Great to see an experienced (almost 3 X Mountain Goat) Inaki, EB2GKK/P on EA8/LP-002 using CW (I believe for the first time) from a summit this afternoon. I monitored for a while while Inaki qualified, working a handful of EU chasers who all QRSd to around 15 WPM - a credit to SOTA, one and all I thought.
Thanks to Lars SA4BLM for the spot - when I checked 14061 nothing was heard, but I left the RX on speaker and sure enough after around 10 minutes I started hearing Inaki. I think Spanish operators continue to use their home prefix when in EA6/EA8/EA9 so I had to fool my logging program into thinking EA2 was actually EA8.
Hi Phil,
Exactly, we are not anymore forced to include in our home callsign the EA call area number we are transmitting from, but we can do it if we fancy to. It’s up to each one.
Personally I would do it for unique DXCC entites like EA9, EA8, EA6, as they will likely raise more interest than any other areas in mainland Spain. However, Iñaki chose not to do it and use just his home callsign, which is totally right according to current regulations.
I unfortunately missed Iñaki yesterday and again today. I hope to be able to chase him on CW for the first time. I didn’t even know he was working on learning CW and it looks like he’s done his homework very well. I’m glad about that.
I’ll be looking forward to having a chance to chase him on CW soon.
Hi Phil,
You can now delete the questionmark in the title of the thread, as I’ve been in contact with Iñaki EB2GKK through whatsapp and he has confirmed to me that those were indeed his very first 2 SOTAs on CW.
He told me he decided to learn morse and give CW a try after the disappointment he experienced last summer due to the meagre response he got during his activations on 2m from the Pyrenees.
He’s now in EA8 but he has a clear will to continue activating on CW once he’s back in EA2, so it looks like we’ve incorporated a very keen activator to the SOTA CW family.
That’s great news!
73,
Title now edited, this is great news about Inaki, Guru. Maybe the secret is not to say on the reflector that you are learning Morse, but just get on with it as Inaki has done! He was working well the other day for sure, very cool and steady…
Well if that was his 1st QSO and he was ‘very cool and steady’ he has done extremely well.
Even though I learned morse in the Royal Navy in 1966, my 1st few QSOs as an amateur in 2016, were absolutely nerve wracking. Luckily my 1st ham QSO was with a very cool and patient Spaniard. I emailed him and some of my first contacts and apologised for my bad operating! (I hope I’ve improved since!)
I’ve obviously never heard EB2GKK on the air - I only do cw, but I will now be able to listen out for him now.
EB2GKK Inaki has chased me on CW a few time over the last couple of months, so he is working hard on his CW. I am not a QRS operator so I am sure his CW abilities were being really stretched! Although I do always Farnsworth slower callers which helps.
Dear Phil and All,
I am pleased to read your lines, firstly thanks EU chasers for your patience waiting for my feedbacks. Of course, they have been my 1st activations but I still have a long way to improve my skills. At times I felt my fingers blocked from nerves but it should be a common thing of all beginners.
Now enjoying my last days on this beautiful island also known as “la bonita”, I will be sharing you next days some pictures with my activation report.
As Guru notes here, after my last experience from the Pyrennes I decided to learn it. Tired of doing the same thing…
I have remained silent for a time, without doing any activations on HF bands. I sold my ic703 and switched to MTR-5b, I dropped ssb to discover other new sensations
I have begun to walk on this way thanks to useful tips comming from EA2 cw great community.
VY 73 TU
