Glenn - WA0VPK / ