Update November 21, 2024:  It is now 6 days since we arrived in Rotuma.

We have ongoing challenges concerning electricity here in Rotuma. We have a number of power solutions, which we are implementing, however none of them are flawless and we ask for patience if we are off air or operating a reduced capacity. We are aware of band openings and when we need to be QRV for the different areas, we are bringing in additional resources at these times and so far we have seen an increase in our performance to these areas.

Since our arrival we have made great progress in getting most of the antennas up and have even made some QSOs on 6m, however, we are still waiting for a tree climber to put a pulley in the tree for 80/160m antenna. We anticipate this happening before CQWW CW. The team is finding it challenging to complete antenna work during the day due to the extreme
and oppressive temperatures. Over the last couple of days we documented in excess of 30°C and 88% Humidity causing the temperature to feel much higher.

Band conditions have been tough. From 20:00 UTC time the bands flat line for a few hours until we can work Asia in our late mornings. Signal from Europe are best from 08:00 UTC onwards and North America a few hours after that. We have had some incredible rate from Europe with super loud signals. These have been very enjoyable and high rate pile ups and we hope they can continue over the coming weeks. We are on Rotuma for 2 more weeks so there is plenty of time to work us.

The CW ops on our team will operate in CQWW CW this weekend. We will run Multi Single, High power. We will maintain a presence on WARC bands and 6m throughout the contest.

Update November 18, 2024:  Gregg W6IZT and Jamie M0SDV visited the shack of Antoine 3D2AG/P and helped him dismantle his antennas ahead of his departure on the next ship back to Fiji.

This location in the village of Fapufa is located on the south coast of Rotuma and is famous in Amateur Radio history. The 1988 DXpedition 3D2XX was the first amateur radio DXpedition to Rotuma and took place in this village. The remains of the DXpedition house are still in situ.

Gregg and Jamie met a local resident named Pita who shared fond memories of the 3D2XX team

Update November 17, 2024:  Our station build is coming along nicely. We have 2 RiB’s and 2 local stations currently on air. We intend to get 80m and 6m antennas up tomorrow morning local time.

We have overcome some local challenges, so you can now expect to see us ramping up our operation in the next few days.

Update November 16, 2024:  Noa’ia from Rotuma,
Yesterday on Friday 15th November 2024, we woke up at 4am to depart Fiji bound for Rotuma. We arrived in Rotuma approximately 10:00 local time.
Greeted by our host we made the short drive to our QTH where we participated in Mamassa, a traditional ceremony which welcomes us to the island. Soon after we got to work on the station.

The weather here is hot, which makes working during the middle of the day very challenging. Nevertheless, we’ve been able to make extraordinary progress on the station build in a short amount of time. We spent some time organizing the equipment, staging antennas and building the shack on the inside, and by 15:00 local time we were on air with one of our
NexGen RiB’s, shortly followed by two local stations on 15m and 12m. We immediately made a number of test QSOs, experiencing our first Rotuma pile ups. During our testing phase we became aware of some issues with the live log uploads which we are addressing and you can expect to see this issue corrected by tomorrow.

Up to this point we have been able to put up vertical dipole antennas for 20m up to 10m, and 2x RiB antennas. These have been situated on the beach front that runs along the length of our QTH. We will be working on 160-30m and 6m antennas in the coming days, using the enormous palm trees around the property which are taller than any pole we had packed,
enabling us to review our antenna options for maximum efficiency.

The commercial power here on Rotuma is provided by a generator which covers the entire district. Due to this we have to known down time which we’d like you to be aware of. At 13:00 hours local time, (01:00 UTC) we are without power for 1 hour. Rather than running a generator during this hour, we have decided to use this time as a daily maintenance window where we can focus on repairs, updates, log uploads etc.. we will also use this time to hold team discussions so we can continue to develop throughout our stay here.

The team is in good spirits and we are excited to get on air at maximum capacity as soon as we are able to.

You can see our progress, photos and real time updates by following our social media. Follow Rotuma 2024 on Facebook.

73, Jamie M0SDV, On behalf of 3D2Y

Update November 13, 2024: The team begins their journey to Rotuma on November 12th. We arrive on Rotuma on November 15, and will be on the air through December 3. We are still working hard to reach our funding raising goals. Please consider supporting the 3D2Y Rotuma DXpedition.

Update November 10, 2024: 3D2Y Dedicated in Memory of Bob Allphin K4UEE.

