One headline for the RSGB 2021 Online Convention was “Arctic IOTA DXpedition to Prins Karls Forland island” where Allan EA3HSO presented the JW0W story to hams around the world.

Watch his presentation below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBUTCFlA-nU&t=4569s

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The JW0W log has been uploaded to M0OXO OQRS system today as well as Clublog (no OQRS). Thanks to Charles for taking on this job!

The complete log will be uploaded to LoTW asap.

We made more than 16.000 Qs from this Arctic QTH in 4 days with 6 operators, which we are satisfied with.

Signals were sometimes S9+, especially on the 20m VDA, while signals were weak from time to time on other bands, also with flutter and difficult conditions. 40m had disappointing conditions, and 20m was our best band as predicted. 60m the last day was excellent!

17m and also 30m showed to be good bands.

5% of QSOs were with Zone 3, and 15% with Zone 25.

We made 63% CW QSOs and 27% SSB and 10% FT8. Our antennas performed well, but during bad wx several antennas also fell down and the team were busy keeping the antenna farm up.

Some team members also made individual QSOs with their own callsigns the last day JW7GIA, JW7THA and JW8OM – QSL for those callsigns via homecalls.

We have received abt $1600 in donations while our budget was $16,000 due to expensive vessel cost. If you made an upfront donation, you will receive a direct card – no need to OQRS.

Thanks for being in the pileup – we hade great fun working you!

73 JW0W team

We made it, and we’ve now returned back to Longyearbyen!

What an exciting DXpedition that we will not forget. We had a lot of fun and hope you had too.

Setting up a camp in the Arctic is not an easy task and the rapidly changing weather reminded us that at several occasions.

We have had to spend a lot of efforts on the antennas maintenance and the polar Bear watch (a large female with her cub visited us from a good distance).

We will come back later will more details on the contacts and our impressions.

Thanks for the pileup!

73sThe JW0W team

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It is always of interest to hear signals at the other end, and below are some recordings made of JW0W.

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By DL6RDE on 22nd July, 30m CW, op LB1QI: https://www.facebook.com/charlie.bearcounty/videos/514096643194413/

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By ON7RU on 22nd July, 17m CW, op LA7THA:
https://www.facebook.com/franky.beuselinck/videos/255443509369823

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By VK3GK on 25th July, 20m CW, op LA8OM:
https://www.facebook.com/lee.moyle.5/videos/252227826443244

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78_APNPLgNc

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efSctkRaa1U

By IZ5CML on 23rd July, 17m SSB, op EA3HSO

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiF343dvDuM

By IK7JTF on 25th July, 17m CW, op EA3HSO

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Guys are ecxited – dinghy landing with 30 x luggage, 300 l of fuel, 2 generators, 5 radios, 5 amplifiers, 2 tents, 2 huskies, food & drinks, 2 rifles, enough ammunition, enough warm clothes, personal beacon locator – just for fun at 78N!

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<p class="yr.no: Forecast for Poolepynten“>With just about one week until departure, the planning is homing in on the fine details that will help make our trip a success. However, one element that we can’t control, is the weather. The graph below shows outlooks for the coming 48 hours.

<p class="yr.no: Forecast for Poolepynten“>Expected wx for the week ahead, which for the team is essential info, can be viewed in more detail at Yr – Long term forecast for Poolepynten (Svalbard)

yr.no: Forecast for Poolepynten

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We are very happy to announce that Rune LA7THA will join the JW0W 2021 team! Rune is an experienced DXpeditioner and contester and he will bring a lot to the team.

We are now a full team to go to Prins Karls Forland (EU-063) between 21.7 and 26.7 2021.

The JW0W team composition:

• EA3HSO Allan
• LB1QI, Erwann
• LA5GI, Gjermund
• LA7GIA, Kenneth
• LA7THA, Rune
• LA8OM, Chris
• Ronny (Security officer)

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We are very happy to announce that Connor (W4IPC) has joined the JW0W team as our NA pilot. He is a young op, proficient in every mode and with a lot of pileup experience from his contesting at WW1X as a permanent part of the RHR team. Connor will help us reach all call zones in this heavily NA and AS focused mini DXpedition.

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Planning for the JW0W expedition to Prins Karls Forland Island is going well.Today we received the final permit from authorities to access this nature reserve west of Spitsbergen. The area is only accessible by boat roughly 3h west of Longyearbyen.

Progress since last update:

• We plan for 60/40/30/20m as main bands with VDA and verticals, but will also have a Spanish Quad on 17/15/12/10m with us.

• We now plan for 4-5 stations with Elecraft K3/Kx3 and 1000W amplifiers which includes inband operation and all modes CW/SSB/FT8.

• We have extended the security and will bring with us two huskies for added polar bear protection in addition to one person on duty 24/7.

• We need an expensive mandatory SAR insurance. This adds to the expenses, so our budget is going up to $16000.

We are grateful that we have 10 supporters so far donating to the dxpedition expenses. All supporters get a free express qsl card and lotw from our QSL manager Charles Wilmott, M0OXO.

Thanks also to FUNKAMATEUR for supporting us.

73, JW0J team

 

 

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We are very happy to welcome Allan EA3HSO and Ronny onboard our DXpedition to Prins Karls Forland (EU-063) between the 21 and the 26 of July 2021.

Allan, a well experienced contester and DXpeditioner, will join the operators, and Ronny will be in charge of our Security while on the island as the risk of being greeted by polar bears at some point of our stay is high. We will all have polar bear watch duties, but Ronny will keep the security at a high level while we concentrate on maintaining the antennas and contacting you!

Both fellows are a great addition to the team.

Best 73s, The JW0W Team

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Unfortunately two operators had to withdraw due to personal reasons, but we have managed to replace those and hope to be 6 operators when departing in July.

Going to Prins Karls Forland in JW requires a dedicated expensive vessel that will transport us from Longyearbyen to the island located in the nature reserve at the west coast. Last activation of this island was in 2001. When arriving we will be doing dinghy landing with all equipment. The 3Y0J team members will do some additional practise runs with the dinghy ; )

We will focus on NA and Asia outside the IOTA contest, and we will do all modes CW, SSB and FTx. Our antennas will be VDAs and verticals at the shore close to saltwater with excellent take-off in all directions!

Due to the high risk for polar bear all over the island, we will have mandatory 24/7 polar bear watch. We will have several rifles, flare guns and other protection. Safety is a high priority and all team members will do training at a local shooting range.

Our budget is roughly $13000 and we will appreciate donations. Thank you for supporting this trip! All the support will go to offset the expensive vessel cost!

73 JW0J team

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We have a new operator on the team, Gjermund LB5GI, who is a SSB/Digi mode operator, also member of LA-DX-Group.

Our current budget is roughly $12,000 where the vessel cost from Longyearbyen is the major item. This boat trip is abt 3h one way before we arrive at Prins Karls Forland island with excellent take off in all directions. Any support to help offset some of the costs is appreciated.

73 JW0W team

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