425 DX News #1508

28 March 2020 A.R.I. DX Bulletin
No 1508

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**** DX INFORMATION ****
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Edited by I1JQJ & IK1ADH
Direttore Responsabile I2VGW

Owing to the ongoing and fluid nature of the COVID-19 situation globally,
announced activities might be postponed or cancelled at any time and
without notice.

EA - Special callsigns AO5DXX (Spain) and AO5DXX/8 (Canary Islands) will
be active on 1-15 April to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the
DXXE Group. Also look for TM15DXXE to be active from France during
the same time frame. QSLs via LoTW only.
OK - Special callsigns OL700CO, OL700DKO and OL700LTV are active until
31 December to mark the 700th anniversary of the Czech city of
Dobruska. See http://www.ok1kqi.com/ol700/ol700.html for informa-
tion about the award programme. QSL via Club Log's OQRS.
SP - Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pope John Paul
II, born Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005), special event station SN100KW
will be active from 1 April to 31 May. QSL via SP3PGS.
TA - The Istanbul based Tango Alpha Ham Radio Club (YM1KE) will be
active as TC1STAYHOME from 27 March to 25 May. This is a "COVID-19
Awareness Special Event" to stress the need to stay at home to
avoid contagion.
VK - VI50AWS is the special callsign for the Western and Northern
Suburbs Amateur Radio Club (VK3AWS, https://www.wansarc.org.au/) to
celebrate its 50th anniversary. The special callsign was allocated
on 1 March and will be available for club members to use until 31
August.
VK - Grant, VK5GR has annouced that "following the announcement by the
RSGB about the IOTA Contest [see below, Ed.] and the increasing
restrictions on travel and group assembly here in Australia, the
team has decided to suspend the planning for VK5KI on OC-139 . Once
the world returns to some sense of normality we will start
replanning works". VK5KI was expected to be active from Kangaroo
Island on 22-28 July, IOTA Contest included [425DXN 1499]
VK9N - Janusz, SP9FIH says he will "have to stay on Norfolk Island for
some more time", as all his flights have been cancelled. He plans
to change QTH on 10 April, and to continue being QRV as VK9NK
(http://vk9nk.dxpeditions.org/).
XE - Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Asociacion de Radio Aficio-
nados de la Republica Mexicana (ARARM), 4A60A and other nine spe-
cial callsigns (4A60C, 4A60E, 4A60F, 4A60I, 4A60M, 4A60N, 4A60O,
4A60S and 4A60X) will be active from 27 March to 26 July. See
https://www.ararm.com.mx/ for more information.

CQ WW WPX SSB CONTEST ---> The following stations have announced their
participation in this year's event (28-29 March):
Call Category Country QSL
---------------------------------------------------------------
3Z50DVP SO Poland LoTW/SP6DVP
4L2M SOSB Georgia EA7FTR
A42K SO Oman LoTW/EA5GL
CS5CT Portugal CT1REP
FM5AN SO Martinique LoTW
FM5BH SOAB HP Martinique LoTW/W3HNK
GT0SP Isle of Man LoTW
HH2AA SO LP Haiti LoTW
LX20I M/? Luxembourg LX2A
LY73A SOSB 160m HP Lithuania LY5AA
NP2P SO US Virgin Islands LoTW
OE0WWL SO Austria LoTW/OE1WWL
PT7ZT Brazil LoTW/PT7ZT
PY0F SOAB Fernando de Noronha LoTW/PY7RP
T42DX M/S LP Cuba CO2AME
VK9NK SOAB Norfolk Island SP9FIH
XM3T SOAB Canada VE3DZ
YB2DX SOAB Indonesia LoTW
YJ0CA SO Vanuatu VK2YUS
ZZ4A M/S Brazil LoTW/PY2RMZ
Do not forget to give a look at the Announced Operations listing maintained
by Bill, NG3K at https://www.ng3k.com/Misc/wpxs2020.html - good contest to
you all!

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**** GOOD TO KNOW ... ****
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Edited by I1JQJ & IK1ADH
Direttore Responsabile I2VGW

Access to the main functions of www.425dxn.org is provided by the 425DXN App
for Android. It is available on Google Play - free of charge, no ads. Enjoy!

