Don, G3XTT, FSDXA Publicity Officer, sent out the following press release on September 16th:
It’s been one of those years. Spratly and Jarvis had to be postponed and now our own, T32C, expedition has hit some logistical problems in that our container with its 6 tonnes of kit got as far as T30 (Tarawa), but onward shipping to T32 has proved impossible despite our best efforts and promises from those involved in 3D2, T30 and T32. The ship that was due to bring our container from Tarawa has broken down and is being towed to Fiji for repairs.
WHAT NOW — So what happens now? The answer is that we will go ahead anyway. The team is complete and set to go, the hotel is expecting us, and the sunspots seem to be on the increase.
Thanks to Yaesu, our Global Sponsor, we will have ten FT-450D radios, which we will hand carry to T32, along with several lightweight linears. Yaesu’s support has been absolutely outstanding.
We will also take enough hardware to set up verticals and vertical arrays for all bands 160 through 10. It may even be possible to run multiple stations on some bands, though not to the extent that we had previously planned. All our computer equipment was to be hand-carried in any case, so daily log updates to ClubLog (see Bulletin 3) will be unaffected.
Unfortunately, unless our container makes an unlikely late arrival on the island, 6m EME will have to be abandoned, and we will not have the 4-square arrays for 30 and 40. But we will do our best to set up phased systems or other antenna configurations to achieve gain, especially towards Europe where will continue to focus our efforts.
TIMINGS — The expedition dates are unaffected, but we cannot realistically expect to have stations running on nine bands by the first weekend, though we will aim to be on some bands, at least. As we will not have everything pre-kitted, there will be a lot of building and configuration work to do once we arrive at Christmas. The good news is that we are there for nearly four weeks and will be operating through four weekends, so there should be plenty of opportunity to get into our log.
WEBSITE — As always, but especially in these new circumstances, the trick is to keep a close eye on our website. Do keep checking it for updates, both before and during the expedition: www.t32c.com
You will also find details there of how to interact with us once we start operations– your feedback will be especially important so that we can maximize every band opening.