A group of DXers will attend Bouvetøya.in 2018 to give the deserving a new Entity or one or more new bandpoints. It is a big adventure to get to the island. And if you are there, you will need a helicopter to get ashore.. DXCC Honor Roll Bouvet is on the top of the Most Wanted DXCC list, direct following North Korea. In March 1963, the island became an Entitity for the DX world. QSOs with Bouvet did count from the birthdate of DXCC, November 15, 1945. But no one could say, “I have made a qso with this isolated part of the world”. New entities (in that time called countries) did get on the DXCC list after there had been Ham activity from that part of the world. The first ham radio activity from Bouvet was made by our Coca Cola man Gus Browning, W4BPD. With help of South African hams, Gus did get a boarding ticked to Bouvet. Bouvet did not have a prefix at the time. So LA5HE, Rag Otterstad, arranged the strange call LH4C for this very first DXpedition to the Icy Island. LH became the prefix, and Rag did choose 4C, because this was easy sending in CW. According to records of Gus, he made some 5000 boys (he called fellow DXers “boys”) glad with a QSO with the new country. This activity from Bouvet did take place just 35 years after a Norwegian expedition to the South Pole. claimed Bouvet for the Norwegians. Not earlier than 1930, Bouvet did became a part of Norway. After the LH4C DXpedition, you could expect that more hams would go to Bouvet to show the ham- world their operating skills. But that was not the case. I did get my licence in 1965, so Bouvet was of course on my wanted list. Don Miller, W9WNV, did make an attempt to go to Bouvet. To get a call was easy. Don had a licente for putting 3Y0AB on the air. I was exited and was ready to put 3Y0AB in the log. However Bouvet was to far away, and Don had to cancel this trip to that lonely island Bouvet. Fifteen years later, in 1977, John Snuggered, LA1VC became active from Bouvet. As member of a South Pole expedition, John made 27 QSOs, using the call 3Y1VC. His friend Audun Hjell, LA3CC was also a member of that Norwegian expedition, and he made 5 QSOs, using 3Y3CC. Wow !! The next year, Thore Winsnes, LA5DQ, did make a better job. He did put 550 QSOs in the log, using the call 3Y5DQ. And in 1979, John, LA1VC did visit Bouvet for the second time. This time he had more succes in putting 1930 calls in his second 3Y1VC log. Unfortunate, my call was not among the QSOs, John made from Bouvet. But why did it take 17 years to count 7512 Boutvet QSOs? And if you subtract the LH4C QSO’s, because Gus could not prove he made the QSO’s from the Island, why did it take 17 years to make 2512 QSO’s from Bouvet island? Where on Earth is Bouvet Island located? It becomes clear why only a few hams could activate Bouvet, to give the deserving a new DXCC country, if you know where to find this spot on earth. Bouvet Island (Bouvetøya) is an uninhabited sub- Antarctic island in the Southern Atlantic Ocean at 54°25.8′ South and 3°22.8′ East. The island is located just outside Antartica. The distance to the Princess Astrid coast (Queen Maud Land, Antarctica) is 1800 Kilometers, and the distance to Argentina is 4300 Kilometers. The distance to Capetown, South Africa is 2800 Kilometers. Indeed a lonely spot. It is clear that you may call Bouvet Island the most remote uninhabited desolate island on earth. On July 19,1738, Jean-Baptiste Bouvet got the assignment from the Compagnie de Indes to look for islands below 44 degrees South and 355 degrees East. On old seamaps this part of the globe has the strange name of “Cap de Terra Australis Incognita”. Bouvet started the search going South from the ( now Brazilian Island of Fernando de Noronha. In his log you can find the following: “On January 1, 1739, at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, we saw land at 54 degrees and 20 Minutes South and 2,5 Degree and 20 Minutes West. It was high country, like a snow capped mountain, but almost covered by fog. According to us it was a steep clif, and we called it “Cap de la Circoncision” Unfortunately no one could find the island again, because the claimed coordinates were wrong. (West had to be East) On December 16, 1825, captain Norris, an Englishman also in search of Terra Australis Incognita, found near Cap de la Circoncision another island. He stated: “It was very difficult to approach the island, and get ashore. The South- West side of the island has the only landingplace. The island consist mainly of Lava. Incredible defendant lava flows color the island, and give the impression of black glass permeated with white stripes.” Norris claimed the island for England, and named it Liverpool Island. Hundred years later, on December 1, 1927, the Norwegians (under command of Lars Christensen) reclaimed the island, and named it Bouvetøya. In 1930, the English redraw their claim on Liverpool Island. On June 21, 1957, Bouvetøya became a part of the Norwegian Antarctic Territory, governed by the Norsk Polari Institutt. In 1971 Bouvet Island and the water around the island was declared nature reserve. 