About a week ago, I got an envelope full of QSL cards from the FISTS QSL Bureau, and today a packet arrived from the ARRL Bureau. About half the cards in the Fists envelope were from guys I worked in the Fall Sprint. Two of the hams I worked in the Sprint were WB4JJJ and W8III. With those cards, I think I now have about ten or eleven cards where the suffix are all the same letter.
Another notable card from the Fall Sprint came from KH6HHS. Now, how is that for a CW call? For readers not familiar with Morse Code, this is a difficult call to send and to receive. The H is a series of four dots, the 6 a dash followed by four dots, and the S a series of three dots. If I was issued this call, I’d seriously consider getting a vanity call.
Finally, I got a card from WL7WH. This is my first card from Alaska since getting back on the air.
In the packet from the ARRL, there were seven cards: one from the Czech Republic, two from France, one from Spain, and three from the Canary Islands. The cards from EA8DA and EA8AOQ included maps of the Islas Canarias. I now know that there are seven islands in all, and that the highest point is on Tenerife, which tops out at more than 3,700 feet above sea level.
The Canary Islands are located quite far south of Spain, off the coast of Morocco. After contacting these guys and listening to weather reports on Radio Exterior de Espana, I was thinking a trip there might be fun. Then I read this on the lonely planet website:
Scandinavian sun worshippers, German grannies, British lager louts and French family groups – come to the Canary Islands before next season when ten million European fun seekers drop by. The Canaries are a seething mass of oiled flesh jiggling in the lap of the waves and to the beat of discos, bars and gay nightclubs. They offer the worst of mass tourism: concreted shorelines, tacky apartment block after tacky apartment block, and bars where you can pretend you’ve never left home; but they also offer some of the best beaches within easy escape from a snowy European winter.
Maybe I’ll reconsider.
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