Chesterfield Islands

For Immediate Release
Press Release 5

June 1, 2015

TX3X – Chesterfield Islands 2015 DX-pedition
(OC-176)

Where’s the Evohe?

Did you ever wonder if the DX-pedition boat left yet, or where is the boat now, or have they arrived at the island? We are pleased to announce that MarineTraffic.com has offered us complimentary use of their vessel tracking service. While the boat is in coastal waters its position will be reported every few minutes. When we leave the coastal area we’ll report our position about every 4 hours. We’re not aware of any previous DX-pedition that provided these positioning reports. The position map will be available at: tx3x.com

Joining our list of Corporate Sponsors and Partners:

SteppIR
Mike Mertel K7IR of Fluidmotion Incorporated is providing 2 SteppIR 2 element beam antennas. http://www.steppir.com/

Arlan Communications
Dave Bottom WI6R of Arlan Communications is providing fully configured RadioSport headsets. http://www.arlancommunications.com/

Jim Sansoterra K8JRK
Shipping delicate electronic equipment across the globe requires special packing considerations. Jim is loaning us enough Pelican cases to protect all the RF equipment.

Project Planning:
We’re almost on auto-pilot. Under development are: tent and antenna locations, power grid physical layout, operator scheduling and task plans for a beach landing. It’s important to have everyone’s assignments documented and prioritized for setting up tents, antennas, power grid, etc. Many tasks will be done concurrently to maximize available sunlight.

Antenna / Power Plans

The website is updated with final plans. Antenna parties and equipment configuration
activities will be conducted in San Jose, California over the next 6 weeks. Also planned for San Jose is configuring the Lenovo laptops with N1MM+, the drivers for the microKeyer II interface units and testing the networking.

Fund Raising

It’s no secret DX-peditions are expensive and the team members pay most of the cost. DX-peditions requiring non-scheduled transportation need early infusions of cash to cover, in our case, the boat which is our largest cost item. With a budget of about $150,000(USD) and the team members paying their own travel to New Caledonia each TX3X team member will pay about $15,000 to put number 22 on the air and hope your contributions will help offset their investment. While our web site’s support page shows an increasing number of Clubs, Foundations and Individual donors, the contributions (to date) would cover only 20% of the total cost. If DX-peditions to the top 30 are to continue the DX community needs to help offset these ever increasing costs. We appreciate those who already contributed and encourage others to participate. You may use the Donate button at: tx3x.com

Please direct any questions to: info@tx3x.com