Weekly status Nov 12

I just finished the status report for the VP2M group, something I try to do about once a week. With a little over two months to go, we've got lots to do!
Our issues are:

• Transportation: We all have flights that get us to Antigua but the last leg, from Antigua to Montserrat, has yet to be booked. Carib Aviation is the only carrier that goes there. Chris is working out those details.
• Licenses: The instructions on the ARRL web site are out of date. Bob has tracked down the new offices that handle this: the Ministry of Communications & Works. (Sounds like something from Monty Python to me, but it is a British colony, I guess). Bob is going to figure out if they have received our materials. If they have, then fine. If they have not, we need to resubmit them {sigh}. We'll try to have a ham on the island walk through all this paperwork if we do resubmit.
Power: It sounds mundane after the stuff above, but we need to know the shape of the power outlets on the island so we can bring the right adapters.
• HTs: It was suggested by Paul that we all bring HTs to the island. Just from a safety point-of-view, this is an excellent idea. It was something I was going to put into the DXpedition manual (if I ever had time to work on it).

We've got a good group and we've now split up most of the outstanding work. I'm still pulling together stuff for the web site, working on the legal forms, and just finished the very cool DXpedition T-shirts (that I talked about the other night.
We've still not discussed equipment, specific plans for activities on the island, or worked out all the other details on our wish list. For example, Chris and I spoke on the phone just a few minutes ago about doing audio recordings of as much on-air activity we can manage. I've already looked into some MP3 recording units such as the EDIROL R-09 WAVE MP3 recorder and the Zoom Audio H4. A small mixer is also not out of the question. All this will make great additions to the web site when we are done.