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Polar Bear Express DXpedition!

Submitted by Laird Solomon, VE3LKS, lsolomon@osha.igs.net

Oshawa, ON_Polar Bear Express DXpedition!

Polar Bear Express
At about 0800 hours on August, 3, 1996, the Ontario Northland "Polar Bear Express" will be departing from Cochrane, ON, on its 186 mile, 4.5 hour journey to Moosonee, ON, in the James Bay lowlands at the southern end of Hudson Bay. What sets this trip apart from the normal daily excursion is that it will have an additional passenger car attached that will have a team of nine Amateurs aboard. We will have several HF stations set up in this car and will be DXing our way up north. To our knowledge, this will be the first time that this rail line has been activated.

Please note these dates:

Upon arriving in Moosonee, we will split into two groups. One group will be setting up a station in the train station where we will DX continuously from August 3 to the early hours of August 7 when we will take down our station and make the return trip on the Polar Bear Express. The second group will be heading for the water and much sought after IOTA and Canadian Islands.

The island crew will be looking to activate Akemiski Island, a never before activated IOTA island, in James Bay. Since this island is in saltwater it is part of the Northwest Territories and will have a special VE8 callsign indicating such. Akemiski Island is about 90 miles off-shore and the island crew will need to take a pontoon plane to get there. Akemiski Island is total wilderness and nobody lives on the island so this crew will be camping and cooking just like the early explorers did. There is a small lake on the island where a pontoon plane can land and so now all they need is good weather to make the flight. The freshwater islands located between Moosonee and the shores of James Bay will have a VE3 callsign because they belong to the province of Ontario. The following is a list of the freshwater islands that are nearby but unfortunately we will not be able to activate all of them due to time constraints. They are as follows - Maidmans Island, Charles Island, South Charles Island, Butler Island, Big Duck Island, Little Duck Island, Moose Flats Island, Biscuit Island, Tomisidenik Island, Horeshoe Island, Pilgrim Island, Flats Island, and Sawpit Island. Most of these freshwater islands are accessible by freighter canoe.

Our team consists of ten Amateurs, each picked for their unique skills, to form a well rounded team. They are as follows: 

Winston Seeney VE3WFS	Event director - he makes everything gel together 
John Harden VE3VGI  	antenna and islands co-ordinator
Lyle Sibbald VA3DXE 	railway liason  (retired Canadian National Railway engineer)
Fred Bengel VE3TIG		Packet, QSL manager
Bob Elston VE3LLE		technical advisor, troubleshooter
Aldo Galati VA3AG		Spanish and Italian language skills
Gary Hammond VE3XN	IOTA representative, photographer, QSL design, banners and signs
Doug Ibbotson VE3WTI	writer for Toronto Star, one of Canada's largest newspapers
Paul Lantz VE3KBL 		lives in Moosonee and is our liason into the area
Laird Solomon VE3LKS	public relations, inter team communication, computer technician, videographer

Goals

Come Along! We would be glad to meet you!

We have received several inquiries from other Amateurs as to whether they could come along as well. Anyone is invited to come along and have some fun DXing from the train or the station but you will have to cover all your costs for travel, lodging and food. More information on how to make arrangements is later in this article.

The Area

The train is the only land transportation to Moosonee in the summer as there are no roads that go up that far. In the winter you can get to Moosonee via snowmobile as well as by train. The only other option is to fly in and that gets costly. To find Cochrane and Moosonee on a map simply find where Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron meet and go about 200 miles northeast.

Our Sponsors

Ontario Northland - Ontario Northland Railway has donated a train car for us to set up a station for the 4.5 hour trip to and from Moosonee as well as passage for the DXpedition crew. Morris Bernardi of Ontario Northland has gone out of his way to help us make this venture a success. As well, Ontario Northland is promoting this as a special event for the railway and we hope to make it a success for him as well. Thank you Morris for being such a great help.

Durham Radio - Keith Carcasole, owner of Durham Radio, has been very active in the area of promoting this event to Amateurs. Durham Radio had a booth at the Dayton Hamvention and Keith handed out over 10,000 pamphlets regarding our trip. Keith is also our liason with Alinco and has been able to get us several Alinco HF rigs to use. As well, Keith is also providing us with an R7 antenna which we hope to mount on top of a 160ft water tower that is next to the train station. Hello world!!! Keith has set up a special section on the Durham Radio web page to keep you up to date on our project plans. You can visit it at "http://www.durhamradio.ca" and look for the Polar Bear Express DXpedition link on the main page. You will also find links to Ontario Northland and tourist info on Cochrane, Moosonee, and the surrounding area.

Alinco - Alinco is supplying us with HF rigs to use on our DXpedition. Last year John Harden VE3VGI and Winston Seeney VE3WFS used an Alinco HF rig on their DXpedition to the Belcher Islands and the equipment worked excellently. We thank Alinco for sponsoring us in this way and we hope to make thousands of contacts with their equipment, promoting them as a manufacturer of fine HF equipment.

Special Call Signs

YES! but unknown at this time. We hope to have special VE3 and VE8 callsigns since we will be in both Ontario and the Northwest Territories .

Languages Spoken

English, Italian, Spanish

Special QSL Cards

We will have several special QSL card made up once everything is finalized and we will QSL 100% as long as the needed info is received. We will have a card for contacts with the train, one for contacts with the train station, and one for the island contacts! Get your rigs warmed up!

Information on how you can join us!

Ontario Northland - to get a rail schedule and fees for making the round trip from Cochrane to Moosonee you can call Ontario Northland at 800-268-9281.

Tourist Info - to get tourist info on Cochrane, Moosonee, and the surrounding area, contact Stephanie Wright at 800-354-9948.

DXpedition Team - you can also send mail to myself via the following methods:
Packet - ve3lks@va3bbs
Internet - lsolomon@osha.igs.net
Official Homepage - http://www.durhamradio.ca
Unofficial Homepage - http://www.durhamradio.ca

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