Special event stations sporting unusual call signs are -- or will be -- on the air this spring and later in the year.
From Canada's Yukon Territory, keep an ear open for XO1X,
now on the air for the remainder of 2017, with plans to be active March
25-27 for the CQ World Wide WPX (SSB) contest. The special call sign
prefix is permitted as part of Canada's sesquicentennial celebration, as
is XK150YUKON, another Yukon Canam Contest Club call sign for the
sesquicentennial, operating VY1JA remotely. Operators will include Gerry
Hull, W1VE/VE1RM, Cary Rubenfeld, VE4EA, and others.
"The
XO1 prefix has not been on the air in 35 years," Hull told ARRL. "My
friend Andy, VE9DX, last put it on the air as XO1ASJ." That prefix block
was subsequently moved to Yukon Territory, he explained.
OE17ATOM
will be active from Austria starting at 2200 UTC on April 21 until 2200
UTC on April 22, operating on HF, VHF, and UHF from the only nuclear
power plant that never was. The station will be set up inside the
reactor hall and control room, and there will be a live video stream.
Lower Austria radio clubs, the Icom Radio Club and Johanniter Unfall
Hilfe-Austria organized the event.
The solar array at the Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant.
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The
Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant was never run, owing to the outcome of a
national referendum. Today, the plant produces electricity from some
2,300 photovoltaic panels, which can generate 450 kW peak.
From
Croatia, 9A21RBM, on the air April 1-15, will commemorate the 21st
anniversary of the plane crash near Dubrovnik in 1996 that claimed the
lives of US Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others. Presumably the
suffix stands for "Ron Brown Memorial." Members of Radio Club Libertas
(9A4J) will helm the operation.
Another pending special event with an atomic connection is VI5ANTLER,
operating from Maralinga Village in South Australia, is planned for
September 14-October 9. That area of northwest and south Australia is
where the British carried out atomic tests in 1957 under the code name
"Project Antler." Organizers say that this may be the first ham radio
activity from the Maralinga Section 200 Restricted Area since that era.
They are awaiting authorizations. -- Thanks to The Daily DX, Gerry Hull, W1VE/VE1RM, and others
