With Varying Frequency – Amateur Radio Ponderings

The KP1-5 Project 2009 K5D Descecheo Island DXpedition was an amazing event for the DX Amateur Radio enthusiast.  An island “DX Country” so close but basically closed to Amateur Radio for years.  Only a small number of contacts from a series of small scale DXpeditions had been made from KP5 over the 30 years it has been a DX Country, with the result of a huge demand to log QSOs by radio amateurs worldwide.

Desecheo was in the top handful of needed DX Contacts for almost everyone working DX.

Here is a link to the National FIsh & Wildlife information page on Desecheo Island, an informational PDF is linked from their webpage:  http://www.fws.gov/caribbean/Refuges/Desecheo/default.htm

The February 2009 DXpedition achieved 115,787 QSOs with over 32,000 separate radio amateurs! I was able to work them on six bands 160, 80, 40, 20, 17 & 15m despite a busy work schedule keeping me mostly off the air.

As part of the project a DVD has been produced, and I was able to arrange to view a copy in advance of the general release.

K5D DVD

While a DXpedition’s first radio purpose is to make the QSO’s they have set out to do, it has become an added treat when a DXpedition does a documentary Book or DVD.  Bob Allphin K4UEE Adventures in Ham Radio’s K5D DVD is a standout in that added pleasure!

Using a very effective combination of graphics & stills interspersed in fantastic on-island film segments, the story of the DXpedition is well told!

I imagine it a challenge to make a DXpedition story, a project so complex as to take years to bring to fruition, into an hour’s telling to be a supremely difficult challenge to meet. The K5D DVD team has done a superb job of presenting the DXpedition in a storyline that will appeal to casual DXer as well as having interest to the serious DXer.

You can preorder the DVD at K5D Desecheo Island DXpedition 2009 Order Page, an expect your DVD copy in a few weeks (in October) when the production run is ready.

The DVD is specially interesting to me as it provides a wonderful overview of a very difficult political process, without bogging down in minutia. QSO & Operator segments were specially interesting, as I have long been interested in the technical setup DXpeditions have found worthy of taking to the field.

Given the time constraints there is a lot of material special interests might suggest going into more depth, but that would be at the expense of audience not sharing those special interests.

A highly recommend DXpedition DVD and hats off to Bob K4UEE for allowing my early review of it!

Now one item that did seemed skirted, or just perhaps wasn’t important to the story, is the KP1 part of the story – will the KP1-5 Project succeed in obtaining permission & putting together a DXpedition to Navassa Island?

Here is a link to the US Fish & Wildlife Page on that island: http://www.fws.gov/caribbean/Refuges/Navassa/default.htm

Let’s hope that their success on Desecheo NA-095 results in a Navassa opportunity sometime soon!

73
Steve
K9ZW