日本語
K8R is now on the air testing SuperFox, antennas and equipment ahead of the real thing in August.
This is our last chance to get everything right. A RIB DXpedition is different than a traditional one where you can fix and move things around on the fly. With us, once equipment is on the island, it is very hard change things or fix what is not working. Our plan is to get every station and antenna working here, and put it all back on the RIB boat as is, hoisted it up onto Magnet, ready to be launched at Jarvis.
The K8R test set-up is on a narrow beach on the north side of Tutuila Island, which is the main island of American Samoa. The beach is a private beach (Gurr Private Beach at Maloata) where the owner was gracious enough to allow us to set up and operate. This is an ideal location for a small DXpedition from a remote but still easily reached place. Take off to the north is over water. But for us, the beach is too small, as eventually we plan to have seven stations and 8 antennas.
We have now four stations operational. Three of these stations are remote controlled and one is local. Because the beach is small, our antennas are close to each other, but so far our filters seem to be working.
We have been slow to get up to speed due to the almost constant heavy rains of the past five days. Finally today (Thursday), we had a partially dry day and were able to get some work done. We will be on the air as much as we can and all signal reports will be much appreciated. TKS and 73, George, AA7JV