Welcome to the OH2BH 50th Birthday Celebration!
Martti Laine, OH2BH ***** 50 years *****
50 years for Martti - that's 35 years of World Class DXing for the
rest of us.
Early bird gets the World, they say. Martti has always been the
"early bird" in DXing and contesting. There are several DXCC
countries which were activated for the first time ever by Martti.
At the age of 15, he started his carrier as a contest operator.
Martti was the driving power behind the World victories of the
Multi-Multi contest station OH2AM in the early 1960's. I was then
one of the operators at OH5SM - a rival to OH2AM. The only times
OH5SM won was when OH2AM wasn't in the air. I was so curious to
discover the secrets of OH2AM that I once secretly "borrowed"
OH2AM's CQ WW log. The only thing I discovered was that they simply
were better, that's all.
In the late 1960's, Martti embarked on his incredible carrier as
the most productive DX-peditioner ever seen in the history of
DXing. I was his partner during most of his early DX-peditions. In
1969, Martti, 23, became World-famous as the most prominent
operator of the first-ever DXpedition to Market Reef, a brand new
DXCC country. The breathtakingly exotic DXpeditions started to
follow each other in a rapid succession. Martti was inducted into
the DX Hall of Fame and into the Contest Hall of Fame at less that
30 years of age. He still is the only individual who is a member of
both Halls.
I was with Martti in Market Reef (1970), Albania (1971), and
Equatorial Guinea & Annobon (1971). We were both young, and we
remember those first DX-peditions as the emotionally most
satisfying ones. Martti keeps saying that Annobon (3C0AN) was the
best of his DX-peditions. DX-peditions and women have one thing in
common: The first ones are the sweetest.
As a great organizatory talent, Martti was always able to "put it
all together" in the right way from the beginning. Amazingly, he
didn't have any "learning curve". With his instict for doing the
correcr thing on the first try, he did not need to learn through
the "trial-and-error" method. For the DX-peditions, he took care of
the licencing formalities, travel arrangements, raising of funds,
QSL arrangements, etc.
Martti's participation in a DX-pedition guarantees that it will all
work out very smoothly: Just get moving, do what Martti says, and
operate! Martti has taken care of all headaches in advance. His
organizing capabilities are widely recognized by the DX-World. As
an example, he was invited to join the first-ever Peter I
expedition to ensure the success of this very difficult and
costly operation.
In spite of reaching his 50 years birthday, Martti shows no signs
of slowing down. This is illustrated by the fact that his 50-years
birthday is being celebrated on xxxxxxxxx, and the
highlights of the ceremonies is working the CQ WW CW contest as
xxxx!
I trust that you all join me in wishing Martti a happy birtday. It
looks like we are still going to enjoy several decades of
DXcitement served us by the 'BH (Big Hercules) himself.
Ville, OH2MM
Take a look at theOH2BH DX-peditions over the years
Check out what a lifetime friend OH2MM has to say about Martti
Where do we go next? The venue for the birthday party
Return to The SM7PKK DX-pedition Site!
This page have been accessed xxx times since October 25, 1996