3Y5X. The first ( and only real) DXpedition to Bouvet. After 1979 it became quiet around this unfriendly part in the middle of nothing. Hans, DK9KX a well known DXer had to cancel his attempt to get QRV from Bouvet Island. And professor Kent Larsspn, SM7DSE, one of the members of a scientific expedition to the Southpole had plans to get on the island on the way back from the Southpole to Norway. Unfortunately it was impossible to get off the ship. bad weather did keep the helicopter on the ship. During this expedition, Kent was QRV from Antarctica, using the call 7S8AAA. Because of this all, there was a big demand for Bouvet fromn the DX-world. Only a few of the deserving could show a QSO with this desolated Ice island. This was the trigger for three Norwegian hams Einar- LA1EE, Kare-LA2GV and Erling-LA6VM to start Club Bouvet. This Club had the assignment to make sure that in 1989, 250 years after the discovery of the island by Jean-Baptiste Bouvet de Lozier, hams would be QRV from Bouvet Island. And end 1989 was also the date that our solar cyclus number 22 was at the maximum point. A garantee for good conditions. It was clear for the three Norwegians that they needed a ship with a helicopter on board. And of course they did need much much money. Club Bouvet calculated that $ 330,000 should be enough to cover the the costs. Very expensive of course. Club Bouvet became a big success, thanks to 3 guest operators, 2 scientists, 2 film producers, 1 camp assistant, 2 helicopter crew members, and the ship crew of 7 people. 3Y5X did make some 49,000 QSO’s, that’s about 7 Dollar each QSO. Frustrating for the team was the fact that they made a lot of dupes. Almost twelve percent of the QSO’s where dupes. It showed that a lot of hams where afraid the QSO they made was not written down correctly, and that they had to wait many years for a new DXpedition to get Bouvet confirmed. German and Japanese hams did make the fewest dupes. Of course there was no Internet in that time, and you had to wait months to get the QSL from Bouvet. So making a dupe QSO was less frustrating. More successful activity from Bouvet. All attempts from individuals to get on Bouvet Island did fail for many reasons. Only scientific expeditions where successful. In 1997, LA2GV, Kare Pedersen, was again a member of a NPI (Norsk Polar Instututt) expedition. He got permission to go on the island together with the scientists. During the short time on the island, Kare made 200 QSO’s. The scientific expedtion of 2001 was more successful for the ham-world. The retired astronaut, Chck Brady, N4BQW, was one of the crew. In his spare time, Chuck did make some 8000 QSO’s, mainly in SSB, his preferred mode. During such QSO you could ask Chuck for a CW QSO. And of course Chuck did so, the CW QSO however was always on his SSB frequency. Chucks used a “hamdpump” as keyer. The last activity from Bouvet was made by ZS6GCM, Petrus Kritzinger, a physician. Petrus, who was the boss of the scientists, however was very short of spare time. As 3Y0E, Petrus made some 1500 hams very glad with a Bouvet QSO. Also mainly in SSB. A new Bouvet DXpedition is going to happen in February 2018 Because of this all, Bouvet is now second on the most wanted list. It is easy to get a licence for Bouvet, But to get to Bouvet is another problem. And if you are seeing the Island, it is even a bigger problem to get on the island. And of course getting off the island if you have done your task. Enough hams do have a licence for Bouvet. And among those hams is a group under leadership of Erling-LA6VM, Ralph-K0IR, and Bob-K4UEE who will activate the island in February 218. Their team of 20 operators has a lot of experience on DXpeditions. The operators did activate 3Y0-Peter One, FO0- Clipperton, VK0-Heard Island, HK0-Malpelo, P5P-Palmyra etc.. Together they made over 4,3 Million DXped-QSO’s. This time the set up on Bouvet will be on the east side of the island, on the sloping glacier. This spot does promise good view to all parts of the world. This mega DXpedition will be very, very expensive. Calculations do show an amount of $ 760,000. The team is still looking for 200,000 Dollar and hopes that the ham community will make donations to cover the costs. Also your little “Peanut” does help. Please go fo more info to : https://www.bouvetdx.org/ A man should keep his friendship in constant repair (Samuel Johnson (1755).