This marks the 14th consecutive year that the VooDoo Contest Group has operated in West Africa for the CQWW DX CW Contest. The VooDoo Contest Group had it beginnings in 1986 when three friends from Phoenix, K5VT, KC7V & N7BG, traveled to St. Thomas, VI with other hams to participate in the CQWW CW Contest. Our group name, VooDoo Contest Group, was coined by Rob GM3YTS in 1995 as we crossed the border between Benin and Togo in West Africa. We think Rob was inspired by a group of Voodoo Priests we encountered while on the road. Our nickname has become "VooDudes".

Roger Western, G3SXW, joined the group in 1989. Over the years we've had operators come and go but the number of VooDudes remains small. Each year a core group of 8 to 10 VooDudes, consisting of US and UK operators, travel to participate in the CQWW CW Contest from various West African nations.

To date all or part of the VooDudes have operated from 4U0ITU, 5U, 5V, 9G, C5, CN, KP2, TU, TY, TZ, XT, ZC4 and ZF in the CQWW CW Contest. Since 1994 we have operated only from West Africa nations.

This year, the VooDoo Contest Group starts its adventure back in Bamako, Mali where we have operated in the CQWW DX CW Contest as TZ5A for the past two years. Our ever-growing pile of contest equipment is stored in Bamako following last year's event and it is time to move the contest activity and all our stuff to a new venue. We selected Conakry, Guinea as our next stop since it puts our operation at a place in Africa where we can get good, low-angle  propagation out over the Atlantic Ocean. We have been breathing dust for a few years and the idea of a seaside operating location is somewhat appealing. Once we arrive in Bamako, we will gather our things from storage and put it all in a bus and take a 900 km trip across the two-lane (sometimes), pot holed roads of West Africa.

After the two day bus ride to Conakry, we will assemble our contest station over the next several days. We have been issued the callsign 3X5A (but might also sign 3XY5D and/or 3XT1...we will not be entirely certain until we arrive in 3X and make final arrangements). We will try to get into everybody's log on every band in the CQWW DX CW Contest. We will also operate the bands outside of the contest as we do from every place we visit.

For the complete story on the VooDoo Contest Group, read the team's journals in Contesting in Africa - Multi-Multi on the Equator (shown on the left), written and edited by Roger Western, G3SXW. The book is available here. 

Update - February 2008

The story of this year's VooDoo Contest adventure has also been put on a DVD. Bob Allphin, K4UEE, a member of the 2007 team, has put together a DVD of this year's trip called " The 2007 contest DXpedition to Guinea, West Africa - 3X5A".  This DVD as well as several other videos of other Amateur Radio DXpeditions filmed and produced by Bob can be purchased here.

We hope to work everyone in the 2008 CQWW DX CW contests on one or more of the bands again in 3X. We will be operational on all amateur HF bands before and after the event.

C U in the contest !

AA7A, G3SXW, G4BWP, G4IRN, GM3YTS, K4UEE, K5VT, and KC7V