The up coming expedition to Navassa Island in January of 2015 promises to be a popular event and I hope it is a 24/7 operation or close to it. I am sure with this operation run by and funded by INDEXA it will be a good one and thousands of contacts will be made.
By DX standards this island is not that far away from the U.S. Mainland, from my location about as far as the west coast or the Northwestern states.
However, if we take a good hard looks at this island it is 2 square miles, it has not had any one living on the island since 1929. There are two structures on Navassa; one is a 162-foot lighthouse tower that has been shut down for decades. The other is the light keepers house within walking distance of the tower, now of course if the tower is still safe to enter, well it certainly poses a good structure for low band antennas.
The house, although it looks rather majestic from the ground, it is minus its roof, if one sees the sky view of the building you can see the remains of living quarters and rooms, plus halls and cross halls to access them. It is not livable; so anyone spending some time on the island will have to bring a tent, provide his or her own food.
No, there are no motels, fast food restaurants, or any roads on this island; I imagine the only thing is some path through some of the trees and vines. I imagine they are long covered by vegetation over the last 85 years!
Living under these conditions for a week can be trying, I for one hope there is not too much whining and complaining about the way this expedition operates. They are calling the shots and if they ask for the west coast U.S. for a while, or the 4th district, or just Europe,that is their operation and of course not yours.
You are sitting in the comfort of your shack, nice bed, heated rooms, plenty of facilities for your life style, this crew is living in the rough. In fact they may not be able to shower for a week unless something is brought to allow them to do so. I am saying a week, it may be longer, or shorter, the crew might have to cut it short due to weather. You just never know about these expeditions, but I think this one will be well planned and good ops that know how to handle a pile up.
Rest assured I will be in the pile ups, I need a contact on 20 and ten, I have KP1 on three other bands, so will not seek a qso if I have it confirmed on those bands already worked and confirmed. With that good luck and hope you log a new one in January of 2015. You may not get another chance for decades, due to the limitations to access the island.
We can do with out the intentional qrm on 40 meters, I am sure the crew on Navassa will attempt to operate, signal should be good on 40 from this location. The intentional qrm and self appointed band cops ruined the effort by FT4TA on 40 and they nearly succeeded with FT5ZM.
So be it, good luck and see you in the pile ups.
