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5R8KD - Madagascar

Texas DX Society member Wayne Rogers, W5KDJ will be active from Antananarive, Madagascar until July 17th. He will be active on all HF bands & 6m using CW and RTTY.

My computer shows the beam heading as 244° / 64° from Dallas...

QSL direct only to W5KDJ - no bureau..

Madagascar is somewhat rare. Phil, G3SWH did a dxpedition there in 2001 and was active as 5R8WH. He got to meet the locals and discovered they had problems with QSL cards. Since Phil is one of the top QSL managers, he offered his services. So, now it's real easy and reliable to get cards from these stations. 

I imagine everybody knows where Madagascar is.  It sits to the south-eastern side of Africa, in the Indian Ocean. It is probably most famous for it's exotic wildlife. such as ringtailed lemurs and exotic parrots. Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species. Two thirds of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day

Madagascar It is slightly bigger than France. It has been occupied by the French The Malagasy Republic was proclaimed on October 14, 1958, as an autonomous state within the French Community. A period of provisional government ended with the adoption of a constitution in 1959 and full independence on June 26, 1960. In 2006 the country experienced an attempted coup. It has seen lots of internal struggles for power ever since. Indeed, more than 170 people were killed in January this year.

Extensive deforestation has taken place in parts of the country, some due to mining operations. Slash-and-burn activity, locally called tavy, has occurred in the eastern and western dry forests as well as on the central high plateau, reducing certain forest habitat and applying pressure to some endangered species. The resulting increased surface runoff from burned lands has caused significant erosion and resulting high sedimentation to western rivers.

Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is a mainstay of the economy. Major exports are coffee, vanilla (Madagascar is the world's largest producer and exporter of vanilla), sugarcane, cloves, cocoa, rice, cassava (tapioca), beans, bananas, peanuts and livestock products. Vanilla has historically been of particular importance, and when in 1985 Coca-cola switched to New Coke which involved less vanilla, Madagascar's economy took a marked downturn, but returned to previous levels after the return of Coke Classic.

5R8KD Homepage

NCDXF Newsletter

Our own ex-president Tim, K5AC wrote a superb article about Desecheo, K5D, which was published in the latest newsletter of the Northern California DX Foundation newsletter. It it reproduced with their permission HERE. All dxers are also encouraged to support dxpeditions through NCDXF membership in addition to LSDXA.

Glorioso - postponed again.

In a press release, the Gloriosos 2009 DXpedition has once again been postponed "because of flight problems". They "think", however, that the DXpedition could begin at the end of August. The release states, "The runway on Grande Glorieuse suffers heavy problems of stability which have to be solved very quickly, in next July, to allow again the jumbo planes landing with full security. This postponing will allow us to include new operators, David, F8CRS, and Bernard, F5LPY."

The press release states that there will be seven operators that will now go to FT5G. They will have three stations which will be active 24 hours a day and the 3rd dedicated to monitor the 6 meter. This last station will be used back on HF if propagation opens the lower bands.

The length of the stay is always scheduled for three weeks if no other change will happen. They also added, "We must once again remind all of you that the landing on these islands is very difficult and the Go signal is given only when all the security measures are in place, known and applied. We have to thank many for their help: the French Australes an Antarctic Territories Administration, The South Indian Ocean Zone Force Headquarter, and the Commandment of the French Foreign Legion detachment in Mayotte. More news is to be published in due time... Gloriosos 2009 crew"

There was one last official comment by Didier, F5OGL, team leader (edited):

"A part we can say, even if the first event which made the July 2009 Gloriosos postponed hadn't happen; today's aircrash of the Yemenia A310 at sea after 2 hours of flight is a new event which might have made the DXpedition postponed in any case. The plane which would have been used to go from La Reunion to Glorieuses is now on the zone and will participate in the search of survivors for an unknown length of time... These events and to reinforce the runway have been considered by the French Authorities. For the most security, please wait again with us for a few weeks."


About the callsign :
For the First time, Gloriosos will be active under the new French Antarctic and Australes Territories (TAAF) regulation so the callsign claimed is :
FT5GA. For which the confirmation is pending.

From the year 2005, the “Iles Eparses “ , - Gloriosos, Tromelin, Juan da Nova and Europa - are now put under the TAAF authority.

The future callsigns will be issued as follow:
FR/G becomes FTxG Gloriosos
FR/E becomes FtxE, Europa
FR/T becomes FTxT, Tromelin
FR/J becomes FTxJ, Juan da Nova
No change for FTxW (Crozet), FTxY (Terre Adélie), FTxX (Kerguelen) et FTxZ (Amsterdam)


Equipe Glorieuses 2009. (http://glorieuses20 08.free.fr/ index-f.htm)

IRC's

Info from International Postal Union in Geneva -

"The current issue ( Beijing 2) IRC may be exchanged up to 31 December 2009 (date printed on coupon). In principle, Beijing 2 coupons will no longer be sold from 31 August 2009.

The new international reply coupon (Nairobi model) is due to go on sale from 1 July 2009, and will be valid for exchange until 31 December 2013."  See a picture HERE.

So make sure you aren't holding any of the Beijing 2 coupons at the end of this year.

According to Dutch Prime Minister important agreements to secure the future of the people on the Netherlands Antilles were made. During a Round Table Conference held on 15 December 2008 an agreement was signed on the future of the Netherlands Antilles. In 2009 more work has to be done on the execution of the agreements made. Depending on progress a date will be set for the implementation of the new structure. There is hope that all will be finalized in 2010.

DXCC wise these changes could result in deletion of two entities (PJ2 and PJ7) and four new entities, being

• Curaçao with status aparte

• Sint Maarten with status aparte

• Bonaire

• Sint Eustatius and Saba