Update December 13, 2024: QRT due to challenging conditions. Limited prep time, but we gave it our all! Thanks to all chasers, donors and organisations supported us.

Update December 11, 2024: Conditions extremely hard on SSB and CW after sunset.. worked good contacts to Asia and Europe in these modes however .. now it’s digital time.

Update December 10, 2024:  This morning we went to check various other possible places to stay in. After visiting four such guesthouses, we concluded that the one we picked up last night was actually the best all around, and it was highly unlikely that the noise level coming from the power lines, transformers, and LED lights would be significantly lower that what witnessed last night.
As such, we decided to stay put.

Then, we decided to operate on 10 m CW and 15 m FT8. After dark, both bands kept running nicely for a while, and we stayed with them. Since operating 20 CW was virtually impossible under the consideration noise level, we chose to run FT8 on 20 m for a little while, to offer a few more NA stations a chance at logging us on AS-153.

Tomorrow we plan to operate SSB on 10 and maybe 15 m too. Operating either CW or SSB won't be possible after dark, once the noise level will increase considerably.

Update December 10, 2024:  We arrived in Sagar after a very long journey, despite the fact that it is only 120 km from Kolkata. It was a 4.5 hour journey, then we transferred the equipment to the pier, boarded the boat and disembarked on the island, after which we had to find transport to the accommodation, which is at the southern tip of the island. We left Kolkata at 9:30 am and arrived at the hotel on the island at 7 pm local time.

After installing an antenna, we noticed that the noise level is very high, around S7. There are many large LED streetlights, plus some transformers around, so we were unable to copy more than the strongest signals. However, in the morning, when we started operating again, just before sunrise, when the LED streetlights were no longer on, we were surprised that we did not notice any change in the noise level. In the meantime, we noticed that the planetary K index was between 3 and 4 for the past 9 hours. We plan to look for a different hosting site, at least to test if it may result in some improvement. That said, we will continue to operate to see how the noise level affects other bands during the day.

Update December 7, 2024:  The AU2K Kanika Island DXpedition AS-179(NEW) is now over. The IOTA team will now move to Sagar Island (AS-153) on December 9th, and will be active as AU2S through December 13th. Operation will be the same as on Kanika Island. For more detailed and updates, watch:   https://au2k.weebly.com

Cezar arrived in India and met with Sarath. Licensing authority confirmed the allocation of the special callsign AU2S for the upcoming activity from Sagar Island, AS-153.

REMINDER:  AU2K - Kanika Is. (AS-179 New) - Dec 2-7th
                       AU2S - Sagar Is. (AS-153)​ - Dec. 9-13th