LX2DW António Callixto CT1DW


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Updated:  29.04.2001

 

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   It all began in 1947

   SWL

   CTØ339

   CT1DW (Portugal)

 

 

   CT4DW - CT6DW - CS1DW - CT5Ø/1DW - CT1DWA - etc.

   CT7BER (Berlenga I., EU-040)

   CT1DW/SP5 - SO5DW (Poland)

   CT1DW/OH2 (Finland)

   CT1DW/OHØ - OHØ/CT1DW/p (Åland Is., EU-002)

   LX2DW (Luxembourg)

   LY/CT1DW (Lithuania)  

   XX9TDW (Macau) 

   S92DW (São Tomé I., AF-023) 

   S91DW (Príncipe I., AF-044) 

   J52DW (Guinea-Bissau) 

   3V8BB (Tunisia) 

   Interesting links 

   Amateur licences and other documents 

   A request to native speakers of English

 



It all began in 1947

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          I was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1947. I finished my higher education there in 1975 and began my international career in 1979. After living for a three year period in Poland and another three year period in Finland, I settled in Luxembourg in 1986. Since then, I have been working here as an official of the European Union.


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SWL

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         My interest in radio began when I was around 13 years old, more or less at the same time as my interest in foreign languages. I became an SWL and used to spend a lot of time listening to hundreds of broadcasting stations from all over the world, mostly on short wave, sending them reception reports and collecting their confirmation or QSL cards. At those times (1960 - 1970), short wave was the only way to catch remote stations like, say, Radio Pyongyang, the Voice of the Andes (Quito, Equador) or even the famous Radio Moscow, while nowadays you can listen to many international radio stations in CD quality with a satellite dish, since they are using the sub-carriers of the satellite TV frequencies.


CTØ339

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         By 1971 I had finished a gradual change from listening to broadcasting stations to listening to amateurs. I applied for and was issued the official listener callsign CTØ339 and for a certain time collected QSL cards from radio amateurs who were willing to send confirmations to my SWL reports. In some countries, for example in the former Soviet Union, this procedure was compulsory if you wanted to obtain a real amateur licence. It was not the case in Portugal though and I soon realised that listening was only part of the fun. My wish was to actually communicate with those amateurs in a more direct way.


CT1DW (Portugal)

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Belém Tower, Lisbon, built in 1515

         I passed my first and so far only amateur radio exam in early 1972 (electronics, regulations and CW) and in February of that year I was the proud holder of the callsign CT1DW which has been my Portuguese call until nowadays. It should be said here that two letter callsigns are a rarity in Portugal these days, which means that I am already considered as an old-timer. In fact I started my transmissions in AM with an old Geloso G-222-TR and the receiver was an even older Hammarlund HQ-129-X. My first SSB transceiver was purchased in mid 1974, just after the Democratic Revolution of April 25th.

 

         The period until 1979 corresponded to my biggest activity as an amateur from Portugal. My liking of DX and of practising foreign languages made me switch gradually from the domestic to the international QSOs, mainly on the upper bands of 10, 15 and 20 meters. The WARC bands were still far from being known and used by amateurs in those times. I worked all the former Portuguese colonies with the only exception of former Portuguese Timor (nowadays East Timor), even if I heard the station CR8AK several times. I must confess that I never applied for the DXCC, although I have 211 countries confirmed from Portugal (224 worked).

    One of the first CT1DW QSL cards, 1973

CT4DW - CT6DW - CS1DW - CT5Ø/1DW - CT1DWA - CT1JAM - CT1GEA

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         I participated in numerous contests (CQ WW, CQ WPX, Scandinavian Activity Contest, etc.) and often won first and second prizes in Portugal, which sometimes was not difficult at all since there were not so many contesters from CT land. For the contests I used the special prefixes shown on the QSL cards depicted around this text and also CS1DW. For example CT5Ø/1DW was meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of REP, the Portuguese Amateur Radio Society. In 1979 I won the second place in the world in the « King of Spain Contest » and received a nice metal trophy which I

 

still keep in a place of honour. If I had space, I think all my amateur awards would be enough to decorate several walls. I also participated a couple of times in the Jamboree on the Air, with calls like CT1JAM and CT1GEA (Grupo de Escoteiros da Amadora - Amadora Boy Scouts). The first mobile stations in Portugal were issued three letter calls ending in A and the portable ending in B, so CT1DWA was my mobile station. This was later changed for the normal /m and /p suffixes.


CT7BER (Berlenga I., Portugal, EU-040)

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Berlenga Island, in front of the town of Peniche, Portugal

         I was the first amateur to operate from this small island located about 11 km off the coast of Portugal. It happened twice in 1975, first with my regular call and then with the special call CT7BER. It is a very small island and I was operating from the lighthouse on its highest point. Any antenna does a fine job there. The only means of transportation on the island was an old donkey who carried all my equipment from the small harbour to the top of the island. The donkey was later replaced by a tractor. Permanent population was about 15 inhabitants (lighthouse keepers and some fishermen), as well as

 

lots of rabbits, sea-gulls, lizards and mice. There are no cars, no roads and no trees. Berlenga counts for IOTA as EU-040. Several Dxpeditions have taken place from there since that time, with different operators and different calls (CQ1I, CQ4B, CQ5MEG, CS2B, CTØB, CTØBI, CT7B, etc.).


