Germany and Slovenia with the PRC-320

Today I made some contacts with the PRC320 on the 20m band. One was with the German station DL8MX (op. Wil) from near Nuremberg. He was using an IC756pro3 and a linear amplifier (400W) and a 4element yagi 13m above the ground.
The other QSO was with the Slovenian station S59AKR, which belongs to the Akrapovic Exhaust Technology ham club.
Akrapovic d.d., is a manufacturer of top quality exhaust systems, carbon parts and casted titanium products. The concept of a scorpion, the leading motif of their logo, originates from the surname of the company’s founder Igor Akrapovic (in Turkish Akrap means Scorpion). What started in 1990 as an innovative, driven group of six, is now a modern prominent company of more than 13,000 m2 of production and commercial space and with over 420 employees.
The idea of founding the Akrapovic radio club was born a while ago. S59AKR is the calling code which helps operators Tom, Peter and Marjan by connecting fans of Akrapovic products all over globe.
I did not know the relationship with Akrapovic when I made the QSO but, curiously enough, I am also a fan of Akrapovic exhausts, which are used by many professional enduro teams.

Maryland on 15m (K3LU)

Today I made a great QSO with K3LU (Ulises) on the 15m band. He speaks perfect Spanish and we were talking about the reform of the Spanish ham radio licensing system that merged all the licence classes into a single one. We also talked about vanity callsigns and the virtues of the higher bands. He is now 45 years old and has been a ham since the age of 14.

I just checked his QRZ.com entry and he's got an excellent collection of funny amateur radio stuff he has photoshopped or edited throughout the years. He is a real artist, really fun. Check it up.

Netherlands: Third country confirmed with the PRC-320 (PH9HB)

Today I made a QSO with PH9HB (Jerry) with the PRC320. The Netherlands was a new country for me with the portable setup, I have already received his eQSL card. This represents the third country confirmed, after Germany and Italy. Curiously enough, I still haven't got Spain confirmed.

Jerry was using a Yaesu FT-950 and a horizontal loop antenna 10 metres off the ground and gave me a signal report of 44. He is also a pilot flying Boeing 737 NG (-700 and -800) for a Dutch carrier based at Amsterdam-Schiphol. That is probably where the picture in his eQSL card comes from.

Telde, Gran Canaria (EA8FC and EC8AAD)

I have been making some QSOs with the PRC320 on the 20m band, some of them with stations I had already worked before in worse conditions, such as I2OHO (Luciano from Milano) or EA8FC (José Antonio from Telde, Gran Canaria). Other stations I have worked are DJ1KJ (Hans) from Frankfurt and EC8AAD (Candi) also from Telde.
The presence of Franciscans from Majorca in the XIV century make Telde, created by papal decree in 1351, the first city in the Canary Islands from a European perspective. Telde was the eastern centre to the Guanches, and the renowned Guanche King Doramas, it's believed, lived here.
Telde's name actually tells us something about where the original settlers on the Canary Islands came from. Telde, situated in a most fertile area of Gran Canaria, has it's equivalent province in Morrocco in a very fertile region called Tedlah. Telde is the spot where the famous Idolo de Tara figure was discovered.

Austria with the PRC320 (OE4RLC)

Yesterday I made a QSO with OE4RLC (operator Rai) with the PRC-320 and a 4m whip from a parking lot on a hill just outside the city of A Coruña. It was on the 20m band and I got a signal report of 59.
Rai speaks perfect Spanish. Reading his QRZ.com entry I just found that he holds one of the two remote licenses that have been issued in Austria and is now working remote via Internet through OE4XLC, Clubstation of the Austrian Military Radio Society.