Press Release #1 from CDXC: The UK DX Foundation

[IK0ZCW]

CDXC: The UK DX Foundation Encourages Rarer Vanuatu IOTA Activations

A four man DXpedition team activated Efate Island in the Vanuatu, New Hebrides IOTA OC-035 recently signing YJ0X. The DXpedition was a great success with 15,800 CW, SSB and RTTY QSOs made on 80 thru 6 metres.

As is often the case, the DXpedition benefitted greatly from technical and logistical help from a local amateur, in this case Rod Newell, YJ8RN. Rod, who is Australian by birth, has lived on Efate for many years and supports much of the HF and VHF radio infrastructure on the main islands of Vanuatu. He travels regularly between the four Vanuatu IOTA Island Groups and while Efate is reasonably accessible and regularly activated, the other three YJ groups are rarely activated. These are OC-104, OC-110 and OC-111.

In appreciation of the support that Rod gave YJ0X and to facilitate more frequent activation of Vanuatu’s more remote IOTAs, CDXC decided to donate a Yaesu FT-450 transceiver to Rod. He received the transceiver at the local Benjor Resort near Port Vila at the final DXpedition dinner.