IOTA News from OPDX

15 October, 2018

Island activities:

IOTA ANNOUNCEMENT. Roger Balister, G3KMA, announced that at the 2018 RSGB Convention 6 new IOTA groups that would be added to the IOTA Directory.
The new IOTAs are as follows:
EU-192 [SM/OH] – Kataja Island (Finland/Sweden)
OC-297 [FO] – Morane Atoll (Tuamotu, French Polynesia)
NA-249 [KP3] – Puerto Rico’s Coastal Islands
NA-250 [KL] – Yakutat County Group, Coastal Groups (Alaska)
AS-204 [R0F] – Kuril’skiye Island North
AS-205 [R0X] – Bering Sea Coast East

AS-006. Alberto, IV3TAN, will once again be active as VR2XAN during
the CQWW DX SSB Contest (October 27-28th) as a Single-Op/Single-Band (80m) entry. Activity will be from Peng Chau Island, HongKong. QSL via: Alberto Annesi, 1/F, 7A Nam Shan Road, Peng Chau Island, Hong Kong.

AS-130. Bill "BJ", WA7WJR, is now active as XV9WJR from Con Dao Island
until October 15th. Activity will be on 40/20/15 meters using primarily CW with some SSB and PSK. QSL via his home callsign direct. He will upload his log to LoTW on his return home. For more details, updates and pictures, see QRZ.com.

EU-125. Operators Olaf/DL4HG, Andy/DL7AT and Uwe/DL8UD will be active as OZ0TX from Römö Island, Denmark, between October 25-30th.
Activity will include the CQWW DX SSB Contest (October 27-28th) as a Multi-Single/High-Power entry. QSL via DL7AT, direct or by the Bureau.

OC-113/OC-279 Operators Cezar/VE3LYC and Adrian/KO8SCA will operate as TX0A from Maria Est Atoll in the Acteon Group (OC-113), and as TX0M from Morane Atoll in the Morane Group (OC-297P) between December 4-18th. 
The only amateur radio activity from the Acteon Group took place more than 28 years ago by Robert Berry (FO5BI/P). He operated in April 1990 from the Marutea Sud Atoll. 
This IOTA reference is currently ranked #6 on the Most Wanted IOTA
Listing, needed by 98% of the IOTA members. Since at the time of this operation there will be 1126 IOTA references activated to date, compared to 340 current DXCC entities, the rarity of this IOTA group corresponds to #2 on the DXCC Listing. 
The Morane Atoll is the only counter of the New IOTA Group OC-297. It fits the "Remote Island Group" criterion (IOTA Programme Structure
B.1.3). Both Atolls are uninhabited. 
The plan is to operate from each Atoll for 5 full days. Activity will be on CW, SSB and 40-10 meters concentrating on the bands that will exhibit
the best propagation conditions within specific time windows for each region. They will maintain one station on 20 m as long as the propagation will permit in order to maximize the number of unique stations logged. This is a complex and extremely expensive project, and they need your support to defray some of the considerable costs incurred! All donors will be timely acknowledged on their Web site at: 
https://tx0a-tx0m.weebly.com
QSL via VE3LYC, direct, by the Bureau or ClubLog's OQRS.

SA-073. Rich, K2RR, will be active as OA5/K2RR from San Gallan Island
for only a few hours (3 hours was mentioned) during the daylight on Monday, October 15th. Activity will start around 1430z and be mainly on CW near 14040 kHz. There may be some SSB on 14260 kHz and possibly 30m operations on 10115 kHz. QSL via ClubLog. Possibly LoTW (TBD).

PLEASE NOTE: Since the Webmasters of the new <www.iota-world.org> have decided NOT to post or dedicate a Web page to announce upcoming IOTA operations, PLEASE send your IOTA operations information the OPDX and we will post it here in an upcoming bulletin......

Check-out the latest IOTA News from the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club