Jarvis Island N5J DXpedition
August 5, 2024 to August 17, 2024
Dear Fellow DXers,
In March the Dateline DX Association was pleased to announce that it has received permission from the USFWS for a DXpedition to Jarvis Island National Wildlife Reserve this August. Jarvis is ranked nr. 18 on Clublog’s global most wanted list. It is number 9 in Europe. In some EU countries Jarvis is ranked as high as second most wanted on phone and digial. Jarvis is ranked higher than Bouvet (16) in Europe. It is 450 miles from Palmyra Atoll and 1500 miles from Hawaii.
Because it’s been over 34 years since last activated it is one of the highest ranked IOTA and POTA targets among the hams who chase those awards. We were pleased that both program administrators have altered their rules to allow for their awards to be credited by working one of the 5 operators who are remoting from the ship just offshore (and still in the reserve).
An experienced team of five consisting of George, AA7JV, Don, N1DG, Tomi, HA7RY, Adrian, KO8SCA, and Mike, KN4EEI, will install 6 RIB stations on Jarvis. The at-island team will be augmented by 24 remote operators from Asia, Europe and North America. All phone, 160 and 6 mtr operations will be done locally. The local ops will also operate CW and FT8 on all bands. The remote operators will operate on 80 to 10 meters using CW and FT8 modes. We are permitted 12 days of operation but the permit is good for the whole month of August to allow for weather issues.
The core of the Dateline DX Association is the team of operators from the highly successful Baker Island 2018 and Midway 2009 DXpeditions. Both DXpeditions received the coveted DXpedition of the year awards at Dayton. We have broad experience working from the Pacific and remote and environmentally sensitive areas around the world. It was this experience that earned Dateline the first permission to activate Jarvis since 1990. This will be the third ever operation from Jarvis.
Any DXpedition to a protected area is expensive and our externally financial need is over $200,000. We have a boat, approved by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, to safely carry us to and from the Reserve and not cause any harm to Jarvis Island or the surrounding reefs. The budget would easily have been over $500,000 had it not been for the use of AA7JV’s vessel, the Magnet. The $200,000 is required for fuel, USFWS permit fees, extra crew for the trip and data services and equipment. Radios are not included in the budget as NCDXF contributed to the design and building of the RIBs.
NCDXF has also kickstarted our fundraising campaign with a hefty grant of $75,000.
Please understand the dates for our DXpedition were not our first choice. Rather, the exact dates of our DXpedition were specified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While top band opportunities are limited by the early August dates, 10 and 6 meters should offer ample opportunities to pick up new band counters. Europeans (where Jarvis is number 9) should benefit greatly for ATNO QSOs during the peak months of cycle 25.
There will be extensive science being conducted on Jarvis by 3 biologists from the USFWS. We will be providing free transportation and food for their team.
You can follow our plans on our web site at: http://jarvisisland2024.com, and on Facebook.
We are counting on help from DXers and DX organizations from around the world to help cover our costs. Jarvis has not been activated for 34 years and we anticipate by demonstrating our RIB concept to the USFWS biologists accompanying us to Jarvis we can open the doors to other islands off limits to the ham community.
Please consider making a donation to the Dateline DX Association to help bring Jarvis Island on the air. Donations can be made either through our paypal donate@jarvisisland2024.com or direct to our bank:
Checks made out to the Dateline DX Association should be sent to:
Dateline DX Association
PO BOX 1397
Duxbury, MA 02331-1397
We wish to thank you in advance for your support.
Don Greenbaum, N1DG and George Wallner, AA7JV
Jarvis Island 2024 and The Dateline DX Association
