Dear ROW Colleagues,

In September I sent out a first Notice about ROW4 to be held at Magnetic Island near Townsville on 21-23 April 2004. Your responses have been good, thank you, and it is now time to focus on a few details.

Travel: The Workshop will start on Wednesday morning, 21 April 2004, so you will have to arrive in Townsville on Tuesday 20 April 2004 and go directly to Magnetic Island on the ferry. You will have to get from the Townsville Airport to the Magnetic Island Ferry Terminal by shuttle bus or taxi. The shuttle bus costs $7 one-way and $11 for a two-way ticket – if there is a group of you then you can haggle with the driver for a special discount deal. Go to the shuttle-bus desk near the baggage carousels at the Townsville Airport. Alternatively, a taxi, just outside the terminal door, will be about $14 one-way to the Ferry Terminal. There is an ATM in the airport terminal. We have a bulk deal with the ferry operator – just use the password "ROW4 Magnetic Island Tropical Resort" at the ferry ticket desk. The cost of this is included in your registration.

The Workshop will end at 1700 h on Friday 23 April 2004 followed by a special dinner, and there is an optional all-day trip to the Great Barrier Reef on Saturday 24 April 2004. So, you can leave the Island on Friday evening or Saturday; or, of course, stay on at your leisure...

Workshop: The Workshop Program will be in three parts: Algorithms and Development; Applications; and Monitoring and Surveillance. The Draft Program is found here. We will organise the sessions so that there is time for open forum discussions on the hot issues in the three session areas – I know that many people will be interested in the security and surveillance applications of HF radar.

Publication: There is an option for you to prepare your paper with a view to submitting to a Special Issue of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering in 2005. If you plan to follow this route then please submit your paper in written form (electronically) before the Workshop so that it can be reviewed. This will help you to produce the final form for the journal.

Venue The venue for accommodation and the Workshop is Magnetic Island Tropical Resort (alternative web link). Emma at the Resort has offered a great package for Dinner/Bed/Breakfast for the four nights, with options for shared occupancy. You must respond by 31 January 2004 to Emma by email and make a deposit to secure your place. The price schedule (Australian Dollars) is:

Single Occupancy: $666 for 4 great dinners; 4 cool nights; 4 tropical breakfasts
Twin Share: $466
Triple Share: $406 (limited number available)
Quad Share: $366 (limited number available)
There is a 3-night package listed on the registration form.

Please respond by 31 January – this is a hard boundary.

Registration will cover work break refreshments, ferry transfers to and from the Island and the excursion to the Australian Institute of Marine Science. The costs are still being worked out for all of that, but the indicative registration cost is about $320 good Aussie Dollars.

Accompanying guests: Magnetic Island is a great place to hang out for a few days and your partners and friends are most welcome to come. You will need to include them in your request for accommodation at the quoted rates. There will be a registration fee for guests which will cover the transfers and excursions. You will need to pay that on the first day of the Workshop by which time we will have worked out exactly what it will be.

Optional trip to the Great Barrier Reef: The optional reef trip on Saturday 24 April 2004 is an all-day trip. You will be picked up from Magnetic Island in the morning. The cost is about $120 with an extra $60 if you want to hire dive gear. Snorkels are provided and lunch comes included in that package.

RSVP 31 January 2004: The attached form asks for your details and your level of commitment by 31 January 2004 so that we can make good arrangements for you. We will ask you to make a deposit to Emma at the Resort for the accommodation package; the Workshop registration fee will be collected by Frances Sampedro on the first day of the Workshop. This can all be done with plastic cards.