Our team leader Hans DL6JGN and Alex Jennings, the representative of Swains Island had an other conference call about the planning for the upcoming DXpedition to W8S Swains Island.
At the moment it is impossible to charter a ship for March 2023. The Government ship Manu’atele has a fixed schedule to visit many islands of American Samoa and is not possible to sail to Swains to drop off and pick us up 2 weeks later.
Alex Jennings is still negotiating with the government for a new planning. As soon as possible we will go to Swains.
Our project has certainly not been canceled but again postponed. Alex Jennings told us that we are the first group that will visit Swains. An extra advantage is, that the propagation will be much better on the higher bands.
We will keep you informed of the status via our web site, Twitter and Facebook.
Our plan is as follows:
The international team of 10 operators will be active from Swains Island as W8S. We will be QRV on all HF bands in CW, SSB, FT8 and RTTY. Operation is from two separate camps on the island and each camp has two stations. We will run the 4 stations simultaneously, 24 hours a day.
After the operators fly in from Europe and the US, there is a 365 km long voyage by vessel that may take up to a full day and landing can only take place during high tide.
QSL manager: PG5M
Official web site: Swains2020