I just find this fascinating and have to share. This is a team of guys from the US and Canada that for three years have planned an expedition to this subantarctic island! They are mostly scientists in various academic fields, but more importantly, they are amateur radio operators and their primary purpose in doing this is to set up radios on this island and try to communicate with as many individuals from around the world. This is where the term DXpedition comes from. DX means to talk to someone far away (usually in another country) on the radio.
The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands are an Australian external territory and volcanic group of barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. Discovered in the mid-19th century, they have been territories of Australia since 1947 and contain the only two active volcanoes in Australian territory. The uninhabited islands are among the most remote places on Earth.
The team goes by the callsign: VK0EK and you may CLICK HERE to be taken to their blog which is a good read, if you are a geek and into ham radio things.
As of this moment they have worked a total of 33,985 contacts (QSOs), the majority of which are in Morse Code (CW), followed by voice (SSB) and a few digitally as well. I plan to try contacting them in the next few days and will need a lot of luck not having practiced much Morse code in over 25 years.
The current status of VK0EK (Click on the image to be taken to their data site)
The Team on Braveheart departing for Heard Island
The tents at the VK0EK camp after a major storm yesterday.