More details at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560596036650

Update November 4, 2024: 3D2Y 6 meter terrestrial and EME plans

We plan to make every effort to hand out as many 6 meter QSOs as possible. Our 6 meter station consists of an Elecraft K4 + KPA 500. Our 6 meter antenna is a Momo 5 element @ 20 ft that will be positioned to take advantage of the moon’s location at the horizon for moon rise and moon set.

6m EME operations will be captained by Don N1DG, and all of our EME operators will be remote. Our 6 meter EME schedule will be published in advance. Working EME with a small team DXpedition is a challenge, by utilizing our remote team we can leverage their expertise resulting in a much better opportunity to make as many EME contacts as possible.

6 meter terrestrial operations will be manned by a mix of local and remote operators. We will monitor PSK reporter the ON4KST chat room for openings. We are able to receive notifications of potential openings in real-time.

Our primary terrestrial FT8 frequency of operation on 6 meters is 50.313. We will QSY as needed.

The team begins our journey to Rotuma next week. We arrive on Rotuma on November 15, and will be on the air through December 3.

We are still working hard to reach our funding raising goals.

Please consider supporting the 3D2Y Rotuma DXpedition. Every donation gets us closer to our fund-raising goal.
Visit our website for details: rotuma2024.com http://rotuma2024.com/. All donations are greatly appreciated.
We hope to see you on the bands, the op on the other end is likely a young ham experiencing the thrill of a DXpedition pile up for the first time!

Update October 29, 2024:   3D2Y “By the Numbers”

  * 43 YOTA remote operators on our team. Average age: 20 years.
  * 3 YOTA on-island operators on our team. Average age: 23 years old.
  * 20 CW ops.
  * 18 Elmers.
  * 14 countries.
  * 4 Continents.
  * 6 YLs.
  * 20 days on the air
  * Average temperature 82F-28C
  * Heat index 95-100F 35-38C
  * Average wind speed 12 mph, gusts 44 mph
  * Average rainfall in Nov 8.6 inches
  * Number of rain days annually 271 75%
  * Mosquitos-Extreme ☹
  * Grocery store open on Friday

  We are still working hard to reach our funding raising goals for the November DXpedition.
 
  Please consider supporting the 3D2Y Rotuma DXpedition.

  Every donation gets us closer to our fund-raising goal.

  Visit our website for details: rotuma2024.com.

  Your support is greatly appreciated.

  We hope to see you on the bands, the op on the other end is likely a young ham experiencing the thrill of a DXpedition pile up for the first time!

Update October 27, 2024:  3D2Y Clublog Leaderboard Challenge

As a thanks to the stations who have helped us to attain our QSO goals we are announcing the 3D2Y Club Log Leaderboard Challenge. The objective is simple. Work us on as many band slots as possible!

We will be awarding a personalized bound photo album to the top 5 stations on the leaderboard on each of the five continents, North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Oceana.

Positions 6 through 50 on each continent will receive a certificate signed by the team.

We are hopeful that the challenge will add additional excitement and incentive to work the 3D2Y team.

To be eligible, a station must make an early donor donation, or request a card through OQRS.

We are still working hard to reach our funding raising goals for the November DXpedition.

Please consider supporting the 3D2Y Rotuma DXpedition. Visit our website for details:
rotuma2024.com.
 All donations are greatly appreciated.

We hope to see you on the bands, the op on the other end is likely a young ham experiencing the thrill of a DXpedition pile up for the first time!

Update October 15, 2024:  One month from today, on November 15th, our 6 member multi-national on-island team will board an early morning, 1 1/2 hour flight aboard an ATR72 from Fiji to Rotuma. Our equipment will be pre-staged at our operating location, we will be ready to begin setting up our stations immediately upon our arrival, with a goal of having all stations on the air by the end of the day.

We plan to have a total of 5 stations on the air, 2 of the stations will be Elecraft K3s + KPA500s, 1 is a NexGenRiB based on an Elecraft K4 + KPA500, the remaining 2 stations are NexGenRiBs with Elecraft K3s running 100 watts.

Our operating location is on the beach on the north side of the island with ample beach frontage for our antennas. Our antenna complement consists of verticals for 160-40, vertical dipoles for 20-10, and a 5 element yagi for 6 meters. We plan to use RX antennas on the low bands with active noise reduction to minimize the impact of local noise sources.

