CK8G - Countdown

Less than a week until departure and all is looking good for the operation from NA-182 Greens Island. Airline tickets are in hand and I’m now starting the final assembly, testing, and packing of equipment. I had hoped to be able to ship some of the gear into Paulatuk ahead of time on a charter flight but unfortunately things didn’t work out so now I’ll have to do it the expensive way. I’m going to send in most of the non-fragile stuff as cargo on the next few scheduled flights and then bring the rest with me when I go on Wednesday. My guy in Paulatuk informs me that the tent and generator have been arranged but finding a snowmobile to rent for a whole week is proving difficult. The weather is expected to be warm (single digits) and sunny so most people are planning to go out on the land and don’t want to be without their snowmobiles for that long. Not to worry though, if necessary I’ll get dropped off on the island and have supplies delivered or get picked up as needed. I’ll always be in VHF radio contact (or satellite phone if necessary) so no troubles. Frequent visitors are also likely as locals stop by to find out what the big tower and antenna on the island is all about.

Despite the big geomagnetic storm this past week, the forecast for the duration of the operation is for quiet conditions. The operating schedule will be Asia from 0000-0400z, Europe from 0400-0700z and 1400-1700z, North America from 1800-2300z. That’s generally where I’ll have the antenna pointed but will still happily take callers from anyone that is hearing me. I’ll be operating almost exclusively 20m SSB but I will bring a 40m dipole antenna as a backup.

My plane doesn’t land in Paulatuk until 4pm on Wednesday so I probably won’t be on the air until late that evening (early morning 15 April UTC). I'll be using my satellite phone to post status updates during the trip so watch this space for the latest information.

73
John - VE8EV