The thrill of the hunt

Ham radio is full of niches, and one of them is "dx chasing," - hunting rare and exotic locations, usually with passion, aggression and some occasional lapses in civility. ("Get off the dx frequency! He's listening up, you #$&*!")

In fact, listening to a crowd of operators in the heat of battle might make you wonder how any of them cut through the din and reach the intended station.  But dxpeditions (as they’re called) are as popular as ever, and a group of hams just returned from one of the world's most desired entities, St. Paul Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. (IOTA NA-094, in the Islands on the Air program.)

The CY9C QSL card

CY9C lasted 10 days in late August, with two separate stations a mile apart operating on the same bands at the same time. Tons of equipment and 11 radio operators (10 Americans and one Canadian) were transported by boat and helicopter in typically rough North Atlantic seas and stormy weather. It followed more than a year of planning, fundraising and securing permits from the Canadian government.

CY9C was incredibly diverse, operating on 13 bands (160 meters through 70 cm) including digital, satellite work and moon bounce (EME). A complete CY9C operating chart can be found here.

In total, the group made about 64,000 contacts to 21,000 different call signs (meaning that most stations that got through did so about three times.) I was fortunate to finally work CY9C on RTTY mode on 30 meters (10.140 MHz) on the last night of operation, an hour before it shut down for good.

The CY9M QSL card from 2012

The August, 2016 event was not the first activity for St. Paul Island. CY9M was on the air during July, 2012 with a multi-national group of operators representing the U.S., Greece, England, Canada, Sweden and Spain. CY9M, plagued by weather and generator problems, made about 33,000 contacts. The QSL card from CY9M is still one of my favorites.

Here is an aerial view of St. Paul Island, which is split into two distinct sections with the lighthouse overlooking the south bluff. The island is uninhabited, with occasional stops by seagulls and Canadian Coast Guard helicopters. 

(Video courtesy of YouTube and Vision Air Services, Halifax, N.S.)

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