APRIL 2 @ 21:00Z

APRIL 2 @ 15:10Z

After spending 2 weeks at sea, and being only 70nm from Bouvet before a ferocious storm struck, the Atlantic Tuna is now berthed at Cape Town port. Dom, 3Z9DX informs DX-World that the ship “is solid as a rock” and only “some electronic equipment suffered damage”.

APRIL 1 @ 09:00Z

Stan, SP8S reports the MV Atlantic Tuna’s latest position was 38°19’48.00″S, 17°2’24.00″E (approx. 272 nautical miles from Cape Town) as of 09:00 UTC today and continues sailing directly towards South Africa with the current speed of 10 knots. The ocean is much calmer. If everything goes well, the team should reach Cape Town port [local] afternoon of April 2nd.

MARCH 31 @ 05:30Z

MARCH 30 @ 10:30Z

As reported yesterday here on DX-World, the 3Y0I team again ran into storm trouble. Here’s an update from their Press Officer, SP8S:

In a short sat conversation Dom 3Z9DX reported that they fight yet another storm that formed in front of their initial path to Cape Town. They had to shift their course a bit to East, resulting in ETA at Cape Town in 3-3.5 days. He added waves are 6 meters tall now and that is actually incredible the storms hit this frequently that early in this part of the year. Yet another huge cyclone formed South-East of the Team, but fortunately it will not cross their route. Everybody’s fine and waiting hardly to be back ashore. Meanwhile, they will use any opportunity to be on the air as E51DOM/mm if weather calms down. There is a problem with the tracking device which is supposed to drop their current location automatically. During so stormy conditions and fast up-and-side-and-down bouncing of the vessel, it seems to have a created problem to keep a stable satellite connection. Nevertheless, he will try to use a different SPOT feature at least once a day – so called “check-in” – which forces the device to connect manually. The location of the vessel is shown not exact as we haven’t received the GPS readouts yet. Once I get more info, I will share it asap at our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Fingers crossed for their fast and safe return to CPT!

MARCH 29 @ 10:00Z

Atlantic Tuna in the middle of another storm. Perhaps this time lesser wind gusts. pic.twitter.com/QGjNtDTRnk — DX World (@DX_World) March 29, 2019

MARCH 28 @ 21:50Z

FURTHER NEWS UPDATE HERE

Once they reach Cape Town and go through a detailed technical inspection of the vessel, there will be a special official statement issued to the ham radio community by the captain of MV Atlantic Tuna with further information on:

a detailed explanation of the situation encountered at South Atlantic nearby Bouvet Island and reasons for the decisions taken,

procedures applied during the recent issues encountered near Bouvet Island,

reported damages of the vessel and their results,

information how the team coped with the extreme situation encountered at the vessel,

estimation of necessary repairs’ deadlines.

MARCH 28 @ 15:00Z

A small update: the 3YØI SPOT tracker is back online and reported a location on route back to Cape Town, South Africa: -48.62083 , 10.28625. A bigger update will be published later tonight. Stay Tuned!https://t.co/CaZTHNHkfC#3Y0I #Bouvet #BouvetIsland #DX #hamradio #DXpedition — 3YØI Bouvetoya.org (@Bouvetoyaorg) March 28, 2019

MARCH 27 @ 13:30Z

The captain of the MV Atlantic Tuna had to take a difficult but responsible decision to take a course back to Cape Town, South Africa. Lacking the most important navigational tools, the captain declared it’s not safe to navigate and they need to go back to Cape Town to secure both all participants on board, their equipment and the vessel’s gear.

[READ MORE]

MARCH 27 @ 06:45Z

The MV Atlantic Tuna is making attempts to escape from a severe storm that is crossing an area surrounding Bouvet Island.

In a satellite phone conversation, Dom 3Z9DX explained the vessel’s captain decided to shift their course off the island to relocate the vessel into a safer area by following the wind’s direction to the East.

Further details unveiled by Dom regarding the bad storm’s outcome are not too good: they lost one of their radars and marine antennas. Neither of their /mm antenna survived the storm.

The good news is that despite the bad conditions, the Team, the crew are safe and in good condition. [MORE HERE

MARCH 26 @ 19:07Z

MARCH 25 @ 10:00Z

MARCH 24, 2019 @ 13:20z

MARCH 21, 2019 @ 20:30z

The 3YØI Bouvet Island Expedition has officially begun. The MV Atlantic Tuna, with the Team aboard, departed for Bouvet Island on March 19, 2019, at approx. 6:00 UTC. More: https://bouvetoya.org/the-3yoi-dxpedition-has-begun/ Posted by 3YØI Bouvetoya.org on Monday, 18 March 2019

MARCH 19, 2019

If everything goes well, they should reach Bouvet in 7 days (around March 26). Landing on the island will be strictly dependent on weather conditions upon arrival.

LOW BANDS WITH THE UPCOMING BOUVET ISLAND, 3Y0I EXPEDITION

Now that the 3Y0I team is on their way for their true adventure, it is time to look at some of the elements of their upcoming activity, specifically on low-bands. On Monday OH2BH had a detailed discussion with DXpedition leader Dom, 3Z9DX and their low-band specialist Tack, JE1CKA to understand their location and their options to produce an efficient 160/80m signal while considering their challenging environment. Dom has detailed experience on the zodiac landing on Bouvet while Tack, JE1CKA – a WRTC-rated contester and seasoned DXpedition operator – is now in charge of the low-bands. Tack has excellent field knowledge for creating powerful low-band signals.

Their camp will be located some on the glacier at 100 ft. next to their landing area in the South-East corner of the Island with open view to EU/JA but mountains to the NW (USA) at a distance of eight (8) kilometers. They will be running 1.3KW with each of four (4) stations, CW, SSB, FT8 plus one for a CW/FT8 combo.

When dealing with several unknown factors including high wind situations, they will have four options for 160/80m:

1: Running simple dipoles at the glacier,

2: Running slopers from the glacier edge to the landing beach, about 100 ft. lower,

3: Running 18m long fiber masts as verticals and Inverted-Ls and,

4: Three element wire beams for 160/80M slightly above glacier.

In general, with the current conditions, the high-volume bands are expected to be 20/30/40 meters. It is assumed that 160/80 would bring a long awaited opportunity to catch these much needed band-pointers. On high bands they will have three fixed beams for EU, NA and Asia along with several multi-band verticals.

JE1CKA himself will focus on 160/80 operations and will do cw exclusively for most of the operation.

3Y0I will use specialized observers for the 160/80 operations from three main focus areas. Martti, OH2BH (EU), Wayne, N7NG (NA) and Yasu, JR1AIB (Asia) will carefully follow the proceedings, and Martti will communicate potential adjustments via Satcom to the expedition venue.

This is a historical undertaking, likely under very severe conditions with no DX Foundation support nor involvement.

Dear Fellow DXers: It’s time to include 3Y0I team in your prayers for their safe landing and happy return. They are going late in the season but are professionally prepared. Their success will be exclusively in the hands of Mother Nature as always. We are all wishing the 3Y0I team and the M/S Atlantic Tuna a safe journey.

For the 3Y0I team:

Martti, OH2BH, Wayne, N7NG, and Yasu, JR1AIB