Not knowing exactly where or what this station was, I jumped into the fray, anyway. At 23:42 UTC, I made it into the logbook. 30 Meters doesn't play so well on the G5RV; so I made this QSO using the Butternut HF9V vertical.
OK, so now I'm in the log - time to investigate exactly who it was that I worked. It turns out that H74LEON is a special event station in Leon, Nicaragua, set up the commemorate the 400th anniversary of the relocation of the city. Yes, that's right - the total relocation of the city!
It seems that Leon was originally founded in the year 1524 by Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba. The city was relocated about 20 miles to the west after it was severely damaged by flooding from Lake Managua. The flooding was the result of an eruption of the Momotomba volcano in 1610.
Throughout my Ham career, I have always loved chasing special event stations. Anymore, it's not all that common to run into a special event station that is making use of CW. This was a nice surprise.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry with a call like that I would be wondering if I was copying it correctly and by the time I was confident they would had faded away.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteIt had me scratching my head, too, so I cheated. I quickly turned on the shack computer and checked out DX Summit. I figured someone had probably spotted them; and they had on 20 Meters, but not 30. I was happy to see that I had, indeed, copied the call correctly.
Been doing this CW thing for over 30 years now and I still doubt myself from time to time!
72 de Larry W2LJ
KC2ZDG,
ReplyDeleteLarry, I am new to Ham Radio, got my general license on Monday.
Can you tell me what DX Summit is?
Great Contact and yes...I'd be confused too. Most of the special event CW stations I've worked are 3 letter calls. This one would have me scratching my head too.
ReplyDeleteNick,
ReplyDeleteDX Summit is what is known as a WebCluster. Google "DX Summit" and it will take you to the correct website. This is where you can see other Amateurs post the call signs and frequencies of the latest DX that they are hearing/working real time.
Larry W2LJ