 20:20 via Santiago – Valparaiso on 22nd and then go to Juan Fernandez with 2 small aircrafts chartered for shipping, like EDT done…
Our friends should join us on February 22nd in the afternoon.

All these forecasts, including the flight Valparaiso – Robinson Crusoe and the local boat ride from the airport, will of course depend on the weather.

EDT arrived to Santiago de Chile



After a flight time of 17 hours from Paris with a stopover in Madrid, the “Early Departure Team” (Left to Right: F5JTV, F5UOW, F8ATS, F5EOT, YL DJ9RR, DJ7JC, F2DX, DJ9RR, F6IRA) arrived tired in Santiago yesterday night. We brought with us another 400 kg of material, but upon arrival, 2 luggages were missing. We hope to have them soon because there was such an amplifier! Thanks to Roberto, CE3CT and Pedro, CE3FZ who picked us with a warm welcome. F5VHQ joined us today.

In the next few days, EDT will pick up the pallets which came by containership to Valparaiso (110 km from Santiago) and will prepare to ship to the island. Wait and see …

Press Release # 2

18/02/2015



Due to new regulation rules which enter in force this week, flights to Juan Fernandez are now limited to 6 passengers. This change implies more planes than before and a dramatically increased budget which now represent an overall cost of US$ 56.000 (only for flights)!

We would have prefered to transport the passengers by sea, but the only maritime company with adequat fleet has a very limited capacity.

We have decided to successfully complete our DXpedition. We need to raise awarness about the importance TO BRING YOUR CONTRIBUTION http://juanfernandez2015.com/?page_id=795. Each sum, however small, is now welcome!

On Wednesday 18/02, a team will take the 400kg of equiment we brought by plane to Valparaiso and will supervise and manage the loading of all freight (1.2 ton). The cargo will then route to Robinson Crusoe Island on Thursday 19/02.

Due to poor weather conditions until Thrusday 19/02, the EDT (Early Departure Team) departure has been postponed to Friday 20/02.

Departure of the remaining operators is still scheduled for Sunday 22/02.

UPDATE - Robinson Crusoe Island, March 2, 2015

On 27/02, the last group of 6 operators could finally go to Robinson Crusoe. Between bad weather for landing, and unavailable qualified pilot, we had to wait 9 days (and 4 flights) to bring everyone together. Morale was not great for those who had to wait in Santiago.

All antennas are mounted. For lack of space, we sacrificed the GP 80m SSB into a reverse L 160m. A Beverage of 450ft could be installed somehow; the terrain is hilly. The 80/160 traffic started recently. Unfortunately, the QRN is very high probably because of power lines. A permanent noise S7 on Beverage makes it very slow and painful traffic, especially as the signals are weak and almost at the same level.

We settled on two widely separated sites. The first in a hotel with a room large enough to accommodate 6 stations (2 CW, SSB 2, 1 mixed, and 1 for the 50 MHz) has an opening to the sea of ??350° (USA) 90° (Europe). The second site is also in a (small) hotel high but less clear to the US. It hosts only the RTTY station. This setup with band filters, allowing seven power stations to traffic almost in all modes without interfering.

The pileups are huge with Europe, Japan or the USA. True to their reputation, the Europeans are certainly much less disciplined, but by showing great firmness, we arrive at a result. So much for “unconditional nags” because it is very easy to get rid of it by passing a 599 without putting them in the log!

5 x Spiderbeam are always in the same direction. Leaving them in Europe, the USA still going strong. If the signals are changing (or degrade) from one day to the other, it is only a matter of propagation. The lack of internet penalizes us and we have many duplicates. Yesterday, after the umpteenth attempt and a long wait, we managed to upload the first log on Club Log.

Power cuts are unfortunately daily and last up to more than 3 hours!

We may have to stop everything one day earlier (March 3, 12pm local). Given the setbacks for flights, we want to take a minimum of risk to return, especially as the Santiago-Paris tickets are non-refundable!

73, Patrick CE0Z / F2DX

UPDATE - Robinson Crusoe Island, March 3, 2015

We still made an effort on low bands last night but apart from 40m which produced a number of European QSOs, the 80 and 160 were again a disaster. To make matters worse, the index K was yesterday at 8!

Good surprise last night on 6m (150 QSOs). Europe was limited, as usual, the EA7, CT, and some EA3.

The start of the teardown is confirmed for tomorrow early afternoon. We are beginning to disassemble, but we keep two active stations until tomorrow morning.

73, Patrick CE0Z / F2DX

Back to Santiago, 3GØZC is over



The team is back to Santiago since last night. We left the island a day early to avoid problems (especially weather) that we experienced for the 4 outbound flights.

Sorry for not having been able to update the site during the DXpedition, as it was expected. We had no internet connection from Robinson Crusoe. The few log updates and Tweets have been performed very slowly with an expensive cell phone connection.

You can now view many pictures of the expedition http://juanfernandez2015.com/?page_id=344. Online logs (about 52.000 QSO) will also be updated today.

In the coming days, we will also put on our site several specific news (which were to be posted from Robinson Crusoe). Stay tuned!