AmateurRadio.com

Talk about the trip of a lifetime! This from their new website launched today:

Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and part of the Kingdom of Norway. It is 55 km (34 miles) long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km2 (144 mi2) in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of 114.2 km2 or 44.1 mi2 around the Beerenberg). It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide. It lies 600 km (about 400 mi) northeast of Iceland, 500 km (about 300 mi) east of central Greenland and 1,000 km (about 600 mi) west of the North Cape, Norway.

Jan Mayen island is not placed at the top of the 100 Most Wanted DXCC list, but it’s still very wanted in some areas and modes – especially West Coast of the USA, Japan, Oceania, Africa.

After a deep analysis of specific areas vs. modes, we decided to focus on CW and RTTY as our primary modes during JX7VPA.

Since our path towards Africa (where, according to feedback we received, it is still very wanted) will be a bit more difficult due to island’s terrain, we will try to test long path conditions if short path fails.

First day of our activity will be used to check openings toward different areas as conditions we will find at the island may be a big surprise due to polar day period 24/7.

The biggest threat we must face while at Jan Mayen is auroral activity. Since the island is in range of often Au oval’s activity, any increase of A/K indexes may result in deep RF blackouts. Please keep that in mind if our signals disappear from bands suddenly.

Take a moment to check out their website and of you’re a CW or RTTY op, mark your calendar for early July.