Decisions, decisions. Watch the Super Bowl or try to work the K1N Navassa Island DXpedition? Given that the Super Bowl happens every year and that a chance to work Navassa Island (KP1) might not happen again for another 10 years, a multitude of North American operators picked the latter option. Many elsewhere in the world apparently were in less of a quandary. The K1N team operators fired up on 40 and 80 meter CW sometime around 0100 UTC, welcomed by gargantuan pileups — with stations stretching 10 to 20 kHz or more up the band from K1N’s transmit frequency. Preparations are under way to expand operation to other bands.

Stations trying to work K1N should not transmit on the DXpedition’s frequency. K1N will always be operating split frequency.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) controls access to Navassa Island (KP1), and it’s been more than 22 years since it was last activated. ClubLog’s DXCC Most Wanted List puts Navassa Island at #2 overall, right behind North Korea. (KP1 is #1 on phone, #5 on CW, and #4 on digital modes.) K1N will not be operating on all modes on all bands but plans to limit most bands to a specific mode, “so that we can work the pileups down to the last little pistol,” the team has said.

Once on the island, the DXpedition team members reported strong winds, high temperatures, rats as large as cats, scorpions, and black widow spiders. Eight team members had arrived on the island as of February 1. Six remain in Jamaica.

The team is hoping to have four to six stations up and running by the end of the day (February 2). Plans call for K1N to remain on the air for approximately 10 days.

Late last week, a station, apparently in Europe, was pirating the K1N call sign on CW and RTTY.