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Famous callsigns
16 February 2012 | by Many friends who have been at this hobby a lot longer than I have worked some pretty famous people – King Hussein of Jordan, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Barry Goldwater.
I have never worked anyone famous per se, but I did get a chance to work the Arizona DX Association last night, which is celebrating Arizona’s Centennial this week. Their call is K7UGA – the same used by Senator Barry Goldwater (SK). So when I heard them on 40 Meters tonight, I jumped at the chance.
It took a while for me to break the pileup; but I was successful. 5 Watts and the HF9V yielded me a response. I got the customary “599”; but they were truly a 599 here into New Jersey. One of the loudest signals on the band.
I will definitely send for a QSL card, as this may be the closest I ever get to working a “famous” Ham.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
3 Responses to “Famous callsigns”
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I worked K2ORS on a Chicago 2m repeater in about 1986… that was fun.
JY1 in about 1989 or so on 10m USB. That was really a hoot. It was in the Novice/Tech section, I was a Technician (old style) at the time. He had a small pile up on him but was rag chewing. I fired up the amp in the Rose-Hulman (Rose Tech Radio Club) station, but limited it to 200W as was required. I said something to that effect to King Hussein. He laughed and made fun of Americans and their “tiny little linears”. I asked him what he was running, it was 10 KW into a stack of monobanders. I suppose that is why he had difficulty with my 200W into a A3 at the time, but he was stronger than most SW boradcasters.. :O)
I have activated W0CXX on many occasions as that is the Rockwell-Collins 35th St Club’s call sign. Yeah, it was Art Collins’ Let me know if you ever want or need W0CXX…
Fred W0FMS
When I was a kid Barry Goldwater would ride around the D.C.metro area in his Corvette. We all worked him as K3UIG/M and received his QSL. JY1 was easy pickins’ from his home in Jordan or as /AM in his 747. JY2 is still around but I don’t think she ever gets on the air.
I worked a station at 2132 UTC on February 13th on 28.490 celebrating the same thing, but they were using the callsign W7A. Turned out the operator was a lady ham named Ruby that I met personally at the Elkin, NC Hamfest(which no longer exists) many years ago when I was still working on increasing my CW proficiency. Ruby’s call is KF4NI and she hangs out frequently on 18.130 on the 17 meter band. Ham radio sure does make the world a small place! Very 73 de Cliff – KU4GW