Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Activating Torre de Hercules lighthouse (SPA-276)

Today I was activating Torre de Hercules lighthouse on the 15-, 17- and 20-metre bands. I made a total of 26 QSOs, mainly with European stations.
The Tower of Hercules (Galician and Spanish: Torre de Hércules) is an ancient Roman lighthouse on a peninsula about 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the centre of A Coruña, Galicia, in north-western Spain. The name of the town that hosts the lighthouse Corunna is said to be derived from the Latin columna, meaning "column". Until the 20th century, the tower itself was known as the "Farum Brigantium". The Latin word farum is derived from the Greek pharos for the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The structure is 55 metres (180 ft) tall and overlooks the North Atlantic coast of Spain. The structure, almost 1900 years old and rehabilitated in 1791, is the oldest Roman lighthouse still used as a lighthouse.
The Tower of Hercules is a National Monument of Spain, and since June, 27 2009 the Tower of Hercules is also considered an UNESCO World Heritage Site.[3] It is the second tallest lighthouse in Spain, after the Faro de Chipiona.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Activating Punta Fiateira Rear lighthouse (SPA 293)

Last Friday I joined José Luis (EA1HNP) in the activation of a lighthouse in the vicinity of A Coruña.
It is called Punta Fiateira Rear and together with its Front counterpart (380m away) is used to indicate the entrance in the port of A Coruña.
I made 12 QSOs on 20m SSB, all of them with North America (the US and Canada) in just 15 minutes. This gave me 2 new validly confirmed states for my eWAS award.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Eastern Sovereign Base Area, Cyprus (ZC4ESB)

This is a video of a QSO with ZC4ESB, which stands for the Eastern Sovereign Base area in Cyprus. The QSO was on the 15m band using my FT897D manpack with a 2.4m whip.

The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia are two UK-administered areas on the island of Cyprus that comprise the Sovereign Base Areas military bases of the United Kingdom. The bases were retained by the UK following the granting of independence and the eventual transition of Cyprus from a crown colony to an independent sovereign state. The United Kingdom demanded and succeeded in continuing to occupy a portion of Cyprus in the form of military bases because of the strategic location of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea in pursuit of UK interests.
The bases are split into Akrotiri (Greek: Ακρωτήρι; Turkish: Agrotur, along with Episkopi Garrison, is part of an area known as the Western Sovereign Base Area or WSBA) and Dhekelia (Greek: Δεκέλεια; Turkish: Dikelya, along with Ayios Nikolaos, is part of the Eastern Sovereign Base Area or ESBA).