Five Star DXers go to D68 – Bulletin No.6 
(“reaching the parts that other Comoros expeditions have not reached”)

We’re back! The D68C operation is now history, and will go into the record books in almost every category imaginable. This bulletin brings you some facts and figures, and news on QSLing, forthcoming presentations of D68C, etc.

Some reminiscences
Now that we are back home, a number of articles are in preparation and will appear in the amateur radio press in due course. But, to whet your appetites, here is a (very) brief overview.

After almost three, very arduous days of setting everything up, D68C hit the airwaves around midnight local on Thursday 8th February, working into Europe and the US on 8 bands simultaneously. We can only guess at what the PacketClusters looked like for the first few minutes as the spots started to appear! Suffice to say that we ended the first 24 hours of operation by beating the FO0AAA record for “most DXpedition QSOs in a day” with a new record of 16,412, and beat the FO0AAA record a second time on Day 2! The pile-ups were incessant, right to the end, despite some DX Clubs having said to us beforehand that D68 wasn't needed. Not by the hardened DX types, perhaps, but certainly by the wider audience. We were delighted to put D68 into the logs of novices, QRPers, those with indoor antennas, even a ham in W6 using a 10m handie-talkie!

And we really did make an effort to give everyone, even the “big guns” some new slots. Topband proved to be tough going, due to the constant tropical storms across the African continent, but we worked through to the mid-West of the US on several nights, and the other way into Japan as well as putting a couple of KH6 stations into the log. At the other end of the spectrum, 6m didn’t offer the big openings into Europe that we had hoped for, but nevertheless we were able to work many stations in Southern Europe and North Africa, as well as across into Japan, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. We held back with RTTY, as demand on the other modes was so high but, once started, put over 4,000 QSOs in the log (a good thousand or so higher than any previous DXpedition), along with over 1,000 QSOs on PSK. And many of you (over 3,000!) enjoyed the novelty of an FM QSO on 10m. Sadly, we were unable to undertake satellite operation. This was mainly because our plans had been centred around AO-40 which, in the event, was unavailable at the time of our DXpedition. 

It is no secret that we had hoped to be the first DXpedition to exceed 100,000 QSOs, but to do so before the second weekend of our operation was way beyond our imaginings. Our final tally of 168,722 QSOs is 75% above the previous ZL9CI record, suggesting that the level of interest in DX chasing is perhaps greater than any of us had ever thought.

Here are the overview statistics (there are some minor inconsistencies in these tables, as we are still reconciling some of the log data):

Category	Previous record	Held by	D68C	
Mixed	96,004	ZL9CI	168,722	
SSB	41,343	ZL9CI	75,497	
CW	52,270	ZL9CI	84,482	
FM	N/A		3,458	
RTTY	2,827	FO0AAA	4,167	
PSK	N/A		1,112	
Unique calls	36,109	4J1FS	45,315	
First 24 hrs	14,000	FO0AAA	16,412	
First week	N/A	 	92,728	

(We have used OH2BU’s Mega-DXpedition Honor Roll as our source of previous records) 

Total UK QSOs: 13,689, UK Uniques: 3,452, 
Overall Rate: 238 QSOs/hr.

Mode	1.8	3.5	7	10.1	14	18	21	24.9	28	50	Total	%	
CW	1294	4311	10607	9314	11843	9477	13117	10356	13925	238	84482	50.1%	
SSB	101	1680	3235	0	14227	7525	17093	10852	20617	167	75497	44.7%	
RTTY	0	0	0	0	1160	0	1390	0	1617	0	4167	2.5%	
PSK	0	0	0	0	157	0	524	0	431	0	1112	0.7%	
MFSK	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	4	0	6	0.0%	
FM	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3458	0	3458	2.0%	
Totals	1395	5991	13842	9314	27387	17002	32126	21208	40052	405	168722		
Previous record	2385	5554	9518	8814	31193	13368	23769	8644	15202	2500	168722		

Continent	1.8	3.5	7	10.1	14	18	21	24.9	28	50	Total	%	
Africa	20	49	85	38	187	92	180	109	179	29	968	0.6%	
Antarctica	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.0%	
Asia	196	608	1595	846	2738	1724	3306	1851	4007	101	16972	10.1%	
Europe	1039	3602	7786	5795	12550	10947	18821	14283	23255	275	98353	58.6%	
North America	134	1624	4149	2491	11198	3983	9381	4823	12181	0	49964	29.8%	
Oceania	5	42	63	45	338	160	199	58	167	0	1077	0.6%	
South America	1	66	164	99	375	96	239	84	263	0	1387	0.8%	
Britain	96	356	823	636	1679	1708	2727	2248	3416	0	13689	8.2%	

Nevada Comoros Trophies 
Claims are already starting to come in for the various individual and club awards we announced before our trip. Check out earlier bulletins, look at our Web site or e-mail for details if you don’t have them already. We would like to encourage applications. We think the 18 trophies will be very attractive and well worth having in the shack. Closing date for applications is 30th April.

