P29YY - Papua New Guinea (PNG)
DXpedition that may finish not even starting ...
Every year at the beginning of September (or by the very end of August), I fly far-far away to celebrate my birthday… This time, it looks a particularly risky and uncertain far-away … 🙂
2025.Aug.24 - Antennas and luggage
The next most important step in any DXpeditions is about antennas, transceivers, other equipment, and how to fit all this into the luggage limits. If you don’t have luggage constrains, jump to another chapter
The key is not to overpay for the luggage and fit into the 30 kg of the allowance, which is not too little, but still puts a lot of pressure on choosing what is absolutely essential and what is not, what to take and what to leave at home.
The airlines put not only weight limits but also the number of items limits. For example, on the way HK-Port Moresby-Kavieng, I have a 30-kg limit – and that was the main reason to select this route, because instead of 16 kg for the domestic flight Port Moresby to Kavieng, I have 30 kg, because it is a part of the international route, where the limits are 30 kg. Paying in chunks of 5 kg immediately kills the business case, because the luggage becomes hugely expensive. But fitting in 30 kg is challenging. Fitting in less than that would kill too many antenna options and remove fun from the DXpedition.
At the same time, on Almaty-HK-Almaty, I have only 23 kg and piece-based pricing. So, I have to purchase the second luggage place. It is bad but not as killing as the 5-kg chunks on many regional lines in the Pacific.
Antennas
Like in the previous 2-3 DXpeditions, I am taking 2 x 13.4-meter custom-made Chinese fiberglass poles are ordered for a specific 1.2m height when collapsed, so that two poles with wires and other components fit into the allowed 158-cm luggage limits. Otherwise, it would be large-sized luggage that would increase the transportation cost and even limit the shipping in some directions:
- One is for 160/80 shortened vertical with elevated radials (for 80m). There is an additional 4-m fiberglass fishing rode on top. So, the total height is 17+ meters. It will also have 40-meter vertical with elevated radials. And, maybe, 30-meter vertical – lets’ see. So, it is a pole of verticals
- The second 13.4-meter pole is for VDAs. It is nearly a copy-paste from PG5M – mine is not as beautiful but the design is similar in principle. And in general, PG5M website is highly inspiring and practically useful. It is closest to solo DXpeditions in the way I like them that I found on the web
- The third pole is a basic 6-meter fishing rode for 10- and 12-meter 1/4-wave verticals with elevated radials. I didn’t have weights/space for anything more serious and had to leave my lovely ad proven 10-meter Moxon because it doesn’t match well with the neither of the poles
- I took wires elevated radials for for 15/17/20 meter as well. Let’s see how they will work together with 40/80/160. Sometimes, the web becomes to complex to handle, especially, when you are alone
- Of course, I took spare wires in case I missed something but no much because of the weight limitation
- This time, I don’t take any tripods or anything for the bottoms of the poles… And have zero guy stakes/tent pegs due to serious weight constrains. Let’s see how it goes in reality …
Gain vs elevation angle, computed with NEC2 (Sommerfeld ground) at 14.175 MHz. Site: beach QTH, salt water starting 2–5 m in front of the antennas in the firing direction.
| Elevation, ° | VDA salt water |
λ/4 GP + radials salt water |
4-el OWA Yagi @ 20 m dry steppe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7.5 | 1.5 | −4.6 |
| 2 | 9.3 | 3.4 | 1.3 |
| 3 | 10.0 | 4.1 | 4.7 |
| 4 | 10.3 | 4.4 | 7.0 |
| 5 | 10.4 | 4.6 | 8.7 |
| 6 | 10.5 | 4.7 | 10.0 |
| 7 | 10.5 | 4.8 | 11.0 |
| 8 | 10.5 | 4.8 | 11.8 |
| 9 | 10.4 | 4.8 | 12.5 |
| 10 | 10.3 | 4.8 | 13.0 |
| 11 | 10.2 | 4.8 | 13.3 |
| 12 | 10.0 | 4.8 | 13.6 |
| 13 | 9.8 | 4.7 | 13.7 |
| 14 | 9.7 | 4.7 | 13.8 |
| 15 | 9.4 | 4.6 | 13.7 |
0° is omitted: at exactly zero elevation the space wave over any ground tends to zero — the numbers are meaningless for sky-wave work.
