[continued from previous message]   
      
   Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer enter into   
   the 1,700-square-foot Mars Dune Alpha habitat on Sunday, Oct. 19, to   
   begin their mission. The team will live and work like astronauts for   
   378 days, concluding their mission on Oct. 31, 2026.   
      
   Emily Phillips and Laura Marie serve as the missions alternate   
   crew members for this Houston event..   
      
   The RSGB has responded to a further Ofcom consultation, which would see   
   new users sharing spectrum within the 2.3GHz amateur band.   
      
   The latest proposals would enable a new class of short-notice outdoor   
   deployments in the 2320 to 2340MHz range, for up to 14 days at a time.   
   In its response, the RSGB has taken the opportunity to highlight strong   
   concerns regarding the UK amateur weak signal segment at 2320MHz.   
   This follows earlier Ofcom proposals last year for indoor use only in   
   this frequency range.   
      
   An enthusiastic team of operators felt swept away by the challenge of   
   their recent Islands on the Air Expedition to the Pajaros rocks off the   
   Chilean coast.   
      
   Then something else was swept away -- almost all of their equipment.   
      
   A Honda generator. An IC 7000. Seven bandpass filters. Two multi-band   
   antennas. A 500-watt amplifier. This equipment -- and more - are all gone   
   now from the rock where the team on IOTA Number SA-100 began operating on   
   the 18th of August as 3 G 1P.   
      
   Ocean swells, considered the worst seen in five years - forced Cezar,   
   VE3LYC; Felipe, XQ7IR and Johan PA3EXX to be evacuated by the Chilean   
   Coast Guard three days later. Wearing wetsuits, the hams swam to the   
   rescuers' boats, eyeing the carefully packed-up equipment they had to   
   leave behind on the rock. Already they were making plans to return for   
   its retrieval.   
      
   Sea conditions prevented anyone from gaining access to the rock again   
   until the 26th of August. Afterward, the team wrote on their website:   
      
   "VERY BAD NEWS. There is absolutely nothing there except for the beam   
   antenna that we left anchored, which has been damaged. They believe that   
   all else was swept away by the sea.   
      
   To see the team's daily blog, detailing their challenges, follow the link   
   in this week's THIRTY MINUTE WIA NATIONAL NEWS.   
      
   3g1psa-100.weebly.com/   
   -------------------------------------------------------------------   
      
   OPERATIONAL NEWS - A FELIX VK4FUQ PRESENTATION   
   --------------   
   --------------   
      
   THIS WEEKEND ARRL EME CONTEST.   
      
   Contest Objective: To work as many amateur stations as possible via the   
   earth-moon-earth path on any authorized amateur frequency above 50 MHz.   
      
   The contest exchange is a station's four-digit Maidenhead grid square   
   locator. The grid square also serves as the score multiplier.   
   Analogue stations may optionally send a signal report in any mutually   
   understood format if station size or propagation prohibit grid squares   
   from being exchanged.   
      
   This is weekend 2 of 4 for the AEM contest   
   Weekends 1 and 2: 2.3 GHz & Up   
      
   Weekends 3 and 4:   
   50 to 1296 MHz - October 11-12, November 8-9, 2025.   
      
   (sourced to ARRL)   
      
   -------------   
      
   ALSO ON THIS WEEKEND   
      
   The Worked All Europe DX SSB Contest Saturday and Sunday.   
   SSB on the 80 to 10m bands, where contests are permitted,   
   the exchange is signal report and serial number.   
   (rsgb)   
   ------------------   
   Oceania DX (OCDX) Contest   
      
   This is Grant, VK5GR, on behalf of the Oceania DX Contest Committee   
      
   Its that time of year again, as we are only 19 days away from the start of   
   the biggest Oceania focused DX contest of the year! The 82nd Oceania DX   
   (OCDX) contest will once more run on the first two weekends of October, with   
   the Phone contest starting at 06:00 UTC on Saturday 4 October and running for   
   24 hrs, and the CW contest starting on 06:00 UTC Saturday the 11 October also   
   running for 24 hrs.   
      
