3Y0X DXpedition video and con-call agenda

The 3Y0X DXpedition video came today. Hooray! I just finished watching it. Those guys are my heroes. Really. It took courage, amazing skills, and even more amazing planning and dedication to pull off such a feat. I would dearly love to someday gather enough expertise to even be considered for such an adventure.
In the mean time, planning and preparation for the Montserrat trip continues. I wrote a four page overview of the log processing strategy for the trip today including a description of how the data flows through the system to produce the daily online log updates. After the group has had a chance to look it over and comment, I’ll likely post it to my home page so everybody can see the plan.
I also worked up the agenda for Sunday night’s conference call. Of course, the team might make changes to it between now and Sunday, but here it is (with some details stricken that are private to the group). Again, I hope this sort of posting gives any would-be DXpedition planner some idea of the kinds of planning that go into a trip such as this (even if it isn’t Antarctica!)

AGENDA for December 10, 2006 Conference Call
Version 1

CALL IN DETAILS
---------------
{snip}

1. Assessment of state
The status report from December 6th declared there are five
areas of planning for the actual trip as shown below. 
Does anybody believe we've missed a whole category of stuff?

[1] Log file and QSLing strategy (computers, log programs).
[2] Ham equipment planning (radios, antennas, power needs).
[3] Non-ham equipment planning (scuba, video, etc.)
[4] On-island logistics: vans, cars, bikes, etc.
[5] On-island excursion planning: helicopter, MVO, scuba, etc.

2. HOT ISSUES
[a] Web site
* ACTION: Chris: Bio + picture for web site.
* ACTION: Budd: picture for web site
 
[b] Logging
* ACTION: ALL: Plans for computer logging to Scott.
* ACTION: Scott: Finish web site QSO log processing tools.
  (Discussed below.)

[c] Financial
* ACTION: ALL: Pay Chris $XXX for share of flights.

[d] Legal
* ACTION: ALL: Send Scott signed Model Release form.
* ACTION: ALL: Send Scott signed General Agreement form.

[e] QSL management
* ACTION: Budd: Finalize paper QSL manager stuff and tell Scott.
* ACTION: Scott: Make QSL information page on web site.
* ACTION: ALL: Create eQSL account for your VP2M call sign.
* ACTION: ALL: Create LoTW account for your VP2M call sign.
* ACTION: ALL: Create QRZ entry for your new call sign.

3. Logging strategies and processing
Overview of log management. Please read the
logprocessing.doc file uploaded Friday (Dec 8)
prior to the meeting. 

Also please identify:
* If you are bringing a computer.
* Which logging program you will use.
* If you are not bringing a computer, identify which
  computer brought by another member you'll be using.
* Please provide a sample ADIF exported file to Scott ASAP.

4. Open issues
* BUDD: Power at the villa. Voltage 120v. Cycles 50 or 60? 
* BUDD: Van rental while on the island?
* BUDD: Inventory of equipment already at the villa.
==> Does anybody have anything to add here?

5. VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT:

[a] Equipment Coordinator (EC)
The Equipment Coordinator will be responsible for identifying
all equipment, baggage allocations, checklists, serial numbers,
etc. Let's put one person in charge of this and have the EC
ensure we bring at least one of everything we need, and no more
than one of things that are really heavy ({grin}).

[b] Activities coordinator (AC)
Scuba Diving, visit to the Monserrat Volcano Observatory,
Helicopter Ride (image in the video you could take), visit
to Plymouth to see what's left of the city. All of these
ideas sound like fun trips. Let's get an Activities Coordinator
responsible for finding out how these things are arranged,
booked, scheduled, etc.

Other leadership positions are probably going to open up/
become obvious as we think about it. Other suggestions?

Respectfully submitted,

-- Scott (NE1RD)

# # #

That’s a lot to cover in an hour. Plus, I’m sure the guys would rather talk about equipment selection and antennas! It is getting to the point where we’re going to need to break up the remaining work into subgroups. I’ve identified two such tasks (EC & AC). I’m sure we’ll come up with a few more in the next week.
As of today there were only 51 days until I leave for Orlando. Just a couple of days after that I should be QRV as VP2MRD. So little time and so much to do!