Press Release #8
6 February 2008
3Y0E is rapidly approaching the end of operations - was it really Dec 19, 2007 Petrus ZS6GCM made fame with his Bouvet callsign?
This was never a full blown Dxpedition with state of the art equipment being used. Just newly licensed Petrus, with a joint South African/Norwegian research team on Bouvet, using a borrowed IC-735 and 4BTV vertical. He did (and is still doing) fantastically well.
All good things must come to an end. Petrus has been in constant contact recently, and informs the team he will break camp and go QRT from Bouvet Island on Saturday, Feb 9 2008.
Upon his arrival home, 3Y0E will be staying with Rhy ZS6DXB for two weeks. During this time Petrus will provide access to all videos/images he took whilst on Bouvet. Stan SQ8X has some very important news about this, which will be included on site sometime Friday.
This morning at 06:30UTC, true to his word, Petrus was heard calling CQ for JA/VK. Unfortunately, he reports HF conditions were awful.
To date, 3Y0E has made over 1400 QSO’s from Bouvet Island. The team thinks this is a remarkable achievement from one so new to amateur radio. Until Feb 9, Petrus will remain calling on 14260 MHz, with a split of “up 5″. Generally, he transmits from approx 17z onwards, until he hears no more.
So, with only a few more days to go, 3Y0E and the team congratulate everyone who has made contact with the fifth most wanted DXCC. Logbook issues/errors will be looked at closely once Petrus himself is back home. Stay tuned for this…
Everyone associated with 3Y0E would again like to thank individual donors who very kindly donated to Petrus to enable him to gain some radio equipment of his own. All monies donated have now made it possible for Petrus to purchase a beam for his next Dxpedition! Thank you!
3Y0E.com has now over 35,000 unique visits, with over 105,000 page views. We thank everyone who has added their input to the site.
* You may be interested to view the ship steaming towards Bouvet to collect the team.
73 to all!
Rhynhardt Louw ZS6DXB
3Y0E Pilot station and Media Officer
www.3y0e.com
zs6dxb@kats.za.net
Filed under: Uncategorized
Yes indeed, a great job from Petrus. He did extremely well, even with those very poor propagation conditions and using light borrowed equipement for this first one. Pile-ups will be bigger on the next round on Bouvet, with more sunspots, beam and maybe more power, HI ! All my warmest congrats to the entire team, specially for Petrus !!!! Have a nice trip back home !!!!!!!
Thanks for your very nice comment Ronan. Ofcorse we are very happy that Petrus has made extremely great job from Bouvet Isl. I am sure a lot of HAM’s can’t understand that this DX pedtion has not been planed like the other DX-Peditons for a long time ago… and that Petrus is new between the HAM’s and everything is difficult for himself.But with the equipment and the antenna he’s using the results are really fantastic. At the beginning I didn’t dream he will make so much contacts, a lot of people ask me why he choose this time of the year to make the DX pedition durring this bad propogation, how to explain them that this is not planed DX Pedition and Petrus just start learn the HAM activity from Bouvet island, finding some free time from his very busy days and a limited power to make QSO’s??? I know it’s not understandable for many people but I am sure that many people are VERY HAPPY -
with this new one DXCC.So I just can say CONGRATULATIONS Petrus for you very nice job as a RARE DX and I am proud to be your QSL manager .You make my life very happy , doesn’t matter I have had a lot of days without any rest and that I leave all other works I am doing as a second job for me during your staying there but I am really very happy to be part of this wonderful team.
And I would like to say BIG BIG THANKS to ZS6DXB, MM0NDX, SQ8X(ex.SQ8AQD), NCDXF, OKDXA, LA4LN for their kind help and to everyone who donate the development of this RARE DXCC and peronsal donations to .THANK YOU !!!
73’s de LZ3HI (3Y0E QSL manager)
Please try to work some USA stations