- The crossover sits at 6–7°. Below it the VDA is ahead — and the lower, the more brutally: +8 dB at 2°, +12 dB at 1° over the full-size Yagi on a 20 m tower.
- This is the physics of beach DXpeditions. The longest hops and grey-line openings arrive at 1–4°, where ground reflection simply switches a horizontal antenna off. Salt water (εr=81, σ=5 S/m) keeps vertical polarization alive down to grazing angles.
- A wire 2-element on a 12 m pole beats a 4-element on a 20 m tower everywhere below 7° — the tower wins only the nearer, higher-angle paths (+4 dB at its 14° lobe peak).
- The λ/4 GP never takes 1st place — it trails the VDA by ~6 dB at every useful angle. Its case is different: omnidirectional, one wire fewer, zero aiming. A fallback / second-band antenna, not the weapon.
- Water 2–5 m in front is enough. The low-angle gain is formed in the first Fresnel zones, which over sea water begin within a wavelength (~21 m). Fire OVER the water; inland the VDA advantage evaporates.
- All three feed 50 Ω directly: VDA resonant at 41 Ω (SWR ≈ 1.2), GP resonant at ~50 Ω with its elevated radials sloped down, Yagi 43+6j (≈ 1.2). No tuners on the beach.
- Two wire dipoles (Ø1 mm), driven 10.10 m
- Reflector +3%, spacing 3.2 m (0.15λ)
- Wire bottoms 1.5 m up; fits a 12 m pole
- F/B ~7 dB; peak 10.5 dBi at 6–8°
- Wire Ø1 mm, vertical 5.30 m, base 1.5 m up
- 4 resonant elevated radials ~5.2 m, sloped → direct 50 Ω
- Omnidirectional; 4.6 dBi at 5°
- G0KSC 4-el OWA, 9.83 m boom
- Height 20.0 m above ground
- Ground: εr=5, σ=0.001 S/m (dry soil)
- Peak 13.8 dBi at 14°
2025.Dec - an initial idea + location selection
- I missed the 2026 New Year time slot… Though, it was a family time anyway …
- “At least, I have to use the Chinese New Year celebration time, when work becomes half-paralyzed because China massively goes on vacation and everything stops and seriously slows down“, – I thought … No, I missed that too because it took 2.5 months of emailing and reminder to get the radio license …
Location selection
As always, the new destination must meet a few criteria to be selected:
- To be DX-enough to justify the trip to be designated as a DXpedition 🙂
- I must not have been to the country before. DXing is the main goal, but exploration of new frontiers is always luring
- Blue ocean with warm waters … Not for diving this time, but for salty, electricity-conductive waters around the antennas… I love VDA antennas and verticals
- It must be within reach of a solo DXer to obtain licenses and permits between working Zoom calls or other real-life activities. Tickets, hotels, money, weight/luggage, etc.
- Practical possibility to have QTH outside of cities for antennas, and hopefully not disastrous local QRN
Taking into account that I have been in a few countries based on nearly the same criteria, it is more difficult to find a new one every year (every DXpedition) that has passed …:
- Brunei: still the same issue with no accommodation outside of cities … At the same time, the man-made radio noise kills all the fun. So, not Brunei
- Palau: It sounds like a DX location less and less
- I checked a few other locations before focusing on Papua New Guinea (PNG), though, when I am writing this on Aug.24th, I am not sure it was a wise selection … But it is done. So, the only way is forward
License and import permit (Jan-Mar.2026)
Money does matter, of course, but if you don’t have the license, you don’t have the DXpedition. The DX countries wouldn’t be DX countries, if it were easy to fly in and operate. There are barriers by the DX country definition.