COVID-19 PANDEMIC ---> Travel restrictions, self-isolation and social dis-
tancing requirements as well as general health and safety issues arising
from the coronavirus pandemic are affecting quite a number of operations and
amateur radio events, which have been postponed or cancelled:
HC5 by DL8UD 19 March-1 April cancelled
CQ3W WPX SSB cancelled
KH2KY WPX SSB cancelled
KH7M WPX SSB cancelled
NH7A WPX SSB cancelled
TC4PLH WPX SSB cancelled
YB0/JJ1DQR WPX SSB cancelled
Z66Y WPX SSB cancelled
J88PI 6-14 April cancelled
IP1A 1-3 May cancelled
A25VR 1-22 May postponed to 2021
PA2020IG 9-16 May cancelled
V6TOPG2020 June-September postponed to 2021
VK5KI 22-28 July cancelled
Among the cancelled events are the International Marconi Day (25 April), the
YOTA sub-regional camp in Hungary (11-15 June), the Youth Contest Program at
EC2DX in Spain (27-28 June) and the first IARU Region 3 YOTA Camp (planned
for 1-3 October in Thailand).

CLUB LOG & FOLDING@HOME ---> As of 21 March Michael, G7VJR has allocated
"100% of Club Log's computing resources to scientific research into COVID-19
proteins, as part of the Folding@Home project. Club Log is contributing 120
CPU cores (most running at 3.4GHz) to this project. I have taken the deci-
sion to give this work higher priority than Club Log's usual amateur radio
functions, so you may see uploads take slightly longer. I do not think most
users will notice the additional wait, but I've added a warning to the
upload form inside Club Log to explain. You can get involved, too. Club Log
has a Folding@Home team, number 246763. You can read more about this dis-
tributed computing project at https://foldingathome.org/ (Coronavirus - What
we're doing and how you can help in simple terms)".

HAMVENTION QSO PARTY ---> The Dayton Hamvention for 2020 has been cancelled.
The World Wide Radio Operators Foundation, in cooperation with the Hamven-
tion organizers, want to create a fun way for people to celebrate the Ham-
vention experience over the air: the Hamvention QSO Party. It will be held
on 16 May, from 12 to 24 UTC (twelve hours), on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10
metres CW and SSB. Only single operator entries are accepted, and the
exchange will be signal report + the first year you attended Hamvention (if
you have never attended, send 2020). Work as many stations as possible, in-
cluding W8BI (the club call of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association) which
will give special bonus points. See https://wwrof.org/hamvention-qso-party/
for detailed information. The event will be in memory of Ron Moorefield
(W8ILC), who attended every Hamvention since the beginning and passed away
just two days after the Hamvention 2020 cancellation announcement.

IARU REGION 1 CONTESTS ---> Radio amateurs will share the concerns of
everyone about the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak. Governments all
over the world are advising "social distancing" to slow the spread of the
virus and to give health services the chance to cope.
Field days bring radio amateurs together and therefore represent an environ-
ment where social distancing is difficult to achieve. We must recognise that
many radio amateurs are in the older, higher risk age groups.
IARU Region 1 therefore asks national societies which promote field days and
multi-operator contests to reconsider their position on these events for the
next few months of 2020. Field days are essentially team contests, and so
IARU will not sponsor the Region 1 HF-CW Field Day in June. It is a matter
for national societies to decide whether and how they continue with their
national field day events.
IARU Region 1 believes more generally that multi-operator contests are not
consistent with the principle of "social distancing" and should not be
promoted at this time.
The position on other IARU events in 2020 which involve multi-operator cate-
gories is under review. [Don Beattie (G3BJ), President IARU Region 1,
https://www.iaru-r1.org/]

INTERNATIONAL MARCONI DAY ---> Organized by the Cornish Radio Amateur Club,
(http://gx4crc.com/gb4imd/), this year's event was due to be held on 25
April, but it has been cancelled in the light of the concerns arising from
the COVID-19 pandemic.

