As some of you might be aware, I’m going travelling in Chile for most of November and December. This isn’t a radio DXpedition as I can only take one 23kg suitcase to last 6 weeks and clothes and camping stuff have to take priority!

That said, I do have a Chilean licence, and I am taking some equipment, so this is the plan at time of writing:

Callsign

As I am travelling and don’t have a particular base in the country, the Radio Club de Chile have kindly suggested I use their HQ address in Santiago (CE3) as my licence address. This means that my Chilean licence has been issued as CE3/M0BLF

As I understand the Chilean rules, when I am operating from other parts of Chile, I have to use the local area number as a suffix to the Santiago callsign, eg. CE3/M0BLF/6

HF

I’m taking my IC-706 and a 15m dipole. There won’t be any linear and power will be from a Gel Cell (Sealed Lead Acid battery), which I’ll buy out there to carry on the part of my journey through Patagonia from Temuco – Tierra del Fuego (19th November – 11th December, if all goes to plan). Due to the fact that I can’t take such batteries on planes, I won’t be using the HF gear from other places in the country.

I expect most activity to be CW / PSK31 to reduce power demands. I may also send back a couple photos via SSTV, just because I can. When I’m further south, away from where most people are beaming, I’ll aim to appear on WSPR for a little while before I switch to CW. WSPR allows me to announce I’m there without requiring a full-power CQ call that would be needed to reach the RBN.

Activity will only be occasional, from campsites, and I may not be able to get the antenna up high as I don’t have luggage space for poles, etc.

CQ WW CW

The biggest CW contest of the year takes place while I’m in Chile. I plan to operate as much as the batteries will permit as CE3/M0BLF/6 from the Puyehue region in central Chile. This will be Single Band on 15m. I’ll decide out there whether to enter Low Power or QRP.

IOTA Activations

Assuming I stick to my itinerary, I should also be active from:

• Chiloe (SA-018) on 30th November and 1st December as CE3/M0BLF/7
• Tierra del Fuego (SA-008) on 10th December as CE3/M0BLF/8

Again, this will be low-power, battery-operated, single-band, so please don’t expect too much! For the same reason, I will not arrange skeds.

Yes, I will be passing lots of rare island groups as I sail down through Patagonia between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales, but I’ll be on a ferry and I won’t be able to disembark. Another time, perhaps.

APRS/Echolink

• I’ll be active on APRS as M0BLF-7 in areas with APRS coverage, but be aware that coverage in the country isn’t very great
• I’ll be taking an Iridium tracker (thanks M0VFC) which cross-posts positions to APRS as M0BLF-12
• I hope to use some of the local 2m Echolink nodes to contact people at home

Updated 5-Nov-15: Switched band to 15m in the light of the latest propagation predictions; mentioned the WSPR beacon.