• [NEWS] – CQWW CW 2024

Our on island CW ops will be QRV during the upcoming CQWW CW contest this weekend. Operating Multi Single, High Power as 3D2Y. Contest log will not be made available until after the log submission deadline. Operators not in the contest will maintain a presence on WARC bands and 6m.

  • [NOVEMBER 20] –

It is now 6 days since we arrived in Rotuma. We have ongoing challenges concerning electricity here in Rotuma. We have a number of power solutions, which we are implementing, however none of them are flawless and we ask for patience if we are off air or operating a reduced capacity. We are aware of band openings and when we need to be QRV for the different areas, we are bringing in additional resources at these times and so far we have seen an increase in our performance to these areas.

Since our arrival we have made great progress in getting most of the antennas up and have even made some QSOs on 6m, however we are still waiting for a tree climber to put a pulley in the tree for 80/160m antenna. We anticipate this happening before CQWW CW. The team is finding it challenging to complete antenna work during the day due to the extreme and oppressive temperatures. Over the last couple of days we documented in excess of 30°C and 88% Humidity causing the temperature to feel much higher. 

Band conditions have been tough. From 20:00 UTC time the bands flat line for a few hours until we can work Asia in our late mornings. Signal from Europe are best from 08:00 UTC onwards and North America a few hours after that. We have had some incredible rate from Europe with super loud signals. These have been very enjoyable and high rate pile ups and we hope they can continue over the coming weeks. We are on Rotuma for 2 more weeks so there is plenty of time to work us. 

The CW ops on our team will operate in CQWW CW this weekend. We will run Multi Single, High power. We will maintain a presence on WARC bands and 6m throughout the contest. 

Gregg, W6IZT

On the scene

[NOVEMBER 18] – Gregg W6IZT and Jamie M0SDV visited the shack of Antoine 3D2AG/P and helped him dismantle his antennas ahead of his departure on the next ship back to Fiji.

This location in the village of Fapufa is located on the south coast of Rotuma and is famous in Amateur Radio history. The 1988 DXpedition 3D2XX was the first amateur radio DXpedition to Rotuma and took place in this village. The remains of the DXpedition house are still in situ.

Gregg and Jamie met a local resident named Pita who shared fond memories of the 3D2XX team.

[NOVEMBER 17] – Our station build is coming along nicely. We have 2 RiB’s and 2 local stations currently on air. We intend to get 80m and 6m antennas up tomorrow morning local time.

We have overcome some local challenges, so you can now expect to see us ramping up our operation in the next few days.

[NOVEMBER 16] – by Jamie, M0SDV for team 3D2Y:

On Friday 15th November 2024, we woke up at 4am to depart Fiji bound for Rotuma. We arrived in Rotuma approximately 10:00 local time. Greeted by our host we made the short drive to our QTH where we participated in Mamassa, a traditional ceremony which welcomes us to the island. Soon after we got to work on the station.

The weather here is hot, which makes working during the middle of the day very challenging. Nevertheless, we’ve been able to make extraordinary progress on the station build in a short amount of time. We spent some time organising the equipment, staging antennas and building the shack on the inside, and by 15:00 local time we were on air with one of our NexGen RiB’s, shortly followed by two local stations on 15m and 12m. We immediately made a number of test QSOs, experiencing our first Rotuma pile ups. During our testing phase we became aware of some issues with the live log uploads which we are addressing and you can expect to see this issue corrected by tomorrow.

Up to this point we have been able to put up vertical dipole antennas for 20m up to 10m, and 2x RiB antennas. These have been situated on the beach front that runs along the length of our QTH. We will be working on 160-30m and 6m antennas in the coming days, using the enormous palm trees around the property which are taller than any pole we had packed, enabling us to review our antenna options for maximum efficiency.

The commercial power here on Rotuma is provided by a generator which covers the entire district. Due to this we have some down-time which we’d like you to be aware of. At 13:00 hours local time, (01:00 UTC) we are without power for 1 hour. Rather than running a generator during this hour, we have decided to use this time as a daily maintenance window where we can focus on repairs, updates, log uploads etc.. we will also use this time to hold team discussions so we can continue to develop throughout our stay here.

The team is in good spirits and we are excited to get on air at maximum capacity as soon as we are able to.

You can see our progress, photos and real time updates by following our social media. Follow Rotuma 2024 on Facebook.