To Eduardo EA2TV (Silent Key) a great DXer and Contester sadly missed in a car accident with his parents.
Early in the year 2001 Roger Balister
G3KMA send me a mail asking if I could help out a Spanish Team that wanted to go to "Ilha
da Insua EU-150" for the IOTA Contest, at the time I had never met Gerardo or
any of the URE Jarama Team members but I gladly replied and in a short time the invitation
came for me CT1EEB and Lopes CT1CJJ to join the Team.
Unfortunatelly health problems kept me away from Insua for the first time, the Team on the other hand performed in a excellent way and CQ2I got the Top score for a Low-Power/DX'pedition station winning the Roger Balister Contest Trophy, well done !
New-years came with a another invitation from URE Jarama to join the IOTA Contest 2002 Team in the Sisargas Arch. EU-077, challenge accepted for me, Lopes CT1CJJ and Filipe CT1ILT, I was really looking for it to be my first serious IOTA activity from Spain, until then I had only made few QSO's from "Isla de Tabarca EU-093" and from one of the ED1ISA Salamanca Islands for the DIE Award.
In the photo you can see us checking all hardware before departing to the Island.
As seen in the photo above Sisarga is
everything less flat, it rises from the ocean as a huge cliff, from the boat anchorage up
to the lighthouse where the station and the Base Camp were to be assembled takes about 30
minutes each way, the long climb to
the top with all hardware took about an hour (3 journeys had to be made).
My guess is that the IOTA Contest Committee should look close when a station declares the
entry as "DX'Pedition"! Looking at the photos it is more than clear that ED1URJ is a "REAL" DX'pedition, on the other hand sitting in a comfortable chair with all
comodities and hardware already assembled IT IS NOT but some people still think that
qualifies as a DX'pedition ! The DX'peditioner should at least assemble all station and
antennas for a fair entry in that Contest category (sleeping in a camping tent in the top
of a rock also helps, Hi!).
Anyway,
Friday afternoon and evening were spend getting everything up to the lighthouse and
setting Base Camp, the station and antennas had to wait for the next morning, there wasn't
much time left for outside the Contest QSO's, nevertheless Q's were made in 50, 144 and
432 Mhz giving out Gridsquare IN53 for the "true believers" from our
dedicated VHF/UHF station.
In the photo you can see
"Hotel Sisargas", the place where sleeping tents were in the Top of the Island.
ED1URJ got in-the-air exactly at 12:00 UTC (Saturday) for a 24 hour Low-Power run of 1985 QSO's, 813 in CW and 1172 in SSB to 93 diferent DXCC entities (includes HF+VHF+UHF).
IOTA Contest claimed score: 4.077 Million points.
In the photo Lopes CT1CJJ watches, Eduardo EA2TV works SSB and José CT1EEB is at the CW position.
The ED1URJ Team
Standing (L to R): Lopes CT1CJJ, José CT1EEB, Javier EA1CA, Gerardo EA4ST, Filipe CT1ILT
Sitting (L to R): Pedro, Rosendo EA4ABE, our boat master, Eduardo EA2TV, Pepe EA1DKV