One of the most gratifying hobbies I ever had was being a Ham Radio
Operator.
Not only because it has to do with technology and electronic gadgets, it was also
the conduit to meet wonderful people around the world, but particularly in
my city.
Many of those folks became my closest friends and they will be in
my memory and my heart forever.
Being a Ham Radio Operator was a great experience, I experimented the same
type of feelings as I did when I started working with the Internet, a lot
of cooperation and camaraderie.
Also if you are an electronics fan like me you get to create your own smoke
generating gear .
But the magic really starts when the lateral band noise sounds on the speaker
and with the help of the Gods of propagation, you start talking with somebody
else on the other side of the world.
Yes I know that you can do that today easily on the Internet, but is not
the same type of magic and experience.
The Gear
As any Ham shack mine was being constantly upgraded/downgraded, but
I had few pieces of equipment that were rock solid and my favorites to
operate.
Antennas?, well for some people (like me) that's the ugly part of Amateur Radio, but
I was in a 14 story building with a big water tank on top, so I've few
Diamond VHF and Dual Band antennas that performed like I had an amplifier.
Well I confess, I had one Mirage VHF amplifier but it was really connected to
a Kantronics KAM TNC for packet radio.
For HF I never got to install a decent Yagi antenna, I had a crazy collection
of all types of dipoles that some of my neighbors even used as a clothes line.
God for them I didn't have a linear amplifier.
With Horacio (LU1CFU), we did a lot of experiments together with radio TTY
and Fax, well I can't really tell what kind of images we used for testing
color faxing over HF, they had a lot of curves but were not exactly weather maps
.
The "Agazapator's"
Agazapator comes from the spanish word agazapado that means being
crouched hiding like when a predator is waiting for its prey.
There was a group of Ham Radio Operators in Buenos Aires that loved to
make long distance contacts (what in Amateur Radio we call DX) with those
locations hard to reach.
We were all the time talking over VHF and UHF, but at some moments the
frequency was quiet, until you heard on HF one of those hard stations
making the CQ call, and suddenly everybody was trying to make the contact,
as if we all of us were hiding (or agazapados) waiting for the
right moment to hit the PTT.
Actually, besides our common interest for amateur radio and DX contacts we
developed a close friendship. We got together very often, at the Radio Club,
or at somebody's place to enjoy some food and wine together.
Unfortunately in 2001 LU1CPH - Ricardo "Coco" Uriarte became a
silent key. "Coco"was not only a great Radio Operator, he was an
incredible human being and excellent cook with a great sense of humor,
I was always delighted listening to his stories about his trips to Antarctica,
I've enjoyed every minute we spent together in person and on the ether.
Sadly after many years that I forgot I had this page from my ham radio operator
days, I came back to update it to honor my dear friend Horacio Subasti LU1CFU, who
passed away on September 1st, 2022.
Horacio was one my closest friends from those days, even with the distance
and the passing of time we stayed connected and once in a while had long
conversations over the Internet, remembering those days where we spent countless
hours chatting on the radio, most often on VHF and UHF, we enjoyed playing
a lot with digitial communications over HF. He was fascinated with the new
digital modes like FT8 and constantly tried to convince me to get my license
in the US. He was a great guy, fantastic husband, father and grandfather, he
have a great sense of humor but strong character.
I'll certainly miss him, a lot. God Speed Horacio and Rest In Peace my dear
Friend, QRT.
My sincere condolences to his wife Liliana LU2CFU, family and friends.
Among many other things, this particular group of friends is what I miss
the most since I moved to the US.
This page is dedicated to them ...
Organizations/Membership
During my active days as a Ham Radio Operator I was member of various organizations
and actively participated in promoting Ham Radio and developing communications
systems.
For some period of time I was in charge of the Digital Communications area
of the Argentinean Radio Club (LU4AA) establishing the first digital Packet
Cluster and gateway for electronic email.
Here is one of the welcoming screens (spanish only) I was able to recover
from the old configuration files:
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Bienvenido al PacketCluster del Radio Club Argentino - LU4AA
------------------------------------------------------------
Usted aun no se encuentra registrado a este sistema, sin
embargo tendra acceso limitado a algunos de los servicios
del PacketCluster.
Para acceder a todos los servicios es necesario que
complete su registro como usuario. Obtenga mayor
informacion sobre este procedimiento accediendo al
archivo "REGISTRO" con el comando TYPE/INFO REGISTRO.
Si desea obtener una introduccion a que es el Packet
Cluster consulte el archivo "INTRO" con el comando
TYPE/INFO INTRO.
Desde ya muchas gracias por acceder a este servicio que
esperamos sea de vuestra utilidad.
73 y DX's
LU4AA - PacketCluster
Presione ENTER para continuar
From LU4AA Packet Cluster config file, Version 5.4 Pavillion Software (1991)
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I also had the opportunity to participate in several international call contests
as member of the operators group for special callsigns representing the Argentinean
Radio Club.
I did my first steps into Ham Radio (including those pesky Morse Code classes)
at the Buenos Aires Radio Club.
I was a regular member of the American Radio Relay League and an avid reader
of their publications.
With all the moving and computer changes I long lost part of my QSL logs, so if we ever
met on the radio waves thank you for those pleasant moments and looking forward to
communicate again in the future.
73 & DX
LU2AQO - Jorge
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LU2AQO QSL card
One of my early HAM license cards
I think this is the last one I've got
An old ARRL Memership Certificate
Yaesu FT-5200
VHF/UHF Dual Band
Icom IC-726
HF/6m Transceiver
Kenwood TS-850
HF Transceiver
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