Team TI9M made 80,000 contacts during the Feb/March 2002 DXpedition to Cocos Island. We hope you were one of them!

QSL info: Please QSL via AK0A, at CBA,

Bill Boeckenhaupt, 8904 Westbrooke Dr, Overland Park, KS 66212, USA.

QSL direct or via buro OK.

Stations in the USA please include a S.A.S.E. (self addressed stamped envelope).

Stations outside the USA please include a S.A.E. (self addressed envelope) and funds for postage (an IRC, a 'green stamp' - $1, or $0.80 in US postage stamps). Cards received with no SAE or postage will be returned via the buro only.

Contributions, large and small, gladly accepted as the budget is way in the red now.

This was an exciting adventure of a lifetime, to one of the most spectacular locations in the world. Cocos Island is a tropical rainforest covered steep mountainous island, which receives 27 feet of rain annually. Home to many unique animal and insect species, and isolated by over 375 miles from 'anywhere', Cocos is now a protected Marine Conservation Area with superb scuba/snorkeling and perhaps the best shark observing in the world. Scenes from the movie Jurassic Park were made here. The novel "Treasure Island" by Robert Lewis Stevenson was inspired by this location. IMAX made a wide-screen movie titled "Island of the Sharks" at this superb National Park.

Overcoming obstacle after obstacle, Team TI9M set up 4 HF and one VHF station and operated from the island on 160 through 6 meters, including RTTY and PSK for the duration of the island stay.

The picture was taken near the operating tent on the beach, looking Northeast toward the USA and Europe. The antenna is a 5 band Lightning Bolt Quad, vertically polarized, up only 35 feet above sea level. Slightly further away, you can see the 40m vertical - at high tide, the feedpoint of the vertical would go underwater, putting us off the air for an hour or so. Afterwards, we had to wash out the coax connector with fresh water to get it working again. However, the location right over the sea made it perform extremely well. The 'jungle' grew right down to the water line, so the bottom of antenna masts all got 'wet' at high tide since we had to install them right at the shore line. The others worked OK even at 'high tide'.

updated Wed, Mar 13,2002 - N4CD