Hi friends
Most of the DXers consider entities as check boxes to tick once the country is worked and confirmed. That’s the game! However, we hope to bring you a lot more than just a simple check mark as you discover our next destination.
Let’s talk about the 9th most wanted DXCC entity according to the Clublog statistics, an empty box for 75% of the amateur radio community.
Tromelin, as well as Glorioso, Juan de Nova, Europa, belongs to the ‘Eparses’, a French word to name these small islands scattered around Madagascar. These French territories are administered by the TAAF (Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises).
Their access is strictly controlled and regulated in particular for ecological reasons. Tromelin is the smallest one (1 square km) and the human impact is all the more sensitive.
That’s the only island where there are no French military troops and only 2 agents of the TAAF are posted there continuously.
The last operation took place in 2000. A 4 men team made 50,000 contacts with the callsign FR/F6KDF/T. No authorization has been given ever since.
2014 will be the 60th anniversary of the 1st hamradio activity from Tromelin. The operator was Marc FB8BK/T.
Today, after some successful collaborative work with the TAAF authorities, we are proud to announce that we received our landing permission and got the green light to conduct an amateur radio operation on this remote island.
We’ll be active on Tromelin from October 30th to November 10th, 2014. 6 operators have been allowed to stay of the island. They have been selected for their experience and all six are ready to face the challenge. The team is made up of Seb F5UFX, Michel FM5CD, Flo F5CWU, Eric F5SIH, Franck F4AJQ, Fred F5ROP.
The request is huge and we are conscious of this. For this reason, we are working hard in order to prepare our operation in depth. Some places in the world will have short openings and we’ll do our best to exploit these short moments with proper planning adjusted with the help of pilots.
The coming months will be devoted to the search of sponsors. We already have part of the equipment but partnership with equipment suppliers will be essential. On the other hand, we will contact foundations, clubs, organizations to request assistance to help us balance our budget, estimated at $90,000, most of which is devoted to logistic costs.
Our website is online. All details regarding the progress, plans of the DXpedition and sponsorship opportunities will be accessible through dedicated pages.
We will regularly keep updating you until our departure.
Team Tromelin 2014
Seb F5ufx, leader@tromelin2014.com
Forwarded with 88/73 and Season's greetings by Maurice, F5NQL ( F6KOP team member n° 10)