Allocate a lot of time for getting the license. Not for something special or reasonable. Just because nobody will respond to you or even when the right people answered you, everything may take weeks or months. Again – for nothing – just delays, “sorry, we missed the email”, unclarities of some sort, impossibility to make a basic payment, etc. Various strange things that may make you think many times: “Is it worth it?”, “should have I chose another destination or even stay at home and saved a lot of money and energy and time and use them for something useful?…” – valid points and the answers are subjective and elusive.
- First, I contacted as many guys with P29** callsigns via QRZ.com and asked for help. It worked before well and worked this time as well. Thank you, guys!
- oh, no! First, Dec.22, 2025, I sent an email to one of the official emails of nicta.gov.pg. Clearly, no response and the New Year time slot has gone
- Then, I repeated and add additional email addresses on Jan.7th, 2026, targeting Feb-March – Chinese New Year holiday time, when work slows down, because China is on the long holiday. No response, of course
- Then, friends from QRZ.com shared the address of:
Oki Ray Gari (Mr.)
Radio-Comm Licensing Officer
National Information and Communications Technology Authority
Punaha ICT Haus, Corner of Croton and Frangipani Street, Hohola
P.O. Box 8444, BOROKO 1111, National Capital District, Papua New Guinea
Phone: +675 303 3200 | Direct: +675 303 3235 | Mobile: +675 76513665
Email: ogari@nicta.gov.pg | We
Unfortunately, Oki retired in 2026. The new lady is likely to be Sonya Linny <slinny@nicta.gov.pg>. I am not 100% sure, but I received a copy of my P29YY license from her again in July. Maybe, when she took the office from Oki … I didn’t expect and didn’t ask for that copy, because I have had it already. Later, when I called Oki to his mobile phone number trying to resolve issues with importing, I learnt that he has retired.
So, from the first time I received a reply from Oki (Jan.7th) till the time I received the license (Mar.13th), there had been multiple reminders, email exchanges, etc. Surprisingly, it again took to get the invoice – about a month. Then, I paid immediately. And then again – to confirm the invoice … and then – still about a month in emails like “Sincere apologies, Your license was processed awaiting our managers approval before i can forward to you.“
Based on the issue license date, it was ready on Feb.25th, but I got it on March 13th.
The license is quite empty:
- It doesn’t have anything about the transceiver or even frequencies or power to operate … It worries a lot now, because the license is not necessarily a permit to import/export the equipment, which creates a great uncertainty for me now – a few days before my departure. I don’t have any direct paper saying that I am OK to import and export.
- At the same time, I received a very strange email from NICTA’s Samantha Kome <skome@nicta.gov.pg>:
- Register for TAOS (Form A): Clients must first register to access the Type Approval Online System via https://ta.nicta.gov.pg/ .
- Receive Login Credentials: Upon successful registration, clients will receive their login credentials and can proceed to complete the online application form (Form B).
- Submit Application: After completing Form B and uploading all required supporting documents, the application processing fee must be paid before submission. The fee is K150 for local applicants and K400 (or USD 100) for international applicants.
- Payment Confirmation: Applicants will receive a notification confirming whether the payment has been successfully processed.
- Application Review: Once payment is successfully confirmed, the application enters the review process and is assigned to the Type Approval team for assessment.
- Certificate Issuance: Upon successful evaluation, a Type Approval Certificate will be issued, and the applicant will be notified accordingly.
Regards,
Samantha Kome
Well, at this moment on Aug.21, 2026 – a few days before my non-refundable plane ticket, I started worrying a lot! The license ≠ import permit.