Commercial power on Rotuma is limited and will serve as a back-up to our primary power source, which is a 4500 KVA diesel generator. We have AC line filters available if needed, to address any RFI problems that may arise.

We will be active in CQWW CW, the young ops on the team are developing our plans for the contest. During the contest we will also be active on the WARC bands.

We will utilize Clublog real-time uploads and Leaderboard. We hope to participate in a number of podcasts during our operation. We will begin dismantling our stations on December 3rd.

We are very thankful for the generous support that we are receiving from clubs and individuals, as well as from our sponsors DX Engineering and Elecraft.

Our fund-raising efforts continue, for additional information please take a moment to visit our website at rotuma2024.com.

We look forward to seeing you in the pile-ups!  Keep in mind that the operator on the other end may well be experiencing a DXpedition pile-up for the first time.

Update September 26, 2024: In partnership with YOTA, we have assembled a multi-national team to participate in the upcoming 3D2Y DXpedition. 

These future DXpeditioners will have the thrill of experiencing the DXpedition pileups for the first time. 

We can accommodate a few more young operators, if you are interested, please contact Kees W0AAE at arrl.kvan@gmail.com It will be great to have you onboard!

Fund raising for this exciting adventure continues, please visit our website at rotuma2024.com  73, and hope to see you in the pile-ups. The 3D2Y team.

CLICK HERE TO MEET THE  3D2Y OFF-ISLAND YOUTH TEAM

Please contact Kees W0AAE at arrl.kvan@gmail.com if you wish to participate as a remote op.

Update September 3, 2024: At about 0900z this morning the tracking devices attached to our shipment came on-line in Nadi, Fiji. The 330 Kg shipment left Atlanta by truck for LAX on August 24 and departed LAX on August 31 on Quantas Airfreight for Fiji via Auckland NZ, and Sydney AU.

Shipment by air freight is expensive shares Gregg W6IZT. To minimize shipping costs, the team will be carrying 2 ea. K3s, 3 ea. KPA500s, laptops, the StarLink terminal, and other gear as checked or carry-on baggage.

Our equipment will be picked up from customs in Nadi and placed in storage by our agent in Fiji in preparation for the trip by boat to Rotuma. The boat runs between Suva, Fiji and Rotuma about once per month. Our shipment will be picked up in Rotuma by our on-island representative for storage at our operating location. The team arrives November 15.

This DXpedition is a partnership with Youth on the Air (YOTA) encouraging youth participation and will feature three young operators who will be active on the Island while there will also be 60 or more hams operating remotely using W6IZT’s NexGenRiBs over Starlink.

We will be signing 3D2Y, not 3D2Z as previously planned.

Funding raising efforts continue for the November DXpedition.

Please consider supporting the 3D2Z Rotuma DXpedition. Visit our website for details: rotuma2024.com

We hope to see you on the bands, the op on the other end is likely a young ham experiencing the thrill of a DXpedition pile up for the first time!

Update August 30, 2024: Our shipment of equipment from USA bound for Fiji is now on the move!
Our initial packing efforts resulted in around 660kg of equipment therefore some downsizing was required. Nevertheless, the team was able to secure all the required equipment for our upcoming DXPedition into this shipment with minimal equipment to be carried as airline luggage. There are now less that 80 days until we arrive in Rotuma!
Are you ready?

Update August 26, 2024: Elecraft  is Major Sponsor of the 3D2Z Rotuma DXpedition.

We are pleased to announce that our good friends at Elecraft are a major sponsor of the 3D2Z Rotuma DxPedition scheduled for  November 2024.

Elecraft has now joined DX Engineering, and the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) as a “Premier” sponsor supporting this unique DXpedition.

This DXpedition is a partnership with Youth on the Air (YOTA) encouraging youth participation and will feature 3 young operators who will be active from 3D2Z on the Island while there will also be 60 or more hams operating 3D2Z remotely using W6IZT’s NexGenRiBs over Starlink.

Elecraft co-founders Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ, and Wayne Burdick, N6KR, have once again demonstrated their commitment to DXPeditioning and support of youth involvement in our hobby.

The K4 provided by Elecraft has been incorporated into a NexGenRiB and will showcase the K4s remote capabilities.

We are extremely thankful for the support from Elecraft.

