04/06/2016
Tom Callas, KC0W, has all of his bovines in a row to begin his "Cows Over the
World DXpedition" to several DXCC entities in the Pacific and Asia this month,
several months earlier than initially announced. All call signs will include a
"COW" suffix. American Samoa will be the starting point for his all-CW
adventure. The Minnesota DXer will operate as KH8/KC0W beginning on or about
April 12. At the outset of his stay on Tutuila Island (OC-045), Callas will be
on a beach near Pago Pago on the east side of the island.
"Running down the center of American Samoa is an 800 meter (approximately 2600
feet) tall mountain, which should greatly attenuate my CW signal to Europe and
Asia," he told The Daily DX[1]. This location should favor North and South
America, however.
After completing operations on the east side of the island, KC0W will move to
the west side to accommodate European and Asian DXers. He has estimated that he
will operate "for a month or two" from the east side of the island. "Europe and
Asia, don't get frustrated if you can't hear me when I'm operating from the
east side of the island. Your time will come," he said on his QRZ.com profile.
Callas has no set time frame to operate from each entity. "The determining
factor will be: When the pileups die down, it's time to pack everything up and
move along," he said. Although his emphasis will be on 160, 80, and 40 meters,
KC0W plans to be active on 160 through 6 meters, running 500 W to vertical
antennas over salt water. He expects to participate in "all major CW contests."
His DX travels to the other islands are still on track. These include Samoa,
Tokelau, Solomon Islands, Temotu Province, and Bangladesh. He said he's spent
months researching the absolute best DXing locations for each location.
Callas stressed that he will only be operating CW. "No microphones have been
brought along," he pointed out. He's financing the round-robin DXpedition out
of his own pocket.
KC0W advised DXers trying to work him first to listen, and also to "spread out
when operating split." He said he rarely works more than 2 or 3 stations in a
row on the same exact frequency.
QSL direct only with an SASE and $2 (KC0W does not use the QSL Bureau or
Logbook of The Air). A tentative phase II "Cows Over Africa" DXpedition is on
the drawing board.
In the past, Callas has operated from St Helena Island (ZD7X), Cambodia
(XU7XXX), Haiti (HH5/KC0W), and Martinique (TO0O). "Over 93,000 QSOs have gone
into the logs from my 'One Man DXpeditions,'" he said on his QRZ profile. -
Thanks to The Daily DX[2] for some information
[1] http://www.dailydx.com/
[2] http://www.dailydx.com/
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