      
   Whether youre a newcomer or seasoned contester, or have only a modest   
   station, the 2025 contest should be another exciting event thanks to the   
   current peak in the solar cycle.   
      
      
   The focus of the contest is on promoting HF contacts between stations in   
   Oceania and the rest of the world. For operators outside the region, its a   
   chance to work many Oceania stations, from remote Pacific islands to the   
   outback of Australia and jungles of Indonesia. For Oceania-based operators,   
   its a fantastic opportunity to make lots of DX QSOs as stations from the rest   
   of the world turn their beams towards Oceania searching for you!   
      
      
   2025 is the 82nd birthday of the contest. Formerly known as the VK DX Contest   
   and VK/ZL Contest, the contest was first run from 1935 through 1938 and then   
   re-started in 1948, shortly after amateur licences were re-instated post-WW2.   
   The contest has grown into a signature event for operators across Oceania and   
   around the world, combining DX excitement, technical capability and operating   
   skills.   
      
      
   So, save the contest dates in your calendar, warm up the rig, tune the   
   antennas, brush up on your operating skills, and join amateurs across the   
   globe in October to make this another amazing OCDX party!   
      
      
   See you all on the air! 73 from Grant VK5GR   
      
   wia.org.au/members/contests/oceania/   
   ---------------------   
      
   YOTA Contests December   
      
   The Fishers Ghost Amateur Radio Club are hosting the inaugural   
   VK YOTA CONTEST, the entire month of December.   
      
   yotacontest.mrasz.org   
   ---------------   
   AHEAD OF WHEN I OPEN THE DX WINDOW, ALAN.   
      
   "Hi. This is Alan VK4SN with the Remembrance Day contest results.   
      
   VK7 once again takes out state honours with an impressive 40 logs submitted   
   and a total score of 10,859 points.   
      
      
   VK3 was the closest rival submitting 38 logs and 5,436 points.	186 logs were   
   received in total, including 5 paper logs,   
      
   one of which was not identifiable.   
      
   Congratulations to the following Individual winners:   
   SOPH VK7TW   
   SOCW VK2GR   
   SOMX VK5LJ   
   SOPH QRP VK7C   
   SOCW QRP VK3VB   
   SOMX QRP VK2IO   
      
   M1 VK4M with VK4TS and VK4SN   
      
   M2 VL4R with VK4DI and VK4ZD   
      
   Best Rookie was VK3GCD from the SOPH section   
      
   This year I introduced a Youth section to recognise and encourage   
   youthparticipation.   
      
   We had three entrants and in order of their scores we have   
      
   VK3JFR with 154 points from the SOCW category   
   VK4OTZ with 104 points from the SOPH category, and   
   VK4IKZ with 57 point from the SOPH category.   
   Well done all, and hope to see you again next year.   
   There are no rule changes necessary as it's something I'm doing as manager,   
   and I encourage other contest managers to do the same to foster youth   
   entrants.   
      
      
   Certificates for 1st, 2nd and 3rd placings will be sent from the WIA.   
   For those who did not supply names and addresses, you can pick yours up   
   from the PDF downloads available on the RD contest page, along with   
   a full report of winners and statistics.   
      
   vklogchecker.com also has all the winners along with graphs of run rates   
   and scoring, soapbox comments and other statistics.   
      
   A bit of feedback on the Cabrillo log file that is needed, showed that some   
   people think it's a special file. Cabrillo is the name given to the   
      
   layout of information within a text file. Nothing special, just the   
   log information and QSO format needed to be compatible with computer   
   checking.   
      
      
   Many thanks to everyone for their input, their logs and contributions to make   
   this another successful contest.   
      
   Best 73   
   AlanVK4SN   
      
   -----------------------------------------------------------------   
   NOW THE DX WINDOW TO THE WORLD.-----------------   
   ----------------- -----------------   
   DX WINDOW   
   -----------------   
      
   Special event call VI8POL will be on air from Saturday 13th September to   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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