- I replied them with questions and explanations, but received no answer
- I called Oki (1.02 USD/min) via Zadarma. My local mobile phone provider in Kazakhstan doesn’t even have a connection to the DX destination PNG. Oki said: “no, they shall be mistaken. But I am retired.” – not a good news for me
- I contacted a few hams, who operated in the past a few years from PNG and all have confirmed that they haven’t had issues with importing. That was supporting … However, when the very official from the regulator says something opposite, it was very worrying …
- So, now in Aug.2th, I am sitting with all documents printed and pray to all ham- and general radio-supported gods to let me in and out of PNG with 30 kg of transceivers, antenna poles, cables, and a lot wires without problems. No guarantee and a lot of uncertainty at the moment. And many worrying and confusing passages in the official documents with penalties up to 10,000 Kinas (2,250 USD) for illegal import of radio or uncertified equipment …
So, based on available plane ticket (Southern China Airlines) and their allowed 23 kg and extra 23 kg purchased, the resulting configuration of equipment was selected as:
- Icom 7300
- Two 13.4-meter fiberglass masts
- Only 1/4-wave verticals with raised radials for all bands – no Moxons (not enough weight), no VDAs (not enough weight and far from the sea water and decent ground)
- Tent and 120-meter power cord. I am still very afraid of the local QRN from the LED lamps, solar panels that can kill all fun. So, I am bringing several kilos of extra stuff to have a munition to fight against the QRN with a distance if I have to fight
- No local remote operation this time – only one laptop with me. Not enough weight
- Little or no spare wires – only enough for the grounds and 1/4-verticals
Visa (Aug.2026)
PNG does require e-visa from quite a few of nations, including Russians. Well, e-visa must be fast and easy, right? It is just an e-visa – what can go wrong! …
To even apply, you must purchase a return ticket. Maybe, it is possible to book and then cancel or apply to visa without actually paying – my friends somehow do that. I didn’t find it possible. Since, the destination is quite exotic and prices fluctuate a lot, I decided to purchase it, because I need to secure it anyway. However, the ticket was nonrefundable … well, technically speaking, 50%-refundable with other extra payments on top of that … but with the total potential monetary loss, it is nonrefundable. It is not 50-150 EUR or so.
I applied for the e-visa… and only then on the final screen I saw a message that there are 10 working days to wait … I was extremely proud of myself at this moment, because I could have applied 1-3 days before the flight easily. It is an e-visa after all… it must fast, right? …
Well, 10 working days are two full weeks. I still had them, but the time margin wasn’t high already.
As you could have guessed, I received nothing during full two week is waiting time. No email, no change of the status in the online tool.
Taking into account how slow everything was before, I started worrying a lot:
- Nonrefundable ticket in place
- No real options to get another license anywhere in the world during such a short time – a week before my departure, if I still wanted to celebrate my birthday far-far away – an that is the whole point …
- While I continued receiving no replies to my emails and even phones calls – just nobody picks up the phone, I started worrying even more, because it was already Friday before the 2-day break and then I would have only a few days before the flight from Hong Kong to Kavieng and still no visa… – so, I wouldn’t be even let to the plane
- Since I wanted to minimize my exposure, I hadn’t purchased the ticket from Almaty to Hong yet… but if I struggle with the visa for longer, I could have run out of tickets to HK entirely
So, I started emailing and calling… no replies. No calls are answered …
PNG visitor visa: what worked, what did not
A factual record of one eVisa application to the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Service Authority (ICSA), August 2026. Published so the next applicant does not repeat the same dead ends. No personal data included, and no individual is named.
Lodged 2 August 2026. Granted 20 August 2026 — 18 days. Seventeen days of official channels produced nothing at all. The visa arrived less than twelve hours after reaching one particular person.
