Another reason is that you need permission to visit some of these islands.  ZK3 is one such place - you need permission from the village Chief before you can land... but you can't ask for permission until you get there.

In most cases it is nothing more but a formality (respect/tradition), but there is some uncertainty which adds some risk.

73, Dave

From KH2, I decided to go with top loading - initially a TEE vertical - which has since morphed into three top loading wires as it provides some additional support in the wind.  My 1st vertical was about 55ft vertical.  Current configuration is about 70ft vertical - the top loading wires makes the antenna resonant on 160.

I decided *against* an inverted L because the majority of the antenna would be horizontal - 80ft or so for a 50ft vertical.  This provides some higher angle radiation components.  From KH2, I want as low angle radiator as possible, since EU and NA are 6K plus miles away.

Under the antenna are about 90 radials, averaging about 100ft long.

The antenna works VERY well.  Bandwidth is quite narrow, but 30khz is about all you need to cover the CW portion of the band.  Also, I needed to add a hairpin match across the feed point.  Radiation resistance for a short top loaded vertical is quite low.  This results in some mismatch to a 50 ohm radio.  The hairpin match fixes this.  If you top load a short vertical, and find that the SWR is excellent with good band width - you have a lot of loss in your system, probably though ground losses.

I've worked more than 3K unique stations on 160m with this antenna, in all 40 zones.  

If I were stateside or in Europe, I'd probably go with an inverted L, especially for Topband contesting.  From KH2, 1500 miles from Japan, I wanted the lowest angle radiator and most efficient antenna possible.  A top loaded vertical over a good ground system accomplished both of these goals.

73, Dave KH2/N2NL

Pileups absolutely are bigger and unruly.

-Packet plays a big role.  With global packet, a DXpedition gets spotted and the whole world knows the frequency within minutes.

-DXCC Challenge.  In the past, the desire to work the DXpedition on as many bands as possible was somewhat less than it is now (IMO).  Granted you had single band DXCC for decades, but now with the DXCC Challenge breakdown you can easily see which bands you still need confirmation on.

-Clublog Leaderboard.  All you need is one QSO per band, all three modes (which can be done with 9 QSOs if 160-10) to cover all your DXCC needs for that country.  Thanks to the Clublog Leaderboard, there is incentive to work the DXpedition on as many band modes as possible.  20 QSOs or more is now the norm for the top of the leaderboard list for big DXpeditions.

-Unruly Behavior.  This started in Europe but is spreading world-wide.  There have always been "police", but the non stop calling has gotten insanely bad.  XR0YG on 80m the other night would ask for K8G? and there would still be twenty JA's calling away.  If you are trying to work EU, you always try to work the Italian first because usually they won't stop calling, even if you are asking for the "G" station.

I highly doubt it is BS7.  The Chinese have blocked all access to the rocks, including to Filipino fisherman who have fished there for generations.  If it were a BY sponsored expedition, it would be solely for political reasons and to try to reinforce their claim which goes against the spirit of Amateur Radio.  The recent 9M4SLL Spratly DXpedition was jammed heavily as well as 9M0L the year before for similar political reasons.

I would doubt it would be BV9 because of all the recent tension in the South China Sea over the recent Chinese push to claim the region.

XZ is not out of the realm of possibility however there has been some recent civil unrest within the country in recent days.

My guess, if it had to be a SEA country, would be Bangladesh.  XX is another possibility.

Only a couple QSOs... primarily with big DXpeditions who pushed 6m activity.  I had no interest whatsoever when it was a SSB only band.

60m is largely unusable from here in KH2... it is the "go to" band for the Chinese OTH radar (IE Dragon) that used to sit on the low end of 40m. 

KH2L used to be active on 60m before the radar QSY.  He tells me he worked 70 or 80 guys and ran out of people to work.  Personally, my band permissions with the military spectrum managers (a requirement living in on-base housing) does not include 60m.  It probably wouldn't have been a problem had I asked for it, but I didn't.

73, Dave KH2/N2NL

HV0A was on 80m this morning, decent signal, asking for "DX NO EU" QSX up. 

Many EU never stopped calling.

Some DL decided to spot HV0A with "No DX calling" despite myself, a VK, and several JA's calling and trying to be heard through the pileup.