In addition, we are grateful to the following DX clubs and associations for their generous support of the 3D2Z project enabling DXPeditioning for the next generation of amateur radio operators:

    Southeastern DX Club
    Southwest Ohio DX Association
    Long Island DX Association
    Twin City DX Association
    HamJam – North Fulton Amateur Radio League
    RSGB
    Western Washington DX Club
    Oklahoma DX Association
    EUDXF
    Madison DX Club
    CDXC The UK DX Foundation
    Lone Star DX Association
    Eastern Iowa DX Association
    German DX Foundation
    INDEXA
    North Alabama DX Club
    West Virginia DX Association
    Northern Ohio DX association Inc.
    Swiss DX Foundation

Funding efforts continue for the November DXpedition. Please consider supporting the 3D2Z Rotuma DXpedition by visiting our website for details

Update August 16, 2024: The 3D2Z team is pleased to announce that Dean W2FQ has joined our on-island team. A resident of Seekonk MA, Dean has been licensed since 1972, and is a retired Special Forces Airborne RANGER. He currently works in management for the Dairy Farmers of America, and also operates his own business in the firearms industry.

Dean shares “My military service includes Combat Engineer, Infantry, and Special Forces branches in multiple assignments. I was fortunate to finish a 20+ year career as a Special Forces Airborne RANGER. The lessons learned from my service were teamwork, accomplish the mission, and never quit with always valuing the input from your men. This is my first DXpedition and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of the 3D2Z team”.

We are pleased to have Dean join our team. Dean’s skills, leadership and experience compliment our team nicely. His primary role over the next few months will be to lead our fund-raising efforts.

Hal W8HC has stepped down from the team due to personal reasons. We would like to thank Hal W8HC for his contributions.

Funding efforts continue for the November DXpedition.

Please consider supporting the 3D2Z Rotuma DXpedition by visiting our website for details

Update July 27, 2024: DX Engineering (DXE) is Major Sponsor of the 3D2Z Rotuma DXpedition

We are pleased to announce that our good friends at DX Engineering (DXE) are a major sponsor of the 3D2Z Rotuma Dxpedition scheduled for late November.

DXE has now joined the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) as a “Premier” sponsor supporting this unique DXpedition.

This DXpedition is a partnership with Youth on the Air (YOTA) encouraging youth participation and will feature 3 young operators who will be active from 3D2Z on the Island while there will also be 30 or more YOTA operators operating 3D2Z remotely using W6IZT Radio in a Box stations (RiBs) over Starlink.

DX Engineering CEO Tim Duffy, K3LR has once again demonstrated his commitment and support of youth involvement in our hobby not only with this, DXE’s 3D2Z sponsorship, but is once again opening up his world-class K3LR Contest station to the young operators of the Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure as they participate this weekend as K3Y in the RSGB IOTA Contest.

“Thank you” to DX Engineering and “Very 73 es GL” to the K3Y Contest Team!!

In addition to the NCDXF, we are grateful to the following DX clubs and associations for their generous support of the 3D2Z project enabling DXpeditioning for the next generation of amateur radio operators:
  • Southeastern DX Club
  • Southwest Ohio DX Association
  • Long Island DX Association
  • Twin City DX Association
  • Lone Star DX Association
  • RSGB
  • Western Washington DX Club
  • Oklahoma DX Association
  • EUDXF
  • CDXC The UK DX Foundation
  • North Alabama DX Club
  • Eastern Iowa DX Association

Funding efforts continue for the November DXpedition. Please consider supporting the 3D2Z Rotuma DXpedition by visiting our website for details:
 

Update June 27, 2024: We are sad to report that due to unexpected circumstances, Mike, WØVTT has had to drop off of the 3D2Z on-island team. In our continued efforts to bring more “Next Generation” amateur radio operators into DXpeditioning, the 3D2Z team is pleased to announce that our new 6th member replacing Mike is Lukas Bartkus, LY7J, a 22-year young ham from Lithuania. He joins Connor, KD9LSV and Jamie, MØSDV as our 3rd young ham making this a multi-national “Next Generation” DXpedition.

According to Lukas, he is a young ham “with 7 years of ham radio love.” He is a second-year electrical engineering student and a full time professional events photographer.

Meanwhile, Mike will remain a valued member of our off-island DXpedition team serving as one of the remote operators of the 2 NexGenRiBs which will be accompanying the DXpedition.

