Assembling in front of the airport checkin for our charter flight to Midway
Waiting for the flight, Dave, WB4JTT, a Twins fan, and Don, N1DG, a Yankees fan, watch game 4 of the ALDS. From the expression on the faces, you know who won.
N8E waiting for us "FINALLY" after repairs to her engine delayed us 3 days. Didn't know whether to kiss her or kick her. Or flight had 2 senior pilots and a mechanic. Of course we wondered where they would set her down for repairs given our flight was across open waters of the Pacific. Amelia come to mind?
Finally, after 3 days of delay, we are on board the G1 to Midway Atoll. Oh happy day.
A tractor trailer about to move our 2 tons of gear from a storage building to the beach area for us to set up.
First things first, we need our transportation. Here is Art, WA7NB, picking out his bike at the transportation center.
You've heard of Hell's Angels? Here are the 19 members of Heck's Angels. Eat our dust.
Kimo, KH7U, and Kevin, K6TD, setting up ssb tent.
Franz working on the SVDAs. All antennas were required to be only verticals and all masts and guys were marked with flying banners to protect the birds.
Arnie working on yet more SVDAs. There were two sets of these 2 element verticals for 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 mtrs.
The ssb 20 mtr SVDA is finished.
The 20 mtr SVDA wasn't up long before we had our first sightseer.
Kevin, K6TD, holding up the Battle Creek Special. Poor guy, he was out there 7 days before we told him the guys really were strong enough to hold it up. What a good sport.
Base of the Battle Creek Special
The board with the Battle Creek. This is not the first time many of the members on the team have handled this antenna. We were members of many of the operations listed here.
The Titanex going up requires everyone. But the results are worth the effort. We put up 2.
Don, N1DG, setting up radios, interfaces, etc. All notebooks, radios, interfaces and linears were set up in Massachusetts before shipping to make this job just one of "just" plugging in the parts.
Every station had a stub filter for each band to minimize interstation interference. The insert in the upper left corner shows the inside of the stub enclosure.
By Sundown day 1 we had SVDAs up for 15 17 20, the vertical for 30 mtrs and the battle creek special putting us on most bands the first night.
One of the things we needed to do was upgrade the electric services at our operating sites. We paid for 220V electrical service to be run to the beach area. This upgrade will benefit future operations.
A well flagged Titanex flagged for the birds and ready for the cw ops on 160 mtrs.
CW Operations were conducted from the air conditioned bar.
SSB Operations were conducted from the tent out in the elements. No comment, I'm just sayin.........
Here is the entire ssb operating theater including all the antennas.
Same view from the lagoon.
The entire CW operating site.
Again, from the lagoon.
This is it folks, downtown Midway on Sand Island.
Tom, N4XP, running Europe on 20 mtrs. Signals over the pole into EU were much much louder than any of the forecasting software predicted. Lucky for us, lucky for them.
Don, N1DG, running em.
John, N7CQQ, having fun with a pileup.
Kevin, K6TD, about to enter one in the rtty log.
Charlie, NF4A, on 20cw..
Dave, WB4JTT, on 17cw..
Tom, ND2T takes a break from CW to run some rtty.
There is nothing like leaving the operating station at daybreak and seeing a titanex in the sunrise.
Well marked antennas as required under our terms of entry into Midway Atoll. Colorful too. We are pleased to write no locals were harmed in the making of this DXPedition.
Joe, AA4NN, busy with a pileup.
Charlie, W6KK enjoying the callers
Craig, K9CT, concentrating. Craig won the prize for best quote of the week:
You can work em faster if you don't stop to log them.
Nothing brings a smile to Max's (I8NHJ) face like running Europe on cw.
Paul, N4PN, doing what he loves best.
Art, WA7NB, enjoying the pileups to the fullest.
Franz working down the daily 20 mtr opening to Europe.
Another happy pileup runner. Here's Kimo, KH7U, on rtty.
Bruce, W6OSP, and Tom ND2T.
When James, 9V1YC, wasn't filming he was at an operating position.
Arnie with a nice 40 mtr opening.
Joe, W8GEX, took a rig back to the Charlie barracks, dropped a wire out his window and worked 45 stations on 60 mtrs the last evening we were there.
Burning the midnite oil. Tom, N4XP, and Joe, W8GEX, running a late night shift.
Every 12 hours Don, N1DG, collected the logs from the 6 notebooks and uploaded them to the web.
When the crabs weren't running over our feet in the tent at night, the mice were.
Nothing like a hardy breakfast before working DX. Oh wait, Bruce and John ARE the DX. And the food, fantastic. Not what you expect when you sign up for a trip to a remote island.
More of the gang enjoying breakfast at the Clipper House.
The meals weren't complete without our daily doses of soft ice cream. Tropical flavors too.
This operation could not have taken place without the cooperation of Matt and the F & W personnel who were there to help us in any way we needed it. Thank you Matt!!!!!
We hope our success and zero impact on the wildlife will ensure future operations each October before the albatross return.
The team proudly wearing our NCDXF shirts.
The team under our INDEXA flag.
The team proudly waving their flags.
After an afternoon shower a rainbow landed on our ssb titanex. That night we worked 75 meters ssb for 12 hours into Europe and North America. Maybe the Irish know something we don't.
The 17th saw a large storm hit the Island. This is the last we saw of the titanex at the cw site before it came crashing down and broke.
After a week of almost around the clock activities the whole team was exhausted. Charlie, W6KK, and Bruce, W6OSP, represent how we all felt.
K4M leaves its mark. Visitors get to autograph a ceiling tile for the All Hands Club. Here is our contribution.
The daily board of who, what, where. How anyone could read N1DG's scribble remains a mystery of K4M.
Leaving orders....everything was so organized.
These are the "limousines" mentioned above in the leaving orders parked in front of Charlie Barracks, our comfortable home for 8 days.
Waiting for the G1 and our return to Hawaii 8 days and 61,000 Q. Goodbye..
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