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</FONT> </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman">Our main donor: <A
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Date of <FONT face=Verdana>expedition</FONT>: Since 10 to 28 /
February / 2008</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"> Direct QSL cards to: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><STRONG>Carsten Esch<BR>Drosselweg
3</STRONG><BR><STRONG>21376
Salzhausen</STRONG><BR><STRONG>GERMANY</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG>(Online QSL Request System, more in</STRONG>: <A
href="http://ducie2008.dl1mgb.com/qslinfo/index.php">http://ducie2008.dl1mgb.com/qslinfo/index.php</A>)</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana size=3> We apologise for not bringing
out more news over the last weeks. This only had one reason. We were just too
busy with organising the shipments and simply run out of time. From now on until
our departure, we are planning to give you a short overview on a weekly
basis.<BR><BR>We will follow up on some items written below in the next news
too, this is intended to give you a bit more general insight ...<BR><BR>This is
really quite a major serious expedition with a huge amount of hardware intended
to make working "everyone" possible. We have undertaken a truly incredible
amount of work for 13 people to assemble, operate and then take down. The
"system" plan is really one that would make full use of 20 to 25 people if we
could have that many, and we are doing all this to make a standout presence on
the lowbands in particular, and all the bands in general.<BR><BR>We are going to
make a major amount of effort to make simultaneous operation in the same band
not only functional, but darn near perfect. This is really two expeditions in
one because we are setting up two widely separated camps - camps that will be so
far apart that they have to operate fully independently from a logistics
standpoint as well as on the air.<BR><BR>Even connecting the logging computers
requires a separate point to point digital microwave link between the
camps.<BR><BR>We will be installing some 6000m of coax and another 6000m of
control lines just to make 160, 80, and 75 all work perfectly at the same time
while sharing the same high performance receive antennas. This is just to
RECEIVE!<BR><BR>We are building two camps, so that means TWO antennas and
feedlines for each band (with the exception of 160m and 6m). This requires
approximately 2000m of coax cable just to feed the antennas to the
stations.<BR><BR>ALL of the antennas were prebuild and tested in DL, then again
put into pieces for shipment. We recorded the feedpoint parameters of each and
every element of the 4-Squares with 4/16/32/48 radials under each element. We
are not sure what kind of ground we can expect on Ducie (coral soil is not a
good conductor! It is only good if you have saltwater in the coral soil). We
sure hope that we don’t have to put 48 radials under EACH element but we are
prepared to do so. Did you make the math? For our lowband TX antennas we have
17.2 km of pre-cut radial wire with us ...<BR><BR>Equipment:<BR>We decided to
add and ship even more equipment. Array Solutions was kind enough to loan us
more filters for receive and transmit, this should help especially where we plan
to use two stations at the same time. DX Engineering helped us very much when we
had to shop for prefabricated coax jumper and equipment for our receive antenna
farm. Than we added more ACOM amplifiers and a OM Power 2500HF. We probably will
use the 2500HF on 160m. Meanwhile also the microHAM micro Keyer II for all
stations arrived and they will be air freighted to New Zealand together with 8
new laptops next week. Elecraft is still very busy to build our K3s, but as we
received one K3 some weeks ago for evaluation and integration testing, we are
very confident that we did choose the right radio.<BR><BR>This expedition will
not get the record for travelling light. Robin, WA6CDR shipped about 2000kg of
equipment from the West Coast of the US. Eric, K3NA some 700kg from Boston, I
(DL6LAU) about 1000kg from Germany. This does not include any generator, food,
gasoline or the like. These were only items needed to hear well and produce a
good signal from Ducie.<BR><BR>Talking about generators... We added some new
generators to the Bravehart inventory list and we will have 28kW of generator
power plus spares with us. 8000 litre of gasoline will be
carried.<BR><BR>Donations:<BR>We would like to emphasise on this again and we
sincerely hope we do not bore you. Donations prior to our departure are very
important for us.<BR><BR>On January 10th, the last payment to Braveheart has to
be done. This will be NZ$ 100.000,- (or US$ 77.000,- or EUR 52.500,-). After
this payment we will be at about MINUS US$ 120.000,- cash flow.<BR><BR>Please
remember, each team members already put in US$ 6.200,- and paid his own
transportation by air to Mangareva (FO).<BR><BR>We are deeply thankful to the
clubs, organisations and individuals who contributed over the last months. These
contributions prior our departure are maybe more important than the ones we hope
to receive after the hopefully successful completion of the
expedition.<BR><BR>We again would kindly ask you to check, if you could help
too. Details on how you can help can be found in the ‘How To Help’
section.<BR><BR>Webpage (</FONT></FONT><FONT size=2><FONT face=Verdana size=3><A
href="http://www.vp6dx.com">www.vp6dx.com</A>):<BR>We will switch to a new
design in a few days. Than you will also see more details about QSLing, our
operating strategy and the like.<BR><BR>The VP6DX team would now like to wish
you a great start into the year 2008.<BR><BR>73sss<BR>Carsten,
DL6LAU<BR>Teamleader</FONT> </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>