The February 2011 issue of "Funkamateur", a German amateur radio journal, contains a 3-page report about the 3W6C DXpedition (in German).

The distribution of QSLs for the 3W6C DXpedition is now complete. We recently responded to all requests for electronic QSLs through Logbook of the World and through eQSL.cc. We thank you for your patience in allowing us to respond to the many thousands of requests we received, and we hope we were able to give many of you "a new one".

The January 2011 issue of QST, the journal of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), contains a 3-page report about the 3W6C DXpedition (pages 66-68). Co-authored by Team Leader Hans-Peter HB9BXE and team member Paul AA1MI/HB9DST, it provides an interesting summary of our activities and several attractive photos. Click here to read the article.

We have responded to all those who sent their QSLs direct. QSL Manager Leo, HB9DWL, mailed more than 1000 letters around the world. Letters received with insufficient return postage or expired IRCs were QSL'd via the bureau. Following our return from Vietnam, we corrected various errors that arose when entering QSO data. The Club Log on the Internet will be updated at the end of July 2010. We will keep you informed on our website about the latest status of QSL distribution.

Coverage of the 3W6C DXpedition in the Vietnamese technical press.

Bill Moore, NC1L, Awards Branch Manager at the ARRL, has informed our team organizers that the 3W6C DXpedition will be recognized for the DXCC award; specifically, 3W6C is good for Vietnam (XV). In addition, Roger Balister, G3KMA, RSGB IOTA Manager, has added 3W6C to the list of operations accepted for credit for the IOTA Programme.

The 3W6C DXpedition to Con Co Island did not take the course we had expected, and to our great disappointment we were able to make far fewer contacts than planned. The primary reason is that we encountered some unexpected reluctance on the part of the Vietnamese military to let us conduct an operation on the scale we had wanted.

Following a boat ride that was more pleasant and safe than during the trip to the island, the team returned to the mainland at Dong Ha harbor. Michal XV9DX, Eddy XV1X, Torsten XV9TH along with his XYL Quynh Huong all said their good-byes.

We are now QRT, and preparations begin for our return to the mainland. A short ceremony with the local officials takes place this afternoon. We look forward to returning home.

Providing training for two Vietnamese radio amateurs: Bac Ai XV2A and Huy XV2B.

Sometimes when our signal drops out suddenly, there are things going on behind the scenes that are not obvious at your end. Here’s a description of an eventful operating shift.

The team members keep themselves busy with various tasks. We start RTTY operation on 30m from the Guest House.

Daily life and vegetation on the island – At an 8 a.m. meeting we get the official word: we can no longer operate from Site 2 (CW) and Site 3 (SSB) – We get some bad news: by dusk, we must remove all our antennas from the originally planned CW and SSB sites. A few team members work extremely hard to get this done by the deadline.

Hans-Peter, HB9BXE, announces being QRV on the AO-51 pass of tomorrow April 16 at 22:02:21 UTC. The locator OK37QD won't be communicated to save time. The pass will last approximately 15 minutes on the island with a fine elevation of 75 degrees. See the Satellite section on the Frequencies page on our web site for sat details.

Although not using its full facilities, the 3W6C DXpedition is back on the air after a 24-hour break. We are QRV on all bands from 10m through 40m.

The 3W6C team is QRV again since 0500 UTC. Team Leader Hans-Peter, HB9BXE, reports on the new situation.

[UPDATED] Due to security political reasons on the island, the 3W6C team is temporarily QRT. The team hopes for a soon and good solution. Team leader HB9BXE hopes being QRV again on April 14, 1200 UTC, probably with reduced equipment, and thanks for your understanding. See News Boards on our web site and Twitter later on for the news. The team on the island is safe and sound and not restricted.

The team has started everyday life on the island. A stony ground on the beaches made the antenna erecting difficult and time consuming. The local authorities visited the sites on Monday.

Some DXers have reported that they can't find their QSO(s) in Club Log. Please be aware that we cannot feed Club Log continuously, due to difficult connectivity on the island. Allow us 30 hours for the upload of your QSO, and call only later for QSO issues (but then with full details). Check Twitter for streaming news.

Team Leader Hans-Peter, HB9BXE, has announced a new operating frequency for 20 m SSB. It is 15 kHz lower, since the former Rx frequency band had caused interference with the SSTV portion of the band. We wish good DX on 20!

After an interesting boat ride, today we finally stepped foot on Con Co Island and started setting up our shacks and equipment. But there’s much more work to be done.

After 18 hours of traveling, the 3W6C crew was met by Bac Ai, XV2A, at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City. The day wrapped up with a pleasant dinner meeting with the local Vietnamese hams. Preparations continue during the following day in Dong Ha.

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.