The AH1A Saga - Pacific Expedition to Howland Island

[IK0ZCW]

An international team of radio amateurs and scientists travels by schooner to remote and barren Howland Island and is stranded for a week due to high surf. A planned 9 day visit was extended to 15 days. Howland Island is best known as the destination of the ill fated final flight of Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan and is located near the intersection of the equator and the International Date Line. The island is now a US National Wildlife Refuge managed for the protection of native plants and animals, including breeding seabirds, by the US F&WS. Legal entry is by special permit only. Over 52,000 radio contacts were made in Jan/Feb of 1993. Why this effort? Ham operators are licensed under ITU rules to practice the radio arts for education, enjoyment, and emergencies. A popular facet of ham radio is Dx-ing - gathering confirmed two way contacts on various signal modes and authorized frequencies with unique geopolitical entities. Currently there are 347 such entities.(For an explanation of how these entities are selected see http://www.deltadx.net/ABCDx/Sections/DXCC%20Entity.htm) . It generally takes decades to reach the upper ranks of this Dx-ing Club (DXCC). Contacting the uninhabited entities, like Howland, means someone has to go there and serve it up to the thousands of eager DXers worldwide. AH1A is the FCC issued callsign of the expedition. Produced and filmed by Walt Stinson, W0CP. Edited and narrated by Greg Reinhart. More info, including photos, magazine article and operator's manual at http://www.w0cp.com . For a view of Howland from the air, follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9c3yZ0xeHw