HV0A goes back to working EU.  No DX worked.  Bad behavior gets rewarded.  EU wins yet again.

Frustrating.

-KH2/N2NL
PS - working SV2ASP/A is statistically impossible from here for this reason.

Actually BS7 supports their claim to the islands.  That is why the last DXpedition to scaffold reef left from China, not the Philippines which is significantly closer.

What would really spin them up is a DU expedition to Scarbourough Reef, which would not count for DXCC because the only basis for entitiy status is that the islands are claimed by China, since they are only just over 100 miles from Luzon.

The ops at 9M4SLL are pretty good and I have heard them listening for NA several times when propagation allows, even on 160m at their local sunset.  Their first clublog upload shows more NA QSOs than AS (of course I expect that to unavoidably change).

FYI - there have been an unusually high number of pirates using their call and making QSOs on the bands.  It is quite possible that you heard one of these stations.  Make sure to check Clublog to make sure you worked the real group.

There also has been some jamming - peaking from the Northwest from here (China).  I found a Chinese forum where there is talk of a coordinated effort to cause QRM to 9M4SLL.  Remember that to the Chinese, Spratly is occupied Chinese territory.  Politics aside, jamming absolutely goes against the ham spirit.  It was sad to hear the Chinese National Anthem broadcast over one of the 9M4SLL SSB stations yesterday.

The ops are good, and they seem to have a pretty good signal on the bands.  Hopefully propagation will allow everyone who needs them to get in the log.

-KH2/N2NL

Who the heck cares about making the most contacts with a DXpedition?  These Clublog "top list" competitions are rediculous.  I see guys complain or beg for 12m RTTY when they already have 12 CW, 12 SSB, and RTTY on 4 other bands.  It is absolutely pointless. 

I suppose it helps a DXpedition make more QSOs, but ultimately it makes it harder for the DXer who doesn't have a powerhouse station to get in the log.

For the record, I have TX5K a bunch of times, but once I had 9 bands/3 modes, I sat back and waited until the end of the expedition to chase them further, and only then when the pileups were diminished.  I never did work them on 40CW.

-KH2/N2NL

Actually antipodal is not necessarily a bad thing.  I still remember the last Heard DXpedition and at the time I was living in NJ with 100W and wire antennas only at the bottom of the sunspot cycle.  They were in for hours and hours on 20 and 30m - and easy to work on both bands.  This may not help you with band fills on the fringe bands, but they should be workable on some band for the ATNO if needed.

Vlad doesn't have a huge signal (I believe he operates low power only) but he does spend quite a bit of time trying to work stations outside of EU, which is where the demand is located.

He was my last zone for all 40 on 160m - so I will be ever thankful for his activity.

There are some very good ops coming along this time with good DXpedition experience.  If propagation allows, I suspect there will be quite a few opportunities for everyone to get into the log.

I'd say that VK6 or YB would be a much better indicator of propagation than Spratly.  I think you would have a "cleaner" shot to VK9C than to 9M0 with a more southerly path that helps negate solar disturbances to a point. 

VK9C is not super rare (but I can understand the feeling if you've not yet worked it) so the pileups shouldn't be enormous, however the fact that the ops are European and they will have a better shot to EU may mean they aren't QRV at the times when there is propagation stateside.  Hopefully that isn't the case.

Couple more points...

(1)  The last Clipperton DXpedition (TX5C I believe) was very heavily NA-centric and the vast majority of QSOs were with NA.  Many outside of NA were disappointed in the DXpedition for this reason.

(2)  Europe is where the vast majority of activity is located.  I am located equidistant between NA and EU.  Guam is not rare by any means, but I can usually generate a pileup when I get on the bands.  NA activity is sporadic... usually I have a short run of stations after being spotted followed by a trickle of callers afterwards.   EU is a different story all together.  I call CQ once and generate a pileup immediately.  There is an incredible amount of activity in Eastern Europe, and those guys pile-up on anything.  There simply is more demand in EU.

No pip-squeak signal at all.  You were solid copy on my end.  In fact, I heard you work V63ZM a couple minutes earlier and figured I'd call CQ to see if you'd call in and you did.  Congrats on [at least] your 3rd z27 station on 80!