20 December 2014
K1N Navassa Press Release
The KP1-5 Project Team would like to report progress in preparations for a late January landing on Navassa is coming along very well! A container is being shipped from Atlanta, GA, to our staging point in the Caribbean.
Bob N2OO is our chief pilot and has organized an excellent worldwide team to collect reports and suggestions from our target areas. Feedback will be prioritized, filtered and/or condensed to pass along to the team at least daily. We have a very special pilot, Brandon KF5NYQ. Brandon is 11 years old and one of the youngest hams ever to have achieved DXCC!!! Brandon will be collecting feedback from young hams. On our website, www.navassadx.com, check out “Our Team” and scroll down to see your pilot. Click on their picture to see their bio and contact information.
We are now on FACEBOOK and TWITTER!!!
- Check out our Facebook page: Navassa 2015 K1N and invite your ham (and non-ham) friends to follow us!
- For Twitter: You can Google Twitter and open an account. Then when it's open within the Twitter program search for @navassa2015. Then follow K1N.
Team co-leader, Glenn W0GJ, was interviewed by DokuFunk Radio earlier this week. You can hear the entire interview (14 minutes) at www.dokufunk.org/navassa-e.
This week the team paid the first half of the nearly $200,000 helicopter transportation contract. The second half is due to be paid February 10th. By the end of this month, in order to progress with the operation, we must pay the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service $95,000 - $97,000 for the transportation of the Law Enforcement team who must accompany us. We will know our exact dates when our payment is due at the end of December. We will have a press release when we know our exact dates.
The cost of the K1N operation is very high and the time to raise the money needed to fully fund the project is exceptionally short. Inherent risks of a water landing on Navassa have dictated using a helicopter to transport men and materials to avoid the risk of scaling the 5-10 meter high cliffs during the period of rough seas (January – February).
The 15 operators have collectively contributed $157,500 toward the K1N operation, roughly half of what it will cost. DX Foundations, Radio Clubs, and Individuals have been exceptionally generous in their financial support of the K1N operation (see the list of donors at www.navassadx.com under the Sponsors tab). Team members are paying all of their own expenses to and from the staging point.
But the K1N Team still needs to raise a significant amount of additional money BEFORE the operation commences in late January..... to ensure payment for the extraordinary transportation costs. Final payment for helicopter services is due just before completion of the operation.
Contributions by continent as of 18 Dec 14 (excludes team members)
Contributions have been lagging from the Most Needed target areas of Europe and Asia. Our North American support has been doing quite well, where Navassa is much further down the Most Needed List.
If you are in the U.S., consider making a generous year end tax deductible donation. The link below explains a simple process that allows you to achieve tax deductible status via the Northern California DX Foundation. Follow this link: http://www.navassadx.
If you are not in the U.S. or don’t need to take advantage of a tax-deductible contribution, you can click on the donate button on the bottom of our home page.
Time is short and K1N will be active within 6 weeks!
....thank you for your consideration and support!!!
For the KP1-5 Project:
Bob Allphin, K4UEE
Glenn Johnson, W0GJ
Mike Thomas, NA5U
73, Pertti OH5TQ
