A team of nine ZL operators will be activating Chatham Island in March 2009. The team leaders are Lee ZL2AL and Morrie ZL2AAA.  The rest of the team will be Lee ZL2LE, John ZL1BYZ, Mike, ZL2CC, Phil ZL2RVW, Mark ZL3AB, Wayne ZL2WG AND John ZL1ALZ.

Chatham Island is located about 550 Km east of New Zealand about 3 hours by air. Although ZL7 is not particularly rare but is in the top 100 at 87 needed for DXCC and it still generates much activity on the bands. Our Pilot will be Duncan ZL3JT in Christchurch.

The team will be hosted at the Chatham Fishing Lodge  in the fishing village of Kaiangaroa on the north eastern tip of the Chatham Islands.

We will be looking for newer ops wanting to work ZL7 for the first time and will be listening for VK/ZL and Pacific stations at the end of each hour for a few minutes. We will not be working specific call areas or any region to the disadvantage of any other region. The ICOM four station setup with amplifiers will operate 160M to 10M with CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK modes. Wire loops will be used on 80M and 40M, a vertical on 30M and Yagis on 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10M. We also will try 160M alternating with the 80M station from time to time.

Most of the experienced operators are DXCC members and look forward to the pileups. Frequencies will be in the usual SSB and CW DX haunts on each band with SSB split up 5 kHz and CW split up 3 kHz. Our callsign will be announced at the beginning of the operation on March 6, 2009 and ending on March 11, 2009.

Although ICOM New Zealand has offered limited sponsorship, donations would be appreciated as the team will have to cover all expenses including the QSL printing. Donations would be appreciated. The website will be up and running in a few weeks and the URL is www.zl7t.com. Logsearch will be available on the team’s return. QSL via Buro or Direct via ZL2AL CBA or QRZ.com

We will be uploading the logs to LoTW in approximately 6 months and we will also QSL via the Buro.

73, Lee ZL2AL Team Leader