Timeline
| Date | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Aug 2026 day 0 |
Application lodged on the eVisa portal, USD 50 paid | Automated acknowledgement, status INPROGRESS. Receipt states 10 working days for this visa class |
| 11 Aug day 9 |
E-mail to clientservice@immigration.gov.pg | No reply |
| 13 Aug day 11 |
Online enquiry form at https://ica.gov.pg/contact, reason "Status of Visa" | Automated ticket, reply promised within 5 business days. No reply followed |
| 13 Aug day 11 |
E-mail to nine published ICSA and mission addresses | One bounce. Auto-reply from newentries@immigration.gov.pg stating enquiries there are not answered and must go to entries@immigration.gov.pg |
| 17 Aug day 15 |
Telephone, PNG High Commission Canberra, +61 2 6120 1888 — 1 call | Answered. Post cannot assist. No contact details offered |
| 17 Aug day 15 |
E-mails to entries@immigration.gov.pg, kunducairns@immigration.gov.pg, kundubne@immigration.gov.pg, visa.canberra@dfa.gov.pg, inquiries@dfa.gov.pg | Three addresses bounced, two were closed with a forwarding notice |
| 18 Aug day 16 |
A full day of telephone calls |
|
| 18 Aug day 16 |
Reply from PNG Consulate-General Brisbane — the first reply from a human being, on day sixteen | Advised to write to clientservice@immigration.gov.pg with newentries@immigration.gov.pg in copy and attach all documents. Stated processing time as 7 working days, a different figure from the receipt |
| 19 Aug day 17 |
Told that visa processing for holders of Russian passports is temporarily suspended pending additional security checks | Never received officially. It arrived verbally, relayed by an assistant at the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority — the body reached on +675 320 0211 and info@papuanewguinea.travel — and not from an official e-mail address. No confirmation in writing was ever received from ICSA or from anyone else, and nothing of the kind is published anywhere. At that point it looked like a show-stopper |
| 19 Aug day 17 |
The same assistant, reached on +675 320 0211 and info@papuanewguinea.travel, passed on the contacts of two senior staff at the same body. Contact was made on the Wednesday evening and moved to WhatsApp | One of those senior contacts replied within minutes, and again late into the night — after seventeen days in which no official channel had answered at all. Help was offered. In the same conversation the subject of a personal payment to a private account, several times the official visa fee, was raised, with the assurance that it had no connection to the outcome |
| 20 Aug day 18 |
Visa granted, the following morning | Less than twelve hours after reaching that one person, and eighteen days after lodgement. A second senior officer at the same agency replied that morning as well, but by then the matter was already closed |
Not an isolated case
A quick search suggests this is not a rare experience. Other applicants on public travel forums describe much the same thing: over two weeks of silence after four e-mails and more than twenty telephone calls; five weeks with no response at all. So the wait described here does not look exceptional.
What caused it is guesswork. No official explanation was ever given, nothing was confirmed in writing, and there is no way to tell whether nationality played any part — it may have had nothing to do with it at all. All that can honestly be said is that eighteen days of official channels changed nothing, and that one private conversation changed everything within hours. Perhaps somebody, somewhere, was waiting for something. Who, exactly, is impossible to know — there is nobody to ask, and that is part of the problem.
Contacts that worked in August 2026
Past tense on purpose. These were verified in August 2026, and nothing guarantees they still behave the same way.
| Channel | Contact | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ICSA client service | clientservice@immigration.gov.pg | The address printed on the lodgement receipt. Accepts mail and does not bounce, but not one reply came from it in eighteen days |
| ICSA follow-ups | entries@immigration.gov.pg | Named by the ICSA auto-reply as the address for all follow-ups and general enquiries. Not published on the ICA website. Accepted mail; no reply |
| ICSA online visa desk | visaonline@immigration.gov.pg | Accepts mail and does not bounce, but no reply was received |
| ICSA new lodgements | newentries@immigration.gov.pg | For new applications only. Its own auto-reply states that enquiries sent there are not answered |
| ICSA switchboard | +675 327 6100 | The only number ICSA publishes. Rings; never answered, including for a caller inside Port Moresby |
| ICSA visa line | +675 323 1500 ext 1471 | Published by the Australian High Commission, not by ICSA. Rings; no answer |
| Status portal | https://evisa.ica.gov.pg/evisa/account/status | Worked reliably throughout. The domain root shows a default server page, so use the full path. The portal says "Undecided" where e-mails say "INPROGRESS" |
| Enquiry form | https://ica.gov.pg/contact | A separate ticket system from the mailboxes. Promises 5 business days, not met here |
| Complaints form | https://ica.gov.pg/feedback-and-complaints | Separate again, with a category for process failures |
| PNG Tourism Promotion Authority |
+675 320 0211 info@papuanewguinea.travel |
The only PNG number a person actually answered. Not an immigration body, but its staff are in Port Moresby, and this is where the decisive contact came from. Ask for the Marketing and Promotions Division rather than for any individual |
| Foreign Affairs, Port Moresby |
inquiries@dfa.gov.pg +675 301 4100 |
A separate ministry. Rings; no answer |
Australian posts
Two of these were contacted. Both answered the telephone, and both gave the same answer: overseas posts do not process visa applications. Every decision is made by ICSA headquarters in Port Moresby, and the posts handle Australian matters only. The remaining posts were therefore not contacted, as there is no reason to expect a different answer from them.
