HK0NA - Malpelo Island

I was able to complete 3 QSOs with HK0NA on Malpelo Island this weekend. The first QSO came Saturday afternoon on 12m SSB. I only called 3 or 4 times before they came back to me. It was a great thrill to work the 12th Most Wanted DXCC entity (2011 100 Most Wanted Countries Survey) with just 5 watts and a magnetic loop. On Sunday, I worked them on 15m SSB and 17m CW. Between the three QSOs, I probably only spent about 20 minutes calling with the majority of the time spent in the pileup on 17m CW. I would like to complete a RTTY QSO, but their RTTY signals have been very weak and the pileups have been terrible. Maybe next weekend.

Here's the screen shot from Club Log showing that I am in the log on 12m SSB (they haven't uploaded the logs from this afternoon yet).

Malpelo Island is rarely activated, so it's important to work them on as many bands and modes as possible while the HK0NA team is there. The island is nothing more than a piece of volcanic rock about 235 miles off the Colombian coast. It is unoccupied except for a small Colombian Army post. Due to the rugged terrain and strong currents, it is very difficult to land on Malpelo Island. The Colombian Navy provided transportation to the island.

Check out the photos from the DXpedition here: HK0NA Photos

The DXpedition's main website is here: http://hk0na.com/