As you may remember, our friend Guru EA2IF passed away on March 11th 2022.
Since then a number of his ham friends did a tribute to his memory by carrying out activations running a Special callsign.
This year we’ve got from the telecommunications authorities the following special callsign that we’ll use:
EG60GURU
What’s the plan?
Activation: the Special callsign will be used to do several activation during March 2025 from summits within mainland EA.
When activating we’ll always add the suffix /P
Alerts will be put in Sotawatch, as the dates will depend upon the weather. We hope to be lucky around the significant March 11th date.
Chasing: as perhaps there are other activators who would like to have a QSO with us, we’ll be using also these callsigns to chase from home. This way we’ll increase the opportunities to log some near activators and other DX.
When chasing we will not add the suffix /P, therefore we are at home.
There will be no paper QSL, but all the QSO will be uploaded to the Sota Database and any activation will also be listed in the event web page:
Hear you from the summits. Thanks for participating in these friendship waves.
Don’t get mad about the extrange callsign if you get this call.
As a good memory of Guru, I have his last email from March 5th, 2022, in which he reports on his very last 2 SOTA activations (below).
Guru always remained very positive, with a lot of gallows humor, and he even talked about maybe achieving his first Mountain Goat, for which there was unfortunately no time left.
Attached you’ll find a picture of my new SOTA kit with a new 3D printed black cover placed over the white foam I already had prepared.
Have you seen the activation report of my last monday activations? I got quite a good number of QSOs including a couple of great DX with Alaska and California.
Ignacio,
Thank you for this memorial. The other day when EG60GURU chased me on W1/CB-009, I wondered “what kind of callsign is this?” as I wrote it in the log…But then I saw it spelled Guru and I knew !!! On Tuesday I will climb a summit here in NY as tribute to our friend Guru, EA2IF(SK). Hopefully 10M and 15M bands will be open for EU contacts.
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
Thanks for sharing dear Heinz, it’s nice to read Guru’s letter and recognise his enthusiasm. What good memories!
Hi dear Mike,
I couldn’t afford to give you a call using Guru’s callsign to celebrate the opening of this memorial event.
I wish I had the opportunity to be on air tomorrow (11/3) from a summit, but I’m afraid I won’t have the chance: I can only activate in weekends due to my work, and, on top of that the weather is quite miserable.
There are a few friends who are also holding for a good weather window to activate in the coming days. We’l try to chase in the meantime.
Thanks all for your support to this event.
73 Ignacio
I went out up Cracoe Fell G/NP-032 today, I made 39 QSOs, including some across the altantic. It was my own tribute to Guru, I wanted to activate on this significant date.
The last picture Guru sent to me was just shortly before his passing, on the occasion of his children’s birthdays. Guru looked very proud, he obviously remained stoic until the end. RIP OM.
Many thanks to Javier for the trans-Atlantic s2s with EG60GURU today from EA1/AT-208 in memory of our friend Guru on the anniversary of his death. Also many thanks to the Spanish SOTA crew EA7GV, EA2DT, EA1AER, EA4R and EA2BD for chasing me today on W2/GC-068. I am sure Guru would have enjoyed this day.
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
Hello Mike!!
Unfortunately, in many areas of EA, the weather isn’t good for SOTA. It’s been raining for a week, and we’re still expecting rain in the coming days. We’d love to be able to go to a SOTA reference with the EG60GURU/P.
In any case, we haven’t forgotten our friend.
Bad weather in EA7 at this days. Last Wednesday, the weather improved slightly. We took the opportunity to climb EA7/GR-067 and pay tribute to our friend ‘Guru’. Thanks to everyone for remembering him. A link to the video with music of @DL1CR. My friend @EA7KUG joined me on the activity.
73
I was pleased to get an S2S from GM/SS-125 with EG60GURU on EA2/NV-119 today on 30m. Not easy due to plenty of DQRM happening. Still managed to work 10 QSOs despite this
Thanks for the S2S Andy, i was trying hard on your first QRG but DQRM made it no possible.
I was glad to see your move to a free QRG and complete the QSO this time.
Thanks all chasers of today’s memorial activation from EA2/NV-119, a summit that Guru activated almost 100 times.
I tried to cover most bands and was glad to find some friends like Heinz @HB9BCB, Lars @SA4BLM, Jan @OK2PDT and many others.
Then, after a lazy opening in 10m & 15m I could log some VE/US.
