In the remaining time before we depart in early April, we are completing our team, gathering all the final pieces of equipment and trying to anticipate all the many details that must be checked off the list. There's still plenty of work left to do before we board the A380 to Singapore.

The 3W6C team has started the time-consuming task of gathering and packing the equipment that will be needed for the DXpedition. We have also gained experience in erecting and tuning the 4-square antennas. The first freight shipment has successfully made its way to Vietnam. In the next two months we will gather everything else we need and ship it so it is waiting for us when we make the trip in April.

In order to ensure the success of the DXpedition to Côn Có Island, extensive preparations are necessary with regards to materials. We are grateful that so many hams have shown their willingness to support us with equipment loans and donations. In specific terms, we are still looking for antennas, transceivers and amplifiers.

One focus of the 3W6C DXpedition will be low-band operation, and for this we will be erecting some high-performance antennas including several 4-squares. These, along with excellent conditions at the DXpedition site, will allow us to maximize the number of 80m/160m QSOs we can make, exciting low-band DXers around the world.

Team Leader Hans-Peter HB9BXE recently traveled to Vietnam and along with local members of the team braved a typhoon to visit Con Co Island. There they met with island officials and did a site survey – which shows that we have plenty of room for low-band antennas and should be able to erect them to favor operation towards the US and Europe.

Press Release #1 sets the official starting point for our information activities on the amateur radio expedition to the Côn Có Island to be conducted in April 2010. Regular press releases and other information on specific topics will keep you up to date about our preparations. Subscribe to the RSS feed on our website to keep in touch with 3W6C.

We've set some ambitious goals for ourselves: an in-demand DXCC country, a much sought-after island group in the IOTA program, low-band DX. Except that we can't accomplish all this just with our own financial resources. The Ham Radio convention in Friedrichshafen, Germany, from 26 to 28 June 2009 was the kickoff for our search for sponsors - where we provided the initial information about our plans for activating Côn Có in 2010.