Hello and welcome to episode 74 of The DX Mentor - details about an upcoming IOTA DXPedition. I’m Bill, AJ8B
Here is our guests story as presented by Bernie, W3UR: A team composed of Cezar (VE3LYC), Felipe (XQ7IR), and Johan (PA3EXX) plans to activate Pajaros Rocks, SA-100 between August 18th and the 23rd.
These rocks are located in the north of Chile, about 100 km south of Iquique, in the vicinity of the fishermen's village of Caleta Lobos. One of these two rocks has a round shape with a diameter of just under 60 m, while the second one is oval in shape, about 60 by 30 m. Both rocks are very rugged, and landing can only be attempted by swimming to them and pacing against the waves. They also have very steep slopes, and host colonies of sealions and cormorants.
Two reputed amateur radio teams attempted to land and operate from these rocks in 2018 and 2019, but their efforts were regretfully unsuccessful. Despite these setbacks, an independent project to bring Pajaros on the air continued to be pursued, but was initially postponed due to the covid pandemic, and then due to other DXpedition projects that emerged.
Cezar and Johan carried out together several IOTA expeditions in the past. As such, they operated from Hershel (SA-031), Diego Ramirez (SA-097), Sandy (OC-294), and Escondida (SA-096). Escondida is a rather much similar rock to Pajaros, just but larger in size, about 100 x 35 m and not as steep. Consequently, we expect that the landing logistics and challenges in dealing with wildlife will be also similar.
Felipe and Cezar will team up for the upcoming 3Y0K DXpedition to Bouvet, which is scheduled for February 2026. It was during their discussions on Bouvet that joining forces on Pajaros came into focus, and a concrete plan for the latter began to be developed. Together with Johan, they worked closely in planning how best to handle every single aspect of this project.
Here are resources mentioned in the Podcast
3G1P Website: https://3g1psa-100.weebly.com/
VE3LYC Book on DX Adventures:
https://ve3lyc-book.weebly.com/
Southwest Ohio DX Assoc. https://www.swodxa.org
Daily DX https://www.dailydx.com/
DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/
Icom https://www.icomamerica.com/
IC-905 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-905/
IC-9700 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-9700/
IC-7610 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7610/
IC-7300 https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/