ZS8W – Marion Island

I won't dirty my log with FT8, even for a #11 most wanted.

 

A true DXer's favorite mode is whatever the good DX is working.

(325 down, 15 more to go).

 

Best of luck to him, but there's a lot more to the present Marion Island story than simply if ZS8W makes it on the air or not as there are very serious problems with the generators & electrical power on the base at the moment: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/art...erator-clings-to-life-as-relief-ship-dawdles/
Yuris no doubt has a valid ZS8W licence issued by the South African Telecoms Agency - but to operate legitimately from Marion, he'll need a lot more than just that. He'll also need SANAP Head Office explicit written approval as well as permission of the re-supply supervisor and the Marion Island station manager.

It's doubtful either of these people are going to give their blessing to someone spending all their waking hours playing ham-radio when everyone else is working their butts off refuelling & replenishing the base, fixing the generators, repairing the building leaks and all the rest of it.

Before it went 'maintenance mode', ZS8W website stated he'd taken antennas for 160-6m, including an 18m long vertical for 160/80m, DX-Commander & 6m Yagi, plus two Yaesu 100W bases stations & a linear.

There are very stringent antenna restrictions at sub-Antarctic research bases such as Marion because birds often fly into the wires and get injured, so very unlikely he will be allowed to erect his own antennas and will just have to use the existing wideband dipole at the base.

Likewise, the South African Space Sciences/Upper Atmospheric Physics people are unlikely to authorize a 1kW HF linear amplifier being used anywhere near their sensitive monitoring instruments.

In any case, Yuris' job includes routine maintenance on Comms gear at various field huts dotted around the Island. That would involve 20~25km of pretty strenuous hiking / hill walking every day; expect he'll mostly be running an FT8 robot and keeping a very low profile, so don't expect much (if any) CW or SSB.

And exactly why the South African Government's National Antarctic Program is employing a retired 73 year old Latvian pensioner to do this type of fairly strenuous field work in the first place remains something of a mystery.

 

NEWS UPDATE :

https://www.dx-world.net/zs8w-marion-island/

 

Official ZS8W website online: https://www.lral.lv/zs8w/

 

Any update on the ZS8W web page....it was down for maintenance for a few days and now looks like it has been deleted?????

 

Not found here either at this time....

 

Yuris landed a gig as a radio engineer for the communications maintenance team for the current SANAP resupply mission, as part of working out the terms of his visit.

It's very likely that he has the necessary permissions.

 

I found this very interesting document by Pierre Tromp ZS8M now SK, this is for those asking questions regarding HF operations on Marion Island
https://www.hamradioweb.org/forums/filedata/fetch?id=101667

73 Andre ZS1F

 

Yeah, he landed that gig under false pretenses - dint tell the South Africans he was only going there to do ham radio and now looks like they just found out and are rather p*ssed with him. No wonder ZS8W website disappeared suddenly!
Maybe they will let him operate /MM from the supply vessel?

 

Looks like the South Africans just caught him operating on the ham bands instead of doing the job they paying him to do. Will probably send him back to the ship like they did ZS8R the last guy who tried this stunt ten years ago.

 

Seems the ZD8W Website is no longer under maintenance - it's now completely disappeared!

 

ATNO #307 for me.

 

Here's an interesting take on how a 73 year old Latvian pensioner can end up on a South African Govt. Antarctic re-supply mission:

https://dxnews.com/forum/forum/clubs/65328-rebel-dx-group-zs8dx

 

I need it for #330. What band / mode did you make contact on?