3C0E Annobón Island and 3C6A Bioko Island
The operation will be on the air from February-March 2012.
The Callsign for Annobon Island (Pagalu): 3C0E, Grid JI28to and QSL info via EA5BYP.
The Callsign for Equatorial Guinea (Bioko island): 3C6A and QSL info via EA5BYP.
"Entity number 32 of the most wanted"
Operator:
EA5BYP - Elmo
EA5KM - Javier
IOTA AF-039
Group Name: Annobón (Pagalu) Island. Claimed by 52,9% of participants IOTA program.
Main prefix: 3C0. Location: 1.37S - 1.45S / 5.57E - 5.65E.
Sunset in AF-039 was approximately 1.7 hours ago at 17:35 UTC.
IOTA AF-010
Group Name: Bioko (Fernando Poo) Island. Claimed by 51,1% of participants IOTA program.
Main prefix: 3C. Location: 3.00N - 4.00N / 8.25E - 9.00E.
Sunset in AF-010 was approximately 1.2 hours ago at 17:32 UTC.
Annobón Island - Plans
TX / RX Antennas Others
Yaesu Spiderbeam 5 Bands Amplifier 1Kw
Yaesu Hexbeam 5 Bands Amplifier 1Kw
Icom Vertical 160/80 2 Heil
Vertical 40/30 2 Laptops
Beverage
5 Ele. Yagi 50Mhz
BAND CW SSB RTTY
This might change depending on the local QRM.
Annobón Island 3C0E - QSL VIA - Equatorial Guinea 3C6A
QSL VIA - Support us
All individual sponsors will get a "free"direct QSL card via mail, no need to send a SASE to our manager! (provided you worked us of course). Make sure your address is correct on QRZ.COM.
EA5BYP
Elmo Bernabé Coll
P.O.Box 3097
03080 Alicante
Spain
ea5byp@telefonica.net
This expedition is very expensive for two operators. Your financial support is very important for the Team. QSL direct, please include S.A.E. and enough postage to cover return QSL. That is 2GS or 2IRC or 1GS + 1IRC. Also accepted QSL via Bureau.
The log will be uploaded on Lotw a few months afther the Dxpedition.
ANNOBON ISLAND (Pagalu) [AF-039]
Annobon (01S26, 05E37), or as it is named localy Pagalu, Island is situated far outside the Bight of Biafra, about 160 kilometers south- west of Sao Thome Island and about 300 kilometes westsouthwest of Cabo Lopez. It is governmented by Equatorial Guinea, to which it belongs since the independence from Spain.
Annobon is a small island, about 8 kilometers from north to south and about 3 kilometers wide with a total area of land of about 17 square km. It is mountainous and there are three remarkable peaks on it. In the north it is Pico del Fuego (454meters), in the centre Pico del Centro (630 m) and in the south Pico Surcado, about the same hight. Pico Surcado is an extinct volcano, and a lake is situated in its former crater.
HISTORICAL NOTE:
The island was discoved by Diego Ramirez dela Diaz, a spain sailor in 1470 and named as Isla San Antonio. Later on it becomes a Spain colonie together with Fernando Poo. In 1778 Potugese and Spain parted the coasline and Annobon became in 1779 a part of Spain, and Principe e Sao Thomee as Fernando Poo become a Portugese Colony. In 1801 a small fortessa was build on Annobon Island, and in the same year Spain gave also rights to British in using the island as a habour for fresh water. In 1959 Equatorial Guinea become an own Spain province and Annobon a second owe, but did not become an own government. In 1968 the island become a part of the new formed land of E.Guinea and in 1971, Macias Nguema, the first president, formed a small government on the island.
While I will always applaud the endeavours of dedicated hams to organize DXpeditions for the purpose of activating rare locations for the benefit of DXCC hunters and IOTA collectors, I nevertheless wonder why there often seems to be a disconnect and/or lack of communication among the "authorities" who are presumably responsible for allowing such DXpeditions to take place.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the planned Annobon/Pagalu Island operation--namely 3C0E--I presume that the so-called authorities are on the same page this time and not at odds with each other, as unfortunately occurred back in 2003 with the pre-emptive 3C0V fiasco.
One can only speculate why the DXpeditioners were apparently given written permission to operate, but then arbitrarily countermanded at the very last moment by the military to dismantle their transceiver and antenna setup.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I am aware, Annobon/Pagalu is not and never was a "strategic", "sensitive", or politically-disputed area--as is clearly the case with Spratly, or the Kurile Islands, for example.
It may be "sacrilegious" to suggest (although I imagine I am not the first to do so), but I think it is high time that the entire DXCC list was revamped, demoting such problematic "counters" like Annobon/Pagalu, Spratly, and other similar DX "orphans" exclusively to the IOTA list and not DXCC, thus relieving the pressure from amateur radio operators to wonder and worry about the status and true value of a piece of land somewhere or other.
After all, in years past the DXCC list has been adjusted countless times with locations removed for questionable reasons, while others being added for even more questionable reasons. In fact, the entire DXCC pick-and-choose procedure seems suspiciously to emanate from the whims of whoever is in charge of such decisions at any given moment.
Furthermore, why Annobon/Pagalu (AF-039) is considered "more qualified" to be listed as DXCC while nearby Bioko Island (AF-010) is not considered as qualified (presumably due only to a slight geographic difference) boggles the mind. However, the nit-picking and vetting goes on ad infinitum.
On a related topic: I have noticed that many of the announced frequencies upon which 3C6A Bioko Island has been sporadically calling QRZ are too often occupied by severe carrier-tone interference (some say "radar"), thus making it virtually impossible to hear much less work 3C6A unless you have reasonably-good propagation--something which in any event is sadly lacking during this horrible excuse for a cycle number 24!
While it is true that comments posted in the various online DX clusters have made reference to such tone-carrier or "radar" interference, such postings are few and far between and then it seems to take way too long before the DX station gets wise and QSYs up or down a few KHz in order to solve the issue.
Whether such interference is deliberate or accidental, I have no clue, but if the ham operators running the 3C6A/3C0E operation are not continually made aware of this situation to quickly revise their frequency choices, then I fear that the 3C0E Annobon/Pagalu portion of the DXpedition will descend into a frustrating mess for many, and given the past track record of Annobon/Pagalu DXpeditions, is it really worth the trouble to maintain it as one of the DXCC's "most wanted"?
My two cents worth. 73.