The EA2 association bought the Palm Paddle that our late friend Guru EA2IF (SK) used on his activations and donated it to the MT. We decided that rather than selling this we would offer it as a prize to people who, like Guru, go out and activate on CW. We have had it laser engraved “EA2IF Guru Memorial Key”.
Occurred between March 11th 2022 and March 11th 2023 (inclusive)
Has at least 4 CW QSOs
Scores points (excludes repeat activations)
Every 5 qualifying activation gains the activator one raffle ticket.
The maximum number of raffle tickets anyone can have is 10 tickets.
After the qualifying period ends, the database will be examined to find all the activators who have earned 1 or more tickets. Each ticket will be given a unique sequential number. (either 3 or 4 digits)
A random number will be generated and the owner of the matching ticket will win the Guru EA2IF Memorial Key to keep.
It’s nice that this is encouraging you to take time to learn Richard. Guru was very encouraging to newcomers and this is exactly what would have made him smile.
So you have 3 months to have 5 activations with 4 CW QSOs each to get in the draw. Even if you are beginner who is only able to work slow speed QSOs, you could arrange with some chasers to listen out for you so you can start having QSOs.
I love this idea. I feel that Guru was a mentor to me both here and on the air in keeping up on my Morse skill (still mediocre but that is my fault, not his!).
I assume it is “Every 5 qualifying activations” and the activation does not have to be exclusively CW providing there are a minimum of 4 CW QSOs with unique callsigns?
If so I think this means I qualify for one ticket so far this year!
But this is a good idea, especially as Guru did a lot to encourage my CW including setting up a QSO for me to practice with him.
This is a great idea. I already qualify for 7 tickets.
If I activated a summit in June and got points and then activate it again in December to get the winter bonus does that count as one or two activations?
I don’t have the T-SQL code on this computer so I’m not sure. I think, and I need to check, that it’s only if the activator points are scored. So your second activation would not count but I need to check when I get “home”.
With 137 activations since March 11th, I have far beyond the maximum of ten tickets. But, sob, the MT is excluded. Maybe I should have my own Palm Paddle engraved? Should it be for triple goat K1LIZ, with her 20 CW contacts, or almost goat EA2IF, with his 11,289 CW contacts, or maybe both?? Or even G4SSH??
Well, that certainly stirs up some memories. I’ve probably used that paddle, in 2019, Guru collected me from a hotel, took me to a summit near Pamplona, set up his station and sat me in his seat to use his rig and his paddle.
Now home! The code doesn’t consider bonus points at all. The idea of ignoring repeated summits was to stop someone seeing the announcement then going and doing an activation of an easy local summit(*) every day till the end of the period to big-up their score. Also not all associations have winter/summer bonus points. Including the bonus only activations gives an advantage over those people in associations with no bonus. So we’ll keep it as only activations that score activation points will count.
(*) Not everybody has a local summit or an easy local summit!
I can see the reasoning behind this, but personally I feel that this is a real shame as Guru meant so much to so many of us… and that includes members of the MT. Is there no way that a non-MT activator can witness and verify the selection process?
Brilliant! I ALWAYS enjoyed hearing EA2IF which was always 229 at the low point of Cycle 24 but persistent nonetheless. I can still hear his CW in my head. GodSpeed to his Spirit and unending thanks to those who proposed the great memorial to him. Dean ~ K2JB