CT1DW/SP5 - SO5DW (Poland)

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         In 1979 my life changed. After many years teaching foreign languages in Portugal, I was going to teach my mother language and culture abroad. I settled in Warsaw, Poland, where I was appointed 'Lektor języka portugalskiego na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim' (Lecturer of Portuguese at Warsaw University; Polish is a difficult language, isn't it?). As for amateur radio, I got the call CT1DW/SP5 without any big problem in spite of the political system there. There was no reciprocal agreement in amateur radio matters between the two countries but anyhow I was issued a licence upon presentation of my Portuguese licence without having to pass an 

 

 

exam. I  became a  member of PZK ('Polski Związek Krótkofalowców', the Polish Amateur Radio Society) and made good friends among the Polish amateur community, some of whom I am in touch with until nowadays.

         I was the first and I believe the only Portuguese amateur operating from Poland. About one year later my call was changed to SO5DW. The authorities had decided to issue the SO prefix to foreigners and I was the first SO. I never had a good antenna in Poland and even the dipoles I spread between the roofs of two buildings were sometimes

 

cut by neighbours as a reaction against the interference which apparently I was causing to their old fashioned TV sets with old or broken antenna feeders. The QSOs I established were not very exotic but would anyway have been enough for another DXCC that I never applied for (124 countries confirmed, 137 worked).

         I kept regular skeds with Portugal, which was often the only reliable way of communicating with my home country since a telephone call to Portugal would mean having to wait for five or six hours. In little over two years I changed apartments seven times, which is not very practical if you have to put up and down antennas each time you move. My stay in Poland was abruptly interrupted by the declaration of martial law by General Jaruzelski in December 1981.

         All amateur licences were cancelled and equipment had to be handed over to the authorities. Being the only foreign amateur in the country, I had a difficult time trying to make them understand that I not only wished to leave the country but to take all my radio equipment with me. That was finally possible after a few days going around several ministries and services in Warsaw amidst tanks, soldiers and policemen.

         The equipment had to be sealed. I was one of the first foreigners to leave Poland, in a ferry to Sweden, after driving for about 700 km in heavily snowy roads without any chance of buying petrol, ten days after martial law had been declared. And I still keep the document I had to show at the border (borders were only open for foreigners) with the permission to leave and take the radios out of the country.

         My XYL being Polish, I had to go back to Poland several times for various reasons. In post-communist times I applied again for a Polish licence, before Poland joined the CEPT licensing agreement, and expressed my wish of getting my 'old' SO5DW call again. I never knew why but I got SO5DWA.


CT1DW/OH2 (Finland)

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         After a three month 'forced' holiday in Portugal, the Ministry of Education proposed me a similar job in Finland, which I immediately accepted. If I could stand the cool climate in Poland, perhaps I could stand even a little bit cooler in Finland. And probably there would not be any declaration of martial law over there! I became 'Portugalin kielen lehtori Helsingin Yliopistossa' (Lecturer of Portuguese at Helsinki University; Finnish is another difficult language, isn't it?) in March 1982 and settled among my priorities getting in touch with the licensing authorities in order to obtain a Finnish amateur radio licence.

 

         There was no reciprocal agreement with Portugal either but the licence and the call CT1DW/OH2 came without any problem or any further exam. I enrolled as a member of SRAL ('Suomen Radioamatööriliitto', the Finnish Amateur Radio Society). The possibilities of putting up suitable antennas were rather poor, which compelled me to a relatively frequent use of the University club station although using my own call. I became acquainted to a lot of Finnish amateurs (they are among the best DXers in the world), including the world famous Martti Laine, OH2BH, whom I visited in his Espoo 'shack'. My total score from Finland was not enough for a DXCC.


CT1DW/OHØ - OHØ/CT1DW/p (Åland Is., EU-002)

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          Any Finnish licence opens the right to operate from the Åland Islands (OHØ) and also from Market Reef (OJØ). The Åland Islands form an autonomous region of Finland (with their own flag, stamps, etc.) situated between this country and neighbouring Sweden and where the official and only language used is Swedish. It is still among the DXCC entities which are certain to cause a pile-up whenever they show up on the bands. I did not want to miss this opportunity and spent a couple of days there, in the Summer of 1982, operating as CT1DW/OHØ. The QTH was a small cottage on Korsö I. (Brändö group), one of the more than 6 000 islands and rocks which

 

 

 

form the Åland archipelago. The number of QSOs I established in only 4 days (1 142) was close to the total number of contacts from mainland Finland in about three years time.

          I had the pleasure of returning to the same cottage in the Summer of 1996, during a duty trip to Finland, and to operate from there again for 4 days, which added another 1 966 contacts to my total number from Åland. In the meantime the way of forming callsigns had changed to the present practice of mentioning the prefix of the country you operate from before your actual callsign and besides the CEPT licence was already in force, so I used OHØ/CT1DW/p without having to present any specific request.

 

          The cottage is owned by a group of Finnish amateurs (among whom OH2BH and OH2MM) and can be rented. It has electrical power and a complete antenna setup for all bands, all you have to carry is your equipment. The only small problem: it has no toilet.

           I would have loved to visit Market Reef (the actual name in Swedish is 'Märkets Fyr') but there was no chance. It is only a reef, often covered by water at high tide, it only has a lighthouse and is geographically situated exactly on the line which marks the border between Finland and Sweden.