Hmmmmm

[Mudge]

3 December 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

After a lot of negotiation we are pleased to announce a multinational
team of twelve is to undertake a Dxpedition to Bouvet Island from 25
March 2013 to 5 April 2013 using the callsign 3Y0IOF. We will be
operating 24/7 with five stations covering all bands 160m-10m. We
understand that Dxpeditions are all about you the DX operator therefore
we are pleased to announce some exciting new innovations.

We appreciate many of you feel you should not have to make any effort
to work us. Accordingly we are offering you the chance to call us on
the telephone when you are ready for a QSO. That´s right we will give
you a phone number and when you are ready you can ring us and we will
immediately cease to work the pile up and call you on a frequency of
your choice. Not only that we will also ensure an email is sent to you
directly after the QSO to confirm you are in the log.
Furthermore we are organising a team of experts who, if you wish, will
fly in and set up your rig on the required frequency, connect the
antenna for you and make sure the heating or ventilation is on so it is
nice and warm or cool in your shack as the case requires. Don´t worry
about propagation. We will make sure there is some between us as we
understand that is our responsibility and it´s our fault if there isn´t.
If that is not for you then don´t worry we are just as happy to work
you in a pile up. We realise that we will need to operate in accordance
with your operating habits   so therefore we will understand if you
call over the top of another station we are trying to work, or when we
are specifically calling a part of the world you do not  reside in, or
if you are simply calling aimlessly or while we are transmitting, or
even if you call when you cannot hear us. We will do our best to work
you despite all  this and yes we know it´s our fault if you do not make
it into the log.
We wish to acknowledge the value Frequency Cops bring to a Dxpedition
so to recognise this we are going to specifically publicise some times
when we will arrange for some operators to deliberately call us on our
frequency instead of split. Frequency Cops can even register their
availability with us to help us ensure these periods get maximum uptake
by the Frequency Cop community. During these periods the Frequency Cops
will be able to say or send "up up!" to their hearts content. (Note: we
will make sure we tell the pile up to listen up and not down as the
recent PT0S Dxpedition has taught us that Frequency Cops don´t know how
to send "down" in CW).
We also don´t want the "tuner uppers" to feel left out and like them we
feel dummy loads are completely overrated. So when we are ready to
transmit on a band we will give them the opportunity to tune up on our
frequency before we start working the pile up. Each period will start
with us sending our callsign and "QDL" ("Quick Dummy Loaders") so they
will know when to commence tuning up on us. We will allow for at least
five minutes for this as we know how important it is for the tuner
uppers to make sure their finals are good and ready. We acknowledge if
they go bang it´s our fault. Depending on demand we will every now and
then send "QDL" while working a pile up so any tuner uppers late to the
party can tune up on us as well.
Unfortunately we will not have cluster access while we are on Bouvet
but we know this will not stop you posting announcements and comments
on the cluster about our Dxpedition. Some suggestions for you to try
include saying what band you want us to QSY to or mode to operate on,
the quality of our ops and the usual "loud", "can´t hear them here",
"thanks for 7th band" or "yee hah" comments. Likewise as we noted above
we understand it´s our fault if you cannot work us and therefore
we accept in that case you will post on the cluster calling us the
worst Dxpedition ever.

We can´t wait to be of service to you.

--
The Canadian Curmudgeon (in Calgary)
Remove noxious CO2 - plant many trees