Max George NG7M was one of the ten W8S ham radio operators to activate Swains Island in October 2023. Despite elaborate planning that spanned years and continents, their path included damaged crates, missing gear, delayed boat transport, debilitating illness, relentless mosquitoes and unbearable, sweltering heat. With thousands of QSO's in their logs, and the team safely back home, Max talks about some of the highs and lows of the 2023 Swains Island DXpedition. If you've ever wondered what needed to happen to get W8S in your log, listen to Max tell his story in this short video interview.
Wow! I missed this one! and never heard much about this one at all. I'm getting to the point in my ham career in my 46 years of hamming, I'm not much of a dx'er at all. I've got well over 320 worked and confirmed.
Thanks for your efforts to make Swains Atoll available around the peak of the sunspot cycle. I wished that more emphasis would have put on 28 MHz operation. I heard you one morning (weekend - the only chance for the non retirees, hi) working Italians on 28 MHz SSB and just needed another 10 minutes before the band would have been good enough to have a good copy however the station then went QSY to 12 m FT8 operation. The few evenings on CW have been during the week but these evening openings have been almost nonexistent for Central/Eastern EU. Western EUs on the other hand had the better chance at this time of the day. Anyhow no complaints from my side just an observation as in my opinion 10 m should be top priority during the peak of the sunspot cycle especially if the pile-up is running and the band just started to open up for the rest of Europe. 5W and other signals around KH8 have been loud almost daily on 28 MHz during the period of the W8S activity. 73 Roger, DL5RBW
A very slick operation on the air despite the hiccups. I got them on 15m SSB and CW within 20 minutes. The beach I was sitting on to make it a park-to-park was considerably less warm than their one!
For any DXpedition, there seem to be a surprising number of people who grouse about all the things the team did wrong. Obviously, the Bouvet DXpedition seems to draw the most flak. After watching this video, and seeing all that goes into a DXpedition that was, in Max's terms, merely a "2" on a 10-point scale of difficulty (yikes!), it is clear testimony to the point that the perennial scolds have no idea what they're talking about and should be ignored, and all of us need to be a lot more grateful for what these guys do for the hobby. Thanks for posting this. 73 Skip K4EAK
I can't agree with you better! Even a simple local portable operation has its own challenges, leave alone DXpeditions on remote Islands. 73 de Jon, VU2JO.
Enjoyed the video and the great job that they did. Thank you all for the chance to get you in my log. Arthur, W6APH