Funding efforts continue for the November DXpedition. Please consider supporting the 3D2Z Rotuma DXpedition

Update June 18, 2024: The 3D2Z Rotuma team are still looking for an additional youth operator to participate in this Dxpedition. Due to unforeseen circumstances, one of the”senior” operators of the DXpedition’s 6-member team has had to step down. The Team would like to take this opportunity to fill the operating position with a third “Next Generation” operator, age 21- 35. Please contact W6IZT, Greg, if you, or someone you know, is interested in being a part of this November DXpedition or, if you have any questions, you can email Gregg at: gregg.w6izt@gmail.com

Update June 11, 2024: Team Adds 6th Member – Connor Dickey, KD9LSV

 In the continued effort to bring more “Next Generation” amateur radio operators into DXpeditioning, the 3D2Z team is happy to announce the 6th member to join their team-- Connor, KD9SLV, a 23-year old electrical engineer and graduate of Bradley University. 

 Connor, who obtained the rank of Eagle Scout, holds his Extra Class license and recently completed the CWops Level 1 Academy Class.  He enjoys operating CW Contests and is a member of Society of Midwest Contesters.  He attributes operating in the 2019 CQ WPX SSB Contest at Craig, K9CT's contest station as having a major influence on him and giving him more appreciation of, “How big the amateur radio community actually is.”

 Connor becomes the 2nd 23-year old on the team joining Jamie, MØSDV .  Jamie is an avid DXer and Contest op who brings quite a bit of DXpedition experience with him-- including the recent successful 8R7X Youth DXpedition.

In additional 3D2Z news, team member Nathan, K4NHW activated the DXpedition's website early Tuesday morning @: rotuma2024.com

 Here you will find more information about the 3D2Z DXpedition, the team, the operating plans or Rotuma Island itself... and how you can support 3D2Z.

Update May 22, 2024: In the interest of bringing more young amateur radio operators into DXpeditioning, the Pacific Islands DXpedition Group, Inc. (PIDXG) and Youth on the Air (YOTA) Americas are pleased to announce a partnership involving the upcoming 3D2Z DXpedition to Rotuma in November. Youth on the Air is a program for and by young amateur radio operators with the expressed goal of building skills and fostering lasting friendships and mentors with younger operators.

Rotuma DXpedition organizer Gregg, W6IZT will be taking two of his NexGenRiBs as a complement to the 6 member DXpedition on-island team. Gregg says, “Following the success with the remote radio used at the recent CBØZA Juan Fernandez DXpedition, we will have two remote stations available to young amateur operators through YOTA on Rotuma. It is our hope that 75% of the remote contacts made from 3D2Z will be made by the youth participants.”

Nineteen year old YOTA member Kees, WØAAE will coordinate the scheduling and operation by the remote YOTA operating team. A freshman aerospace engineering major at Iowa State University, Kees was the 2023 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award recipient. He coordinated participation in the Americas for December YOTA Month and is active with remote operation for young hams through RHR.

YOTA Camp Director Neil Rapp, WB9VPG said that he welcomes this partnership with the youth members of the YOTA organization and the PIDXG DXpedition to Rotuma. “I think this is a great opportunity for our young operators to experience a DXpedition and enjoy operating in pileup conditions.”

The 3D2Z DXpedition is scheduled for November 15 to December 4. In addition to the young operators who will be involved with the remote-side of the operation, one of the on-island team members is 23-year old Jamie, MØSDV, who was one of the members of the recent 8R7X DXpedition to Guyana.

Additional members of the 3D2Z team include veteran DXpeditioner Hal, W8HC; Nathan K4NHW; and Mike, WØVTT. Gregg says that they are awaiting word on the sixth member of the team, another young amateur operator who will be named soon.

Update May 20, 2024: They will use the callsign 3D2Z.

The Pacific Islands DXpedition Group (PIDXG) announces that Gregg, W6IZT; Hal, W8HC; Nathan, K4NHW and 3 additional operators (to be announced) will operate from Rotuma (3D2/R) November 15 to December 4, 2024.

Preliminary plans call for the team to operate locally with 3 stations in addition to 2 of Gregg’s NexGenRiBs (remote radio systems) that proved successful during the recent CB0ZEW DXpedition at Robinson Crusoe Island (Juan Fernandez).

The team will also participate in the CQWW CW Contest using a different callsign from the DXpedition. Necessary permits and licensing has been secured in addition to confirmed accommodations for the DXpedtion’s location on the island’s north coast.

Currently Rotuma stands at #68 on the Club Log Most Wanted List. Pse QRX for more information