Pitcairn Island DXpedition

...On October 10th, the following was posted on the Pitcairn Island DXpedition VP6R Web page ( https://pitcairndx.com/news-and-updates) [edited]:

"I experienced a sudden and relatively severe, acute illness and was hospitalized for a number of days. I am recovering at home, but the risk of compromising the DXpedition to Pitcairn Island is too great for me to make the trip with the team. My friend Glenn, W0GJ, will take on my responsibilities and the DXpedition will proceed as otherwise planned.

"Most team members will have begun their travels within the next 24-48
hours. The October 15th flight to Mangareva and boarding of the Brave-
heart remain on schedule.
This is a great disappointment for me, but the show will go on. I thank all of you for your past encouragement and support. I have great confidence in all of our team members; they will give this DXpedition their all..... Ralph – K0IR"

"The team members are very disappointed that Ralph, K0IR, is unable to go with us. Ralph has invested countless hours organizing and preparing for a successful DXpedition! In fact, it has been so well organized that it is almost on autopilot! We have been unable to find a replacement for Ralph on such short notice. Many potential substitutes were unable to clear their schedules to be gone for a month with just a few hours notice.

We are READY to go! All of our personal bags are packed, as we had
to have weight & volumes for Air Tahiti, our Papeete to Mangareva flight
next Tuesday. That connection is only once per week. The Braveheart
will be waiting for us and we'll set sail almost immediately for Pitcairn.
We will be arriving Thursday morning at Pitcairn. All of our cargo is
ALREADY at our operating site. We will work hard that first day to get
as many antennas up as possible to get on the air by the end of the day,
Thursday, October 17th. We must QRT by November 2nd, to make it back to Mangareva to catch the weekly flight again.
We are going to work extra hard as a team to make Ralph proud of us,
as he has all but invested the last two years of his life into this project.

Visit our website often for updates. There you will find contact
information for our pilots who will help us optimize our band/modes
and propagation paths. Any information on long or short path openings
would be welcome to our pilots. Financial contributions are most welcome,
too! See our website for more details.
73 and see you in the pileups! ... 
Glenn – W0GJ
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OPDX EDITOR'S NOTES: The VP6R DXpedition is scheduled to take place between October 18th and November 1st. Activity will be on 160-10 meters, including 6 meters EME, using CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8 (F/H). Suggested frequencies are:

CW - 1826.5, 3523, 7023, 10108, 14023, 18069, 21023, 24891 and 28023 kHz
SSB - 3785, 7082, 14185, 18130, 21285, 24955 and 28485 kHz RTTY - 3580, 7045, 10142, 14080, 18099, 21080, 24911 and 28080 kHz
FT8 - 1836, 3567, 7056, 10131, 14090, 18095, 21091, 24911 and 28091 kHz 6M FT8 - 50323 kHz
FT8 Protocol for VP6R, see: https://pitcairndx.com/how-to-work-vp6r

They will also have 60 meter privileges (on all modes) and will activate that band from Pitcairn Island for the first time. The VP6R team will also participate in the 2019 CQWW SSB Contest on the Oct. 26th and 27th weekend.

QSL via K9CT. For more details and info check out the Pitcairn Island DXpedition Web page at: https://pitcairndx.com/news-and-updates
Also, check out their FaceBook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/580069859103416
Also, their Twitter page is at: https://twitter.com/2019Island