Staging Equipment

Staging Equipment

Rebar Dead Man Used on Many Stakes

Op, Generator and Rest Tents

Masked Boobies Queued up to Use the Loo

Break Tent

Generator Shed

CrankIR

Dave K3EL

Partial of Antenna Farm

4 Square & Birds

SSB Generators - CW

SSB / RTTY TentLuigi IV3YER Heye DJ9RR Gene K5GS

SSB / RTTY Tent

Plan- 6 stations running for 10 days 24 hours per dayActual 6 stations running for ~5 days 24 hours per day propagation permitting - 6 x Elecraft K3 - 1 x Icom IC-7000 back-up - 1 x Elecraft K2 back-up - 4 x Elecraft KPA 500 - 2 x Tokyo HyPower- 1 x Tokyo HyPower back-up

- 4 x generators 4 kw each- 7 x 200 liter drums ~1,200 liters fuel,- 2,000 feet RG-8X Operations Plan

Antennas

160 m - Spiderbeam 18m fiberglass mast Inverted L 1/4 Vertical 80 m - Spiderbeam 18m fiberglass mast w/SGC 40 m 4 Square 10 20M Folding Hex Beam x 2 CrankIR x 3 BigIR x 3 Pennant RX antenna Antenna Plan

Actual Schedule

Sailing Schedule

Day #Op.Day #LocationETAETDNMSpeedHours

18-MarAdvance Tream Arrives in Mackay

25-MarDay 1Depart Mackay for Mellish13:306.536

26-MarDay 2At Sea

27-MarDay 3At Sea

28-MarDay 4Arrive Mellish Reef - Start set-up13:25

29-MarDay 5Set-up

30-MarDay 6OP Day 1

31-MarDay 7Op Day 2

1-AprDay 8Op Day 3

2-AprDay 9Op Day 4

3-AprDay 10Op Day 5

4-AprDay 11Op Day 6Shutdown / Depart - just a few contacts

5-AprDay 12At Sea~14:00

6-AprDay 13At Sea

7-AprDay 14At Sea

8-AprDay 15Arrive Mackay - Unload Boat2:30

9-AprDay 16Sort - Repack

10-AprDay 17Sort - Repack

11-AprDay 18Arrange Shipments / Sell Generators / Donations

12-AprDay 19Leave Mackay

Then Reality Arrived

Cyclone ItaWhat did we know and when did we know it? We knew it was the end of the cyclone season When we arrived at the island it was windy approx 20 knots As the days went on the winds got stronger On about April 1st the skipper told us of a tropical depression forming to the North He said these events are known to form cyclones Whats the difference between a cyclone, hurricane, or a typhoon? The skipper was closely monitoring the weather At one point he said he isnt panicking yet, but if we saw him running we should be close behind him We received radio reports of death and destruction in Honiara He was receiving NOAA WEFAX images and maritime Wx warnings every 4 hours On the early morning of April 5th we decided it was time to start packing

Forming of a Cyclone

WEFAXEvohe crew: l-r Hamish, Lindsey and the Skipper Steve Kafka

Met / Nav Warning Forecast

Low Profile CrankIR

Winds Effect on OP Tent

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