IOTA News from OPDX

27 October, 2018

Island activities:

AF-111. NEW IOTA! (Update) DX-World.net posted the following on October 25th: With just 10 days until the EL2EL/4* expedition gets under- way, the team are pleased to report all our plans are coming together. * https://af111newiota.com/

You may not be aware this a 100% charity expedition – meaning all donations raised go directly to MAF Liberia* – an organization who fly the only humanitarian flight service in that country.
In 2017, Liberia was ranked 4th poorest country** in the world.
* https://www.maf-uk.org/news/islands-on-the-air
** http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-25-poorest-countries-in-the-world-2017-3

Today, we are delighted to announce that 50% of our target has been raised and we thank everyone who has taken the time to donate and understand exactly what MAF do. Consider only £25 covers the cost of fuel for a 30 minute flight, then already 40 more flights have been secured through this charity expedition. Thanks a lot!

In addition to the above, we will also be bringing surplus reading glasses and mobile phones to Sasstown. We have been informed there’s a real need for reading glasses in the rural elderly communities – as such simple cheap devices can transform a person’s basic well-being. Equally, the simplest of
mobile phones, that we all discard as being old or outdated, can open up new opportunities for rural communities in Liberia, too.

We arrive in Sasstown, southern Liberia on the morning of November 5th. Plans are to set foot on Telengbe Island (IOTA AF-111NEW) before sunset that day. We’ll be QRV on 40-30-20-17-15m using a combination of VDAs and vertical dipoles, all on 100W. Other bands will be checked time-to-time should openings occur. Mostly SSB will be used with some CW and possibly FT8.
Keeping in constant touch with local villagers and elders, we can also report the seas around the island have calmed since an earlier recce* trip so landing on Telengbe Island looks very promising.
* https://af111newiota.com/the-recce

You might be curious why we will use /4 in our callsign. Basically, we do not have to, but to emphasize we’ll be on AF-111NEW it was thought prudent to distinguish this fact. (Liberia ham radio regions map*).
* https://af111newiota.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/screenshot-2018-09-02-at-20-33-05.png

Note: If you work EL2JB, this will be our mainland station if there are delays in landing on Telengbe or issues forcing us to come off early.
Behind the scenes, GMDX Group and GM0OBX have been very helpful. Together with Spiderbeam, we are very grateful to them all.
This is our final news release prior to departure – we look forward very much to working you!
* EL2EL/4 website - https://af111newiota.com
* Fund-raising website for MAF Liberia - 
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/af111new

73 – Eric EL2EF, Col MM0NDX & Jonathan MM0OKG

NA-249. NEW IOTA! Dave, EI9FBB, will be active as KP4/EI9FBB from
Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, between October 24-28th. He will be located a great QTH on the right north side of the island with great sea views in most directions! Activity will be on 40/30/20/17 meter bands. He will concentrate on SSB for the first 2 days and CW during the CQWW DX SSB Contest, to focus on giving out this NEW IOTA group to as many unique chasers as possible. This is the 1st activity from one of the 6 new IOTA groups announced at the RSGB convention earlier this month. 
QSL Manager is Charles, M0OXO, and via Clublog's OQRS.

OC-144. Operators Burkhard/DL3KZA and Irfan/YE4IJ will be active as
YE4/DL3KZA from Belitung Island between October 31st and November 11th. Activity will be holiday style on 20/17 meters (dependent on conditions) using SSB. QSL via DL3KZA.

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......

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