Contests
For logistical reasons we were only able to make a modest showing in the CQ WPX RTTY Contest (though we made up for this later, with our record number of RTTY QSOs!). However, as promised, we did make a major effort in the ARRL CW Contest, and are claiming a new African multi-two record of just under 3.7m points, a 1m point increase on the previous record set in 1997 by V51Z. To our surprise the 4,554 contest QSOs also added over 1,000 unique callsigns to the D68C log, setting our minds at rest as to whether, by entering the contest, we would simply be working the same stations all over again.

QSLing
With so many QSOs in the log, G3SWH’s postman is already working overtime. QSL card design is well underway. At present we are finalising details with some key sponsors. In due course we will let everyone know when the cards will be delivered to G3SWH.

Presentations
D68C presentations are already scheduled for Visalia (the Sunday breakfast), Dayton and Friedrichshafen, as well as at a number of UK club meetings and events. Please let us know if you are an event organiser and are interested in a presentation. In some cases a team member will be able to help out. In other cases we may be able to loan a slide set (one will also be lodged with NCDXF in due course). We took a considerable amount of video footage as well, and hope to edit this into suitable presentation material in due course.

Sponsors
As might be imagined, mounting a record-breaking DXpedition on this scale is expensive, and would not have been possible without help from a number of sponsors, both corporate and individual. We want to acknowledge and thank each and every one of them:
Corporate: Amateur Radio,  Array Solutions, Cable Experts, CQ Ham Radio Japan, Cushcraft, Daily DX, Dog Park Software, Dunestar, Force 12, Funk Amateur, Le Galawa Beach Hotel, Linear Amp UK,  Martin Lynch & Sons, Nevada, Patcomm, UK Radiocommunications Agency, Titanex, Vibroplex, World Space, Yaesu
Corporate: Non Amateur, Air Mauritius, Bass Take Home, London Business School, Parfetts, Sofitour, States of Guernsey Tourist Board
DX Groups: Akita DX Assoc, ADXA, Alamo DX Amigos RC, Arkansas DX Assoc., British Amateur Radio Teledata Group, BARTG, Chiltern DX Club, CDXC, Clipperton DX Club, Delta DX Assoc, Echelford ARS, European DX Foundation, EUDXF, Far East DXploiters, FEDXP, Fort Wayne DXA, German DX Foundation, GDXF, GM DX Group, Guernsey ARC, Horndean & Dist ARC, Kermadec DX Association, Lone Star DX Group, M2000A Team, Magnolia DXA, Nara DXA, Japan, North California DX Foundation, NCDXF, Northeast Wisconsin DX Assoc, Northern Ohio DXA, OHDXF, Oklahoma DX Assn, Osaka DX Lovers Group, ODXLG, Racal Amateur Radio Club, Reading & District ARC, RSGB DXpedition Fund, RSGB IOTA Committee,  Shiga DXers, Japan,  Six Meter International Radio Klub, SMIRK,  Virginia DXCC, Western New York DXA 
Major Individual Sponsors: CN8WW, DJ9ZB, G0WAT, G3JNB, G3URA, G4EAG, G8FXX, JA3AAW, JA3CSZ, JA3EOP, JA7FWR, JA7JHT, JA7MFL, JA7QQQ, JA7RHJ, JA7SN, JA7XVZ, JE3AGN, JE3USO, JE7RJZ, JG3KFM, JG7AMD, JG7LQU, JH3OTS, JH7BZR, JH7NPF, JR7WFC, JR7FBR, JR7HAN, JR7JPC, JR7VHZ, JR7XKN, JS3CTQ, K8ME, KO4RR, N7MQ, VK5WO, VK6LC, WA4OBO
Young Amateur of the Year (M0DXR): Harlow & District ARS, BAE Systems, Johnson Stevens Agencies, Nortel Networks, Raytheon

Web Page
Since our return, Webmaster Nigel G4KIU has added several picture galleries, anecdotes, statistics, etc. to the Web page. He also tells us that between 8-28 Feb, the total number of individual pages viewed was 256,714. Awesome! Just to remind you, the URL is www.dxbands.com/comoros 

Don Field G3XTT, NK1G (g3xtt@lineone.net)     			16 March 2001
(D68C Publicity Officer)

“DXpeditioning Behind the Scenes”, edited by Neville Cheadle G3NUG and Steve Telenius-Lowe G4JVG offers, in the words of Wayne Mills N7NG, “A comprehensive view of virtually all aspects of a major expedition for the traveler and DXer alike. From early planning through QSLing, this book offers a variety of thoughts and suggestions on every facet of the DXpedition. It is by far the most complete ‘how to’ reference available”. The book is available in the USA for $28 plus $3 shipping from IREF Inc, 118 Oak Ridge Drive, New Braunfels, Tx 78132. E-mail: ad5a@sat.net  Elsewhere the book can be obtained for £16.95 plus postage from Nevada (www.nevada.co.uk/book-DX.html), Unit 1, Fitzherbert Spur, Farlington, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 1TT, England (Tel: +44 23 9231 3090). Ordering can be by credit card. All surpluses from the sale of the book will be used to sponsor future DXpeditions.