After a lot of negotiation we are pleased to announce a multinational team of twelve is to undertake a Dxpedition to Bouvet Island from 25 March 2013 to 5 April 2013 using the callsign 3Y0IOF. We will be operating 24/7 with five stations covering all bands 160m-10m.

We understand that Dxpeditions are all about you – the DX operator – therefore we are pleased to announce some exciting new innovations.

We appreciate many of you feel you should not have to make any effort to work us. Accordingly, we are offering you the chance to call us on the telephone when you are ready for a QSO. That’s right, we will give you a phone number and when you are ready you can ring us and we will immediately cease to work the pile up and call you on a frequency of your choice. Not only that, we will also ensure an email is sent to you directly after the QSO to confirm you are in the log. Furthermore, we are organising a team of experts who, if you wish, will fly in and set up your rig on the required frequency, connect the antenna for you and make sure the heating or ventilation is on so it is nice and warm or cool in your shack as the case requires. Don’t worry about propagation. We will make sure there is some between us as we understand that is our responsibility and it’s our fault if there isn’t.

If that is not for you then don’t worry we are just as happy to work you in a pile up. We realise that we will need to operate in accordance with your operating habits so therefore we will understand if you call over the top of another station we are trying to work, or when we are specifically calling a part of the world you do not reside in, or if you are simply calling aimlessly or while we are transmitting, or even if you call when you cannot hear us. We will do our best to work you despite all this and yes we know it’s our fault if you do not make it into the log. We wish to acknowledge the value Frequency Cops bring to a Dxpedition so to recognise this we are going to specifically publicise some times when we will arrange for some operators to deliberately call us on our frequency instead of split. Frequency Cops can even register their availability with us to help us ensure these periods get maximum uptake by the Frequency Cop community. During these periods the Frequency Cops will be able to say or send “up up!” to their hearts content. (Note: we will make sure we tell the pile up to listen up and not down as the recent PT0S Dxpedition has taught us that Frequency Cops don’t know how to send “down” in CW).

We also don’t want the “tuner uppers” to feel left out and like them we feel dummy loads are completely overrated. So when we are ready to transmit on a band we will give them the opportunity to tune up on our frequency before we start working the pile up. Each period will start with us sending our callsign and “QDL” (“Quick Dummy Loaders”) so they will know when to commence tuning up on us. We will allow for at least five minutes for this as we know how important it is for the tuner uppers to make sure their finals are good and ready. We acknowledge if they go bang it’s our fault. Depending on demand we will every now and then send “QDL” while working a pile up so any tuner uppers late to the party can tune up on us as well.

Unfortunately we will not have cluster access while we are on Bouvet but we know this will not stop you posting announcements and comments on the cluster about our Dxpedition. Some suggestions for you to try include saying what band you want us to QSY to or mode to operate on, the quality of our ops and the usual “loud”, “can’t hear them here”, “thanks for 7th band” or “yee hah” comments. Likewise as we noted above we understand it’s our fault if you cannot work us and therefore we accept in that case you will post on the cluster calling us the worst Dxpedition ever.

We can’t wait to be of service to you.

The 3Y0IOF Team