Sable Island (CYØS) Preparations

[Clark L. Stewart]

Let the games begin!!!  At 1338 GMT on 18 March 2026 the following was posted on the CYØS Facebook page:



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Two days ago the following was posted on the Sable Island (CYØS) Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2087487168460843

And on their website:  http://cy0s.com/

And on DX World:  https://www.dx-world.net/cy0s-sable-island-dxpedition-2026/


Getting all the gear and personnel to Sable Island is very difficult and expensive. 

Team leaders W0GJ and WA4DAN met up with Dave Johnson of Vision Air Services on Monday morning and weighed some of the team gear. This gear will be loaded onto the Sikorsky helicopter on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, Glenn and Murray will meet up with Debbie and Ted Brekelmans of Sable Aviation. We will weigh gear and discuss flight plans for Wednesday. Debbie and Ted have been our aviation partners for 17 years.

We continue monitoring the weather forecast for Wednesday. Some adjustments may be needed if weather conditions don't allow for flights or delays flights. With flights to Sable, flexibility with schedule has always been paramount.

73,

Murray WA4DAN

Then yesterday the following was posted:

There may be a delay

Murray, WA4DAN, and Glenn, W0GJ, report foul weather conditions in Halifax this morning.

"Stormy night last night near the Halifax airport. Constant strong wind and horizontal rain. It is that way this morning and it is finally forecast to ease off later this afternoon. Temperature is currently 55 degrees!!!

Glenn, Mike and I are going over to Sable Aviation early this afternoon to meet with Debbie. We will weigh Lee's gear.

As I type this email, we are having heavier rain, strong wind gusts and very restrictive visibility.

Dave with Vision Air mentioned yesterday the possibility of a short delay with our first flight tomorrow morning and that is due to the weather on Sable. Tomorrow morning, Kristina will be advising Dave on the conditions out on Sable.

The weight of equipment and personnel that can be flown to Sable Island is greatly limited.  Here are some more posts about that:

Weight and Balance

The only access to Sable Island available to the CY0S team members is by air.

More weight means a larger capacity and more expensive aircraft. Larger aircraft put us outside our budget. To stay within budget and the weight and balance limits of our aircraft, the team must limit the weight of the DXpedition. That weight includes the teams’ equipment, food, clothing, AND body weight.

We have to take enough equipment to do a respectable job. We need a basic amount of food to sustain ourselves. We need enough clothing to stay warm. After we have reduced the above to the bare minimum, there is only remaining alternative – lose body weight.

The team members have answered this challenge and through diet and exercise the team has significantly reduced their total body weight. Some team members have trimmed away all their excess body fat and are at borderline loss of muscle mass.

This is one of those things not usually visible to the general public, but critical to DXpedition success.

The team is allowed 2880 lbs. (1306 kgs) total for the two flights which includes the weight of the eight team members and their personal gear.  It will be close!

The team member's weight, food and their personal gear accounts for 73% of the total weight allowance for the aircraft.  Because of the strict weight allowance, all team members will be bringing freeze-dried meals for their stay on the island.  Currently, the team gear is above the weight allowance so the team is working on ways to come in under the allowance.  It is a challenge, but the team is working diligently on this.

Team members are packing their personal gear bags with a keen eye as to the weight of their gear.  Each team member is allowed 42 lbs. of gear and food for their stay on Sable Island.  This is not much weight allowance considering the length of stay and the cold winds on the island.

FlexRadio will be providing six of their brand-new Aurora 500-watt radios for the DXpedition.  Not needing a separate amplifier is a huge advantage to the CYØS team as there are strict weight and space limitations on the flights to the island.

February 11th, was a milestone day for the CY0S DXpedition team. Glenn W0GJ travelled to meet up with Craig K9CT, to run a full test of the six new FlexRadio Aurora radios, along with the six new laptops. All six 500-watt FlexRadio’s were tested in all modes: CW, SSB, FT8 and RTTY. Glenn reports that this was a full test of the radios, laptops and networking, and was very successful with no issues. Radio #6 is set up for both HF FT8 (F/H) and 6M (non-F/H) simultaneously. At CY0S, the team will be operating Super Fox mode on FT8 on all bands, but on 60 meters, regular FT8 will be used.

All preparations have been completed for the CY0S DXpedition. The team focused on prepping the guy rings for the Yagi antenna mast sections. All guy rings have four rope guys attached to them. It is much easier to do this now than in the 40 knot winds on Sable. It has been a very challenging, but typical, winter on Sable with high winds and surf. Wind gusts of 50-60 knots were experienced earlier this week, in yet another storm system. In preparation for the frequent 40-50 knot winds, the team reinforced the guying system on all antenna masts/Spider Poles. All 42-inch guy anchors were inspected, and any questionable anchors were replaced. Each anchor has a pre-installed galvanized eye bolt near the top of the anchor.

Here are the planned operating frequencies for CYØS:




Good luck to all who need this DX'pedition for an ATNO or for New Bands!


73, Clark, W8TN