NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 13 2006--The 2006 Peter I Island 3Y0X DXpedition has received a $7500 ARRL Colvin Award to help finance the trip to the small island off Antarctica in the Bellinghausen Sea. A team of 22 operators hope to activate Peter I for approximately two weeks in early February, weather and sea conditions permitting.
"This is a prestigious award and is important to our overall DXpedition financing," Peter I DXpedition co-leaders Bob Allphin, K4UEE, and Ralph Fedor, K0IR, said of the ARRL Colvin Award. "Our special thanks to the Awards Committee." The Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) is a premier contributor to this major undertaking.
The Colvin Award was established in 1994 with the proceeds of a life insurance policy purchased by Lloyd Colvin, W6KG, that named the ARRL as beneficiary. The award is conferred in the form of grants in support of Amateur Radio projects that promote international goodwill in the field of DX.
From the 1960s into the early 1990s, Lloyd Colvin and his wife Iris, W6QL, activated more than 100 DXCC entities. Lloyd Colvin died in 1993 and Iris Colvin in 1998.
The 3Y0X DXpedition team plans to travel to Peter I via
the South Shetland Islands. "Our sea container containing all of our equipment,
and most of the team's personal gear is aboard the vessel DAP Mares
which is now in the South Shetland Islands," a DXpedition announcement said this week.
"Our foodstuffs are also aboard after being purchased in Punta Arenas, Chile. The team will be reunited with their equipment and gear on or about February 2 to begin the four-day
voyage to Peter I."
 Remote Peter I island. The Yagi marks the proposed location of the 3Y0X encampment. |
The 3Y0X team emphasizes that no dates are firm at this point. The team has been assigned the Chilean Antarctic call sign of XR9A for use en route to and from Peter I. DXpedition members hope to be on the air from Punta Arenas for a few days and then maritime mobile to and from Peter I. There is also a possibility that the team will be active from the South Shetlands for a few days after the Peter I DXpedition is complete.
This is the second attempt at a successful Peter I Island DXpedition by a team headed by Allphin and Fedor. An anticipated Peter I 3Y0X DXpedition in early 2005 had to be called off at the eleventh hour after its charter vessel was delayed, and the DXpedition simply ran out of time.
Allphin and Fedor recommend checking the 3Y0DX Web site regularly for news and announcements. "The Web site should be considered the best source of updated and correct DXpedition news direct from the DXpedition leaders," their announcement says.
The site will provide twice-daily updating of the 3Y0X logs through the generosity of satellite telephone provider Iridium Satellite LLC. A "souvenir" QSL card is in the design stages.
QSL 3Y0X via Robert Schenck, N2OO, PO Box 345, Tuckerton, NJ 08087. The ambitious DXpedition is also an expensive undertaking, so the
team continues to seek financial support via its Web site.
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