3Y0K Bouvet Island Dxpedition 2025

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We’re building an organization of 25+ experienced DXpeditioners committing to and capable of executing some of the rarest and most difficult entities to activate. In the pipeline we have two exciting DXpeditions planned.

3YØK DXpedition to Bouvetøya January 2025 (#11 most wanted)
We will stay up to 21 days on the island
A team of 3 operators + support team of 4 persons + remote team
Budget $440,000 where 2/3rd of budget is already secured
$150,000 in support still needed
ALL PERMITS IN HAND
We have signed a contract with a vessel owner with a proven track record in Arctic and Antarctic waters. The experienced Captain has been supporting expedition teams since 1997 and before that has been managing his own fishing trawler for decades. We’re also teaming up with Peter as responsible for landing us safely on the beach, similarly to what he did this year. We are three persons with previous experience from landing at the island. Peter’s experience, skill and determination is again an important factor for success!

We have been through some 3YØJ lessons learned where everything have been scrutinized to improve the next attempt. This time we plan 3YØK based on our previous Bouvet experience! We will go only with smaller Honda gasoline generators, and it will be a lightweight DXpedition but still with some yagis and amplifiers. Weight is reduced from 7 ton to 2 ton. Peter will be leading the support team of total 4 younger persons, that comes in addition to the radio operators.

We will also engage a remote team where AA7JV George will be involved with tons of remote experience from his Pacific trips. George will design, test, and supply the remote radio system adapted to Bouvet environment and we’re grateful for his contribution. The remote radio system will be Pelican Cases with radio and power supply, where we will taking four remote radios and 5 radios with amplifiers for the local operators. In addition to the 7 members that will be on the island there will thus be additional remote members providing you with QSOs.

Operators: Dave WD5COV, Emil DL8JJ and Ken LA7GIA

Media Officer: James Gallo KB2FMH

Visit our Facebook page and our website http://www.3y0k.com.

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[PRESS RELEASE #2] – Revealing some of our coming Bouvet plans, and a dedicated camp for North America (low angle take off).

We have worked on our website – and today we launched a common website for those two DXpeditions http://www.3y0.no / http://www.3y0k.com / http://www.3y0l.com

With this we start fundraising for our 3YØK Bouvet trip. At the time of this announcement we hold the only valid DXpedition callsign for Bouvet – 3YØK, and we have signed all required contracts and agreements.

We’re seeking donations to help cover our $440,000 budget where today we already have secured 67% of the funds. Thus we need to fund the remaining $150,000, which is significantly less than all previous DXpeditions to Bouvet.

Some clubs and individuals have already donated – and we really appreciate it!

The team of 3 operators and 4 men support team will depart from Falkland island and will spend 14 days motor sailing to Bouvet. The vessel is 65 ft, steel, motorized and with backup sails and is a former passenger vessel that has been refitted since 2020. After being refitted it will is considered as a new boat with all new interior and engine (5000 hp), two new masts, sails, genset, anchor, chain, all new hydraulics, EIRP, 12 man Solas lift raft, radar, eco sounder, autopilot and increased fuel capacity. It is also polar rated and has 5 water tight sections. Despite it is 65ft, the storage capacity is likely better than Marama as in addition to main deck has one large roof deck. We have scrutinized the equipment list and have significantly reduced the total weight from a whopping 7 tons to a slim 2.1 tons including needed generator fuel. We have already prepared a detailed loading plan and we know exactly how many barrels, ski bags, boxes and pelican cases to bring onshore and how to pack it. Our landing plans have been optimized And, given our previous experience in landing, we have a solid and realistic plan to go onshore which again will be a staged landing. We will be using 3 dinghies, where two dinghies will always be in the water at the same time. The Captain has been supporting private, government, film company & tourist expeditions to high latitudes continually since 1997 and his crew is young (in their 30s), but also experienced in these waters.

We have contracted 30 days around the island, and 21 days on the island, and the Captain has agreed to this being a performance clause in the contract. There exists liquidated damages in the contract should this be breached. DXpedition planning involves not only selecting radios, amplifiers and antennas. It is also about risks, budget, finance, cash flow and contract integrity. We are the first one’s to know that there is unfinished business at Bouvet, and we have a strong desire to make it happen again, but Better. We have therefore worked hard after the previous attempt to come to this position to announce a return to Bouvet and with our low cost project, dedicated and experienced team and duration, we have prepared the groundwork for a feasible Bouvet project without breaking the bank.

Among other revisions we will only use lightweight Honda generators, and we will go lightweight with most everything but this time with amplifiers and Yagi from 20-10m. We are excited to announce our plans for a dedicated North America camp. During our previous attempt we scouted an area ½ mile west of the main camp. This area offers a low angle take off to NA and will make our signals much stronger and louder all over NA compared to the previous time. We will be able to setup a dedicated camp at the hill with clear take off to the NA west coast (an unobstructed view).

It will not be possible without your generous support and we are seeking donors to help us cover the remaining $150,000. Please visit our website for more information. or click Here to donate Now

Thank you,

73 from the 3YØK Team

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3Y0K Press Release # 3 - January 16, 2024

What is the current 3Y0K plan for landing the equipment? Learning from the 3Y0J mistakes is essential to achieve success.

Last time we planned based on little to no information about the landing conditions. This time we base our plan on our own real experience – three of us already did many dinghy landings, and we know the waters.
This time we go with a lightweight but still powerful setup with amplifiers and yagi. We have removed all the heavy equipment like e.g 250 kg winch system that wasn’t suitable, heavy diesel generators, tools, 300 liter paraffin, excess water, guys stakes for tents, heavy antenna/mast system. There is no social tent, as we’re there to work the pileup, and we go with some smaller personal Norwegian winter rated tents that will also be emergency tents during first landing. These tents will be sponsored by a Norwegian manufacturer! The team will make the tent selection next month.

We have split the 1900 kg equipment, fuel, food and supplies in 3 stages where stage 1 and 2 is 750 kg each and stage 3 is 400 kg, where last stage mainly consisting of spare parts and more fuel. Breaking the numbers further down we see that each of the seven persons that will stay on the island have to carry 100 kg for stage 1 and 2 and 50 kg for stage 3. The 100 kg equals 5 trips with 20 kg each trip!

Again, if you were a 3Y0K operator you would have to carry a little over 100 kg that would typically be:

1x 23 kg barrel
1x Honda generator 22 kg
2x fuel cans 36 kg
1x antenna skibag 16 kg
1x misc bag/box 13 kg
The barrels contain, electronics, radio, amplifiers, food, etc. There is absolutely no doubt that the experience we have makes it possible to detail out exactly what we need to carry. Again would you think it is feasible to carry this amount of equipment, food, fuel and supplies? On the return we would have significant less weight to carry down from 1900 kg to only 1200 kg!

With $30,000 in donations, we still need your support to pay the $100,000 vessel deposit that is approaching. If you want to see Bouvet activated please consider supporting us on http://www.3y0k.com