| Post | Contact | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Consulate-General Brisbane |
+61 7 3022 9500 kundubne@immigration.gov.pg pngcg@kundubne.org inquiries.brisbane@dfa.gov.pg |
Answered by telephone, and — uniquely among every ICSA address tried — answered by e-mail. Counter hours 09:30–14:00, Friday to 13:00 |
| High Commission Canberra |
+61 2 6120 1888 visa.canberra@dfa.gov.pg kundu.canberra@dfa.gov.pg |
Answered by telephone. The old pngcanberra.org addresses are closed, so use the dfa.gov.pg ones |
| Consulate Cairns |
+61 7 4041 4801 kunducairns@immigration.gov.pg |
Written to; no reply |
| Consulate-General Sydney |
+61 2 9283 9020 pngcg@kundusyd.org |
Not contacted, for the reason given above |
Published addresses that did not work in August 2026
Each of the following is published by ICSA, by one of its overseas missions or by an allied government, and none of them accepted mail in August 2026. They may be repaired later, or never. Verify before relying on any of them.
| Address | Failure |
|---|---|
| visa@immigration.gov.pg | A closed group; external mail is rejected. Published by the Australian High Commission as a lodgement address |
| ticket@ica.gov.pg | No such user, although the ICSA ticket system sends from it |
| info@pngconsul.hk (Hong Kong) | Domain does not exist. The Hong Kong post is also absent from the HKSAR register of consular posts |
| pngcb.brisbane@dfa.gov.pg | Mailbox unavailable |
|
visa@pngcanberra.org kundu@pngcanberra.org |
Closed, with an auto-reply pointing to the dfa.gov.pg addresses |
| kundubj@95777.com (Beijing) | Domain does not exist |
| kundukl@streamyx.com (Kuala Lumpur) | Mail is routed nowhere |
| +675 325 5206 | Published as the ICSA fax. It rings as an ordinary voice line and is never answered; there is no fax equipment on it |
What to take from this
- Write to entries@immigration.gov.pg from the start. ICSA names it itself but does not publish it.
- Use all three web channels: the enquiry form, the complaints form and the portal. They are separate systems, not one inbox.
- The telephone is not a realistic channel. ICSA did not answer a local caller inside Port Moresby either.
- Overseas posts cannot decide anything. The one useful thing a post can do is send an internal enquiry to headquarters, so ask for exactly that.
- Two processing times are quoted officially, seven and ten working days. Neither was met.
- Eight published contact addresses did not work. Verify a channel before relying on it.
- Expect to be told things nobody will put in writing. The only explanation ever offered for the delay, a temporary suspension for holders of Russian passports pending additional security checks, arrived verbally through an assistant rather than from an official address. Not one authority confirmed it in writing, and it is published nowhere.
- The decisive factor was a person, not a channel. Seventeen days of correspondence and calls through every official route produced no decision. Reaching one senior individual produced one in under twelve hours. In the same exchange, a personal payment to a private account — several times the official fee — was raised, accompanied by an assurance that it bore no relation to the outcome. Both facts are recorded because both are true. No connection between them was ever established, and no official explanation was ever offered. Readers may draw their own conclusions.
Record compiled August 2026. Contact details were verified at that time. Check them before use, and read all of the above as a description of what happened once, not as advice.