IS0 operation

I will be on a business trip to IS0, from 22nd to 25th May. With my colleagues I’ll be arriving at Olbia (north end of the island) and therefore needing a road trip to reach Cagliari. Hopefully this presents some SOTA opportunities! I’ve been researching some easy summits to grab in passing, and hope the other guys in the car will have sufficient patience to indulge me. :slight_smile:

I see that it’s typical (as stated in the ARM) to use a prefix of IS0 for CEPT operation. However, the TR 61-01 document gives only I as the prefix for Italy. There is no separate mention of IS0. Can anyone say how this stands officially with the licensing agency?

Thanks.

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Hi Simon,
Since nobody from Italy has responded to your question yet, let me tell you how it is in Spain as I guess it might be pretty much the same in Italy.
The only mandatory preffix for a CEPT licensee transmitting from the Spanish territory is EA/
It is up to the individuals whether they want to add the call area number EA1, EA2, … EA9, but it’s not necessary if you don’t want to.
It seems it might be the same in Italy, where just the Country preffix I/ is mandatory and you might have the right to use IS0/ in case you want to be more specific, given that you are in a different DXCC entity to mainland Italy.
Good luck with your activations in the Sardinia Island.
73,

Guru
P.D. this thread will have jumped back to the TOP, so you may have better chances to get replied by some Italian colleague with the necessary knowledge about your specific question.

Hola Guru,
you mean “Sardinia” :wink:
Sicily Island is IT9 :slightly_smiling_face:
73, Mario DJ2MX

Yes, Sardinia Is. Sorry…

According to the Italian legislation, the I/( I/G4TJC ) before the call is sufficient. IS0 for dxcc is a separate entity, but for Italy it is a region like the others.
IS0/G4TJC is still tolerated, however

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Many thanks for the replies.

Yes, that makes sense.

Great. Well, IS0 is a lot longer to send in Morse than is I, so perhaps I’ll take to lazy option!

Our travel days are Wednesday and Saturday next week – 22nd and 25th May. We have more time on the way out, so I’m hoping to try for 2 summits, so long as I can be really quick, on Wednesday.

One of my colleagues fancied going up IS0/IS-007 but considering we’ve booked the cheapest-available hire car I think it would be foolish to attempt driving the approach track. Besides, since it features on Dangerous Roads I’m not alone in being unenthusiastic. :wink: With the time for a longer hike it would be a great one.

So, it will be some un-demanding hills, but possibly IS0/IS-105, Monte Tuttovista if the car can be coaxed up the nearly-as-impressive switchback without whoever’s unfortunate enough to be on the back seat having to interrupt proceedings! There are other short-listed summits which are only a trivial walk. Some even come with Nuragic archaeology!

Plans probably won’t crystalize until the day though. Hoping to have some pictures to share here soon…

Two summits activated today.

The road up IS-105 Monte Tuttavista was quite exciting. But it felt shameful using the car when we met two groups of cyclists at the top (one lady towing a child buggy)! We explored around the bronze statue of Christ and then I found the path to the true summit (which does not extend to the cross).

Setting up on 40m I was surprised to find the band very quiet. Actually the reason was that my dipole had converted itself to a monopole. Tool-less I contrived to use the clip from my log book as a wire stripper so that I could make contact again with the BNC. Crisis over. :slight_smile:

S2S with HB9BIN and DL1CR. Heard G0FEX, but no more, so switched to 30m. Lots more on this band, including S2S with IK2LEY.

Anxious SMS from colleagues - where am I - so QRT.

Late lunch in the town below then on to summit No. 2. “Don’t worry, it’s an easy one. I’ll be very quick”. IS-037 has a comms site on it. I thought I’d just bungee the pole to the fence and crack it tout suite. But when I got there I found the compound at about 1100m and 27m of rock to go to the summit. Not really climbable from the comms site (large boulders plus prickly bushes). Explored South and east - found non-trivial yet possible route. Set up about half way up. Had to crawl through “cave”. Many more again on 30m. Packed away. SMS - “Where are you? Have you fallen off?”. Actually i decided to confirm I was in the AZ. Minus pack I managed to spring up the rock that had stopped me and got to the top. Getting back down was a little tricky. But happy now that no question over AZ.

Work all day tomorrow. Hopefully another activation before we leave

Oh, and we “upgraded” the car to a shiny red brand new Clio, which has so far survived.

Most of the pics stuck on the camera for now.

Thanks everyone.

:crazy_face:

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Well done Simon - finding your own “man cave” on the summit of IS-037!

I was not in my QTH during your first activation, but was for your second. You were a very respectable signal on 10 MHz. Thanks for trying the band out. Look forward to maybe hearing you again today, 10 and 14 MHz the best chance. Now I have to fool my electronic logbook into thinking that I/G4TJC/P is in Sardinia…

73 Phil

Possible activation still on for Saturday if colleagues willing. Will try to update alert once I know better.

@HB9IIO

Well done Simon, you made it on to another unique and were very busy. Good summertime condx on 20m for a change within EU and much sporadic E on the 12m, 10m and 6m bands also this morning. :grinning:

73 Phil

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Thanks Phil. You were one of the best signals. I had big trouble with the difficult RF environment.

Back on a real road now but with little margin for check-in!

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Logs now entered and blog up for first two summits:

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