INTREPID SPIRIT AWARD ---> The Intrepid-DX Group is pleased to announce that
this year's award goes to the Perseverance DX Group's VP8PJ South Orkney
Islands team (DJ9RR, HA0NAR, HB9BXE, K3EL, K5GS, N6XG, N7QT, NG2H, UT6UD,
VK6CQ, W1SRD, W2LK, W7XU and WA6O) "for their superb activation from Signy
Island. This DXpedition was extremely well planned and executed from this
very remote, cold and harsh island". The Intrepid-DX Group recognizes "the
entire team's collective effort to activate these challenging and much
needed entities on behalf of a grateful Global DX Community", and
acknowledges "the team's pursuit of operating excellence in making these
difficult activations". Made in memory of James McLaughlin, WA2EWE/T6AF
(killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, on 27 April 2011), the Intrepid Spirit Award
"is intended to recognize and honor those individuals or teams that boldly
activate rare entities where their own personal safety is secondary to their
pursuit of providing contacts to the DX Community". [TNX N6PSE]

IOTA CONTEST 2020 ---> "We have reached a point with COVID-19 that it is
inappropriate for us to run the IOTA Contest in July 2020 in its usual
format", Nick Totterdell, G4FAL (RSGB HF Contest Committee's chair) says.
"We cannot encourage our participants to operate in multi-operator groups,
nor to travel to island locations where visitors are not currently welcome.
We would like your opinion on whether we should cancel outright or should
retain a contest this year for single operator, home stations only.
We are also conscious that a large number of our members are going to be
spending more time at home than normal. Unable to enjoy many of our
favourite outdoor contests we are proposing a series of home-based day-time
contests to entertain and support one another.
Both these issues are detailed in a survey which we invite you to complete.
This is at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RSGB_HFCC_2020. The survey is
open until 3 April, after which the outcomes will be made public".

RI0B ---> The RI0B team made about 5,600 QSOs during their IOTA operation
from Rastorguyev Island (18-22 March). The log has been uploaded to Club Log
and the OQRS has been enabled: https://clublog.org/logsearch/RI0B/AS-68.

VP2VB ---> The recent VP2VB commemorative DXpedition (11-16 March) made some
18,000 QSOs. "We are currently reviewing the FT8 backup file for more QSOs
and getting QSL card design ready for printing", OH2BH says. "It will be a
4-page, full color affair - for this special occasion. LoTW will soon fol-
low". "Digging into the past of the first multi-hopping DXpeditioner Danny
Weil, VP2VB was another rich piece of history", he adds. "Spending time at
his home on Tortola, British Virgin Islands, gave us a blend of history in
its original setting. Together with Austrian DocuFunk archives, headed by
Paulina (OE1YPP) and Wolf (OE1WHC), and meeting with Kenneth (VP2VK) and
George (VP2VQ) and the local telecom authorities placed us straight back
where it all once began. We have now collected most of the material,
including Danny's only existing interview: https://www.qrz.com/db/VP2VB.

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******* QSL ROUTES *******
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Edited by I1JQJ & IK1ADH
Direttore Responsabile I2VGW

