10/01/2019

The A35JT[1] Islands on the Air DXpedition to Tonga (OC-049) continues until October 6. The team reports that station setup took longer than anticipated, but once things got under way, activity was fairly brisk.

"[W]e finally have the three stations operational since Wednesday night local time," the A35JT team said in a September 27 progress report. "So far we have seen success to Europe on 160-meter gray line FT8 and CW as well as to North America at its sunrise. We are also seeing Europe at 1800 short path on 20 and on 17 in the Tongan evening hours. We will look for North America on 15m during the day today as well." A35 has an 80-meter inverted V erected in palm trees. "We hope to get you in the log!"

The IOTA DXpedition has also been experimenting with 6-meter moonbounce and had worked 21 stations as of September 27. The team posted a time lapse video[2] of the 6-meter beam installation.

The A35JT team has been attempting to livestream its log[3] to Club Log, although RFI into an ADSL internet connection has disrupted the process. "Our internet feed is intermittent as the transmitters are crashing the ADSL modem," the DXpedition reported. "If your contact doesn't appear straight away, please don't immediately rework us. Rather wait 12 hours (as we are doing regular catchup uploads as well)."

The team said stations in Oceania, South America, or Africa may call at any time, regardless of the specific region the operator may indicate.

Tonga is the 104th most-wanted DXCC entity, according to Club Log.

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[1] https://vk5gr-iota.net/
[2] https://vk5gr-iota.net/2019-a35jt-oc-049-tonga/2083/
[3] https://vk5gr-iota.net/clublog-livestream/

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