The FT4TA DXpedition to Tromelin Island in the Indian Ocean is in its final stages of preparation, and in less than 1 month the six-man team will depart for the small French possession. Operation is scheduled to commence on October 30 and continue until November 10. The DXpedition is the recipient of an ARRL Colvin Award grant.

“I and about 10,000 of your ‘best friends’ will be tuned up and listening for you,” Warren Croke, NW4C, quipped on the Tromelin2014 Facebook page. “Be safe and have fun.”

The FT4TA DXpedition said its operation is a chance to get Tromelin Island off the Top 10 most-wanted lists. Right now, it’s number 8 (mixed) on the ClubLog DXCC Most Wanted List. Located some 280 miles east of Madagascar, Tromelin has not been activated on Amateur Radio since 2000, when a four-person team logged some 50,000 contacts using the somewhat unwieldy call sign of FR/F6KDF/T. No one has been authorized to operate from the island since. Tromelin Island is administered as part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (abbreviated in French as “TAAF”).

The DXpedition has announced plans to be active on 160 through 10 meters on CW, SSB, and RTTY. “Openings toward the USA and Japan are short,” the DXpedition has advised. “We will do our utmost to give this entity to worldwide deserving hams while openings last.”

The DXpedition has said that its operators will take into consideration information from their pilot stations regarding propagation and feedback from the Amateur Radio Community.

Operators are expected to concentrate on “the higher-volume bands,” but will give a second priority to the low bands. Logs will be updated daily to ClubLog via a satellite connection, but there will be no leader board. An as-yet-unreleased postage stamp commemorating the 60th anniversary of the first Tromelin Island Amateur Radio operation will be applied to all direct, OQRS, or donor-requested QSL cards.

In June, the FT4TA team shipped three boxes of gear to Réunion Island, and the DXpedition team members will fly between there and Tromelin.

“Our operators will make their best to exploit the propagation windows towards certain areas,” a pre-departure news release said, asking for the cooperation of everyone. “Let's hope that our equipment and effort
will provide good results.”

The FT4TA DXpedition also will be using Twitter.