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CALL MANAGER CALL MANAGER CALL MANAGER
===================================================================
3Z0YL SP9SX CE2SV N7RO MU2K GU8ITE
4M1F YV1JGT CM6RK EA7HBC MX0SNB G3SVK
4O4T YU1FW CN8KD EA5XX NL8F N7RO
4O7CC UA4CC CN8PA RW6HS OE25JML OE5JML
4S7KKG DC0KK CN8PG EA7FTR OG30YL OH2YL
4U25B 9A2AA CO8LY EA7ADH OG60IPA OH4MDY
4X6TT N4GNR CR5E CT1ILT OH0X OH2TA
5B4AMM UT5UDX CX2DK EA5GL OL30DXC OK2PXJ
5B4AOW RW3RN CX6DZ EA5GL P3AA RW3RN
5B60AJG 5B4AJG DF70DARC DK5DC PI75SHB PI4SHB
5P3KP DL3KP DM30RSV DK5ON PI75ZUT PA2PKZ
5R8AL G3SWH DP70DARC DK5DC PS2T K3IRV
5R8UI IZ8CCW E2A E21EIC R195AM RZ5D
5T5PA PA5X EA9KB EA7FTR R200ANT RZ3EC
5W1SA JA1DXA ED5FDC EA5J R2014RK RX7K
5Z4/G3AB M0URX ED5N EA5KA S500E S50O
5Z4BU EA5GL EE7P EA7ATX S5400J S57WJ
6Y5FS G3RFS EO0U UT7UT SK60AU SK2AU
6Y5HN EA5GL EO50LW UT7LW SU9TH DL2RMC
7X2HF 7X2ARA EP4HR IK2RZQ T42DX CO2AME
7X4LV F6FZG FM5BH W3HNK TG9ADM EA5GL
8P6ET KU9C FM8QR F5EAN TG9ADQ VE7BV
8Q7NC F6BGC FS4WBS IZ1MHY TG9AJR M0URX
9A5MX DJ4MX GB2PDY MI0LPO TG9AOR EC6DX
9A63AA 9A2AA GB60ATG M0OXO TG9IN K4TI
9G1SD AB0GC GB9SPD GI0RQK TM8C F6CUK
9G5AR N4GNR GX3CO G6XOU UK8UWG UK8UC
9K2BS EC6DX H44MS DL2GAC UN7AB DL8KAC
9K2GS EC6DX HA50KHW HA0HW UP7L UN6LN
9K2HQ EC6DX HC5F HC5VF V31AM DL7AMW
9K2OD EC6DX HF3015O SQ4O V31AX M0URX
9K9A EC6DX HF576KOC SQ9PCO V31GX M0OXO
9M4CKT 9W6ZAM HI3Y RW6HS V31MA M0OXO
9M6ZAE W3HNK HI7M RW6HS VK9NK SP9FIH
A25SL N4GNR HI8S EA5GL YB8UTI YB3MM
A42K EA5GL HP2DFA EC6DX YU70HFG YU1HFG
A93LT A92AA HP3AK W4JS Z81B IZ0EGA
AP2AUM IZ8CCW HP3SS AC2OV Z81D OM3JW
AP2NK W3HNK HR5/F2JD F6AJA ZA/IZ7PMQ 9A8AOT
BI4SSB BA4TB HS0ZJF ON4AFU ZF1EJ K6AM
BW2/JP1RIW BM2JCC KG4NE NM7H ZF2CA G4CWH
C4W 5B4WN KL7SB N4GNR ZL7DX M0OXO
C6AJB KG4LJB M0RSE G3SWH ZR2A/4 DM5EE
C7A UA3DX MU0MXF RL5D ZW86LABRE PY2KP

5H3DX Charles W. Powell, 201 North 13th Street, Louisburg KS 66053-3520,
USA
6O1OO Ali Solhjoo, Rungestr. 21C, 10179 Berlin, Germany
CE7VPQ Javier Capdebilla Alvarado, 22 de Mayo 274, 5790166 Quellon,
Region de Los Lagos, Chile
EC6DX Jose A. Senent, Apartado Postal 85, 07730 Alaior (Illes Balears),
Spain
GB200FN John Wakefield, Oakhurst, Lower Common Road, West Wellow, Romsey,
SO51 6BT, United Kingdom
KH0/KC0W Thomas M. Callas, P.O. Box 1058, Minnetonka MN 55345, USA
MP7DX Ron Bennett, 17 Truro Close, St. Helens, WA11 9EL, United Kingdom
OX3XR Harry de Jong, Broekdijk 59, 7695 TC Bruchterveld, The Netherlands
ZD8SC Steve R. Coleman, 822 S Waco St, Van Alstyne TX 75495, USA
ZM2B Frank Hunt, 8 Manu Crescent, Upper Vogeltown, New Plymouth 4310,
New Zealand

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425 DX NEWS HOME PAGE: http://www.425dxn.org
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425 DX News is a free of charge weekly bulletin
edited by Mauro Pregliasco, I1JQJ and Valeria Pregliasco, IK1ADH

Its contents may be used, reproduced and distributed
in part or full provided that
"425 DX News" or "425DXN" receive proper credit

Contributors are invited to send their DX information to
Mauro Pregliasco, I1JQJ (i1jqj.mauro@gmail.com)
The deadline is 12 UTC on Fridays

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Direttore Responsabile
Gabriele Villa, I2VGW
Giornalista Professionista - Tessera n. 071675
Ordine Nazionale dei Giornalisti
Roma, Italia