Although an official welcome invitation was received from the Native Village
of Kipnuk Traditional Council specifically for the well in advance announced
K6VVA/KL7 NA-240 activation, these intended plans have now been suspended for
an indefinite period based on the following:
1. IOTA NA-240 was already activated this month. My personal opinion is
that many big signal stations who already worked NA-240 (but won't yet
have rcvd a firm QSL card), will result in many same-band "dupes" for
"insurance" purposes. Along with questionable propagation, this will
cause many Little Pistol IOTA Chaser stations to miss out again. FYI,
my prayers for the safety of Yuri and Tim on their NA-240 trip were
answered, as they returned OK.
2. All 5 of my 2011 IOTA Activations involved Polar Path propagation to EU.
3 of these were seriously impacted by continued erratic solar condx, and
2 were QRT'd earlier than planned due to CME/Solar Flare occurrences. As
KL7 IOTAs have unique local North Latitude anomalies, I had already made
a decision to re-schedule the K6VVA/KL7 "North Slope Tour" in hopes that
2013 might result in overall better propagation possibilities, ESPECIALLY
for EU (that unfortunately involves the Polar Path route). For those who
believe in the "Bermuda Triangle", it is quite possible that the NA-240
area of KL7 is actually a type of "Black RF Hole" that requires superb
general band condx in order to achieve maximum potential results.
3. The planned K6VVA/KL7 activation of NA-240 involved special commitments
to the Village Traditional Council for added safety and security concerns
while on their offshore Island hunting lands. I always put SAFETY FIRST,
and would NOT set foot on Kikegtek Island without having the boat being
QRX 24/7 for the duration, because WX in that Region can change quickly
and could necessitate an instant departure. In considering ALL factors
now and the costs involved, re-activating NA-240 at this time is simply
not a prudent decision.
I have several other IOTA Expedition plans on the "back burner", some of
which also have unique solar condx concerns. With few exceptions, future
IOTA activations will NOT be announced in advance. Notification will be
made just before leaving for the airport, or while in route to the IOTA
Destination. You may want to check TWITTER (see text link below).
When making posts to the cluster sytems, PLEASE use the "Official" IOTA
CC-NNN Designator format with a "-" between the two Alpha characters and
the numbers. I believe we can ALL help in promoting the IOTA MARATHON if
ALL cluster postings BEGIN with "IOTA CC-NNN" in the Comments line. TNX!
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