IY4ARI

Once upon a time…. it might start in this way, like and old tale, the report of what happened on those days, because not so often you have the possibility to run a dream-station like the one we had…

It was the 7*8 oct 1995, just 100 years after the very first “QSO” made by Guglielmo Marconi in the neighborhood of his own place. To celebrate it, a very special and unique radio station was set up.
The 32m wide dish of the Medicina radio telescope was used as radiator and an amator rig, working on the 1296 Ham band, made available by IK4NMF, was installed.
The special station could therefore trust on:
Antenna gain: 50dBi
Output power: 70W
Less than 400°K Total receiver temperature

With this “unusual” set up, we took part to the first leg of the IARU EME contest with the following operators:
I4AOR..I4BER..I4CHY..I4JED..IK4MTS..IW4BLG
Technical assistance: I4JGD IW4BLH
Sponsorship: IRA-CNR

Here the official log:

Nr Day GMT CALL RST RST Multiplier
1 7 oct. 00.07 EA6/DF5JJ 57 58 X
2 7 oct. 00.13 KB2AH 59 58 X
3 7 oct. 00.15 WD5AGO 44 55 X
4 7 oct. 00.19 OK1KIR 449 59 X
5 7 oct. 00.24 OE9XXI 59 57 X
6 7 oct. 00.29 VE1ZJ 559 579 X
7 7 oct. 00.34 VE1VAS 559 579
8 7 oct. 00.40 DF3RU 579 579 X
9 7 oct. 00.43 HB9BHU 55 55 X
10 7 oct. 00.45 F1ANH 58 59 X
11 7 oct. 00.48 DF9QX 56 57
12 7 oct. 00.51 GW3XYW 57 56 X
13 7 oct. 00.53 HB9SV 58 59
14 7 oct. 00.58 OZ4MM 58 58 X
15 7 oct. 01.05 W7GBI 55 57 X
16 7 oct. 01.24 K9KFR 559 559 X
17 7 oct. 16.58 ZS6AXT 559 569 X
18 7 oct. 17.05 HB9BBD 579 599
19 7 oct. 17.16 OE5JFL 579 579
20 7 oct. 17.23 SM3AKW 559 569 X
21 7 oct. 17.32 JH5LUZ 559 539 X
22 7 oct. 17.46 JA4BLC 55 58
23 7 oct. 18.18 JA7ERE 439 55
24 7 oct. 18.34 IK3COJ 56 58 X
25 7 oct. 18.46 OH2AXH 559 569 X
26 7 oct. 18.54 S59DCD 559 589 X
27 7 oct. 19.22 F5AQC 56 58
28 7 oct. 19.32 IK3GHY 55 58
29 7 oct. 19.37 DL9EBL 59 59
30 7 oct. 20.01 F5PAU 56 56
31 7 oct. 20.10 G4CCH 549 54 X
32 7 oct. 20.30 DD1XF 55 57
33 7 oct. 20.38 G3LQR 559 54
34 7 oct. 21.03 IK3HHG 44 55
35 7 oct. 21.04 DL6YDH 54 54
36 7 oct. 21.18 OE9FKI 55 56
37 7 oct. 21.48 DL3YEE 55 55
38 7 oct. 22.59 EA3UM 559 529 X
39 8 oct. 01.23 K3EAV 559 579 X
40 8 oct. 01.32 AA6WI 559 559 X
41 8 oct. 18.20 F6CGJ 559 579
42 8 oct. 18.57 JR4AZP 539 449
43 8 oct. 19.28 G4DZU 419 O
44 8 oct. 19.55 OE9ERC 55 57

And here an audio sample (.wav) of two of our QSOs

JA4BLC     DL9EBL

Here the sum-up of the experience as we wrote it at that time….

IY4ARI Marconi Centennial Celebration ARRL EME Contest 1296 MHz 7*8 oct 1995 * Operators: I4AOR (Roberto Ambrosini), I4BER (Goliardo Tomassetti), I4CHY (Carlo Carini), I4JED (Alberto Marchesini), IK4MTS (Claudio Grossi), IW4BLG (Pierluigi Poggi) * RTX and initial tuning: IK4NMF (Fausto Coletti) * Technical assistance: I4JGD (Sergio Mariotti), IW4BLH (Claudio Bortolotti) * Sponsorship: IRA – CNR * Director: Lucia Padrielli  RESULTS ACHIEVED * 10 hours of contest operation * 44 complete bi-lateral contacts (valid QSO) * 18 countries contacted * 4 continents contacted * 23 valid multipliers for contest score computation List of contacted country and detail of the call sign 1. Austria: OE5JFL, OE9ERC, OE9FKI, OE9XXI 2. Balearic Islands: EA6/DF5JJ 3. Canada: VE1VAS, VE1ZJ 4. Croatia: S59DCD 5. Czech Rep.: OK1KIR 6. Denmark: OZ4MM 7. England: G3LQR, G4CCH, G4DZU 8. Finland: OH2AXH 9. France: F1ANH; F5AQC; F5PAU; F6CGJ 10. Germany: DD1XF, DF3RU, DF9QX, DL3YEE, DL6YDH, DL9EBL 11. Italy: IK3COJ; IK3GHY; IK3HHG 12. Japan: JA4BLC, JA7ERE, JH5LUZ, JR4AEP 13. South Africa: ZS6AXT 14. Spain: EA3UM 15. Sweden: SM3AKW 16. Switzerland: HB9BBD, HB9BHU, HB9SV 17. United States: AA6WI, K3EAV, K9KFR, KB2AH, W7GBI, WD5AGO 18. Wales: GW3XYW

So, lets hope we will do it better for the next centennial…! 🙂