A most enjoyable trip to Ireland concluded with an activation of Sleive Gullion (GI/CA-001) today before catching the ferry. It is a fine hill with splendid views and well worth a visit. However, I think my recent dietary intake, heavily supplemented by pharmaceutical (over) doses of Beamish, Murphy’s and Guinness meant I used the callsign GI/MM0YCJ/P!
Now the activation was carried with an incorrect callsign, meaning an illegal transmission so the activation is invalid; or would the recent OFCOM ruling actually allow it’s use?
Totally wrong callsign! Even if putting the prefix in front was correct it’s MI not GI. But there was nothing misleading about your call as it’s clear where you were and who you were.
I don’t think anyone will care. There was no intent to mislead. Most of us must have inadvertently misspoken our callsigns on air at one time.
In any case, even as expressed (i.e. with GI rather than MI and MM rather than M) the country and callsign were unique and pedants could deduce the correct form.
Technically it’s not a valid callsign. Which following the letter of the rules means it’s not a valid activation. The question becomes is there any benefit to SOTA and ham radio in general by voiding the activation? At some point there probably will be some good reason to say “invalid call, invalid activation” but not this time.
The embarrassment of making such a total and complete foul up on the call and it being publicised should be enough to make people activating in the UK get the call correct for a while. Hey, even people as 110% perfect as me drop into muscle memory problems when calling. I’m normally MM0FMF but last April on Burnhope Seat I called as MM0FMF a few times and had to correct myself to M0FMF mid call. I write the SOTA ref and my actual call at the top of each log sheet (paper/pencil loging) so I have something to remind me as I have activated from 21 associations and have 4 possible call signs to pick from.
“Sorry invalid activation” may be the short, sharp, shock that helps repeat offenders. But not today.
