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re. WAE lists ....Shetland

Subject: re. WAE lists ....Shetland
From: burns (burns)
Date: Mon Dec 21 08:53:31 1992
From:   NAME: Andy Burns                    
        FUNC: Research and Development        
        TEL: 0324 493981                      <BURNS,AL@A1@GRRD04>
To:     "cq-contest@tgv.com"@rcwi01@mrgate@grrd04

ref the question last week on how to tell if a station is on Shetland. 
The answer is that you can't unless you ask them.

Callsigns are issued in the UK in the format G*0ABC where the number and 
suffix are sequential ie 2's then 3's then 4's then 0's (some logic!)with 
AAA-ZZZ for each number. The * in the call is changed dependent which 
country you are in. Example, I am GM0ECO but if I go mobile down south I 
become G0ECO or GW0ECO(as I used to be). Each station has a main station 
address and I he operates anywhere else must operate as /p. It is a 
hassle changing station addresses so is not done as a matter of routine.

Shetland is not seen as a seperate area so is populated with stations 
(not a lot) with arbitary suffixs. There is no way of recognising the 
calls by any pattern. K1EA's list in Master Dat is probaly your best bet. 
The call book is quite usefull as if the adress is listed as Shetland 
then the likelyhood is that it is the correct location (see above).

There are currently no real active contesters on Shetland. GM3ZET (the 
club station in Lerwick gets on now and again plus one or two others. 
Joe, W5ASP, and myself looked at doing a multi single last year in WAE 
from the shetlands but gave up the idea due to lack of equipment up 
there. The bigest antenna is a 2 el tribander at 40'!!!!! Anything bigger 
just blows down in the consistent 30mph winds..and higher. There are no 
trees on the islands.....well maybe 4 or 5 in someones back yard half way 
between Lerwick and Brae. It's just too windy. It is 350 miles north of 
Edinburgh and the propogation is bad enough this far north compared to 
the south of England....so it must be awfull up there. I don't know how 
Jon OY5JD gets on. There is a big Oil terminal on the main island which 
employs a few hams but it is a very transient community with G5RV's the 
norm.

Not the best place for a big contest effort.....more of a challenge.

Andy
GM0ECO (not shetland)

Burns_al@grrd04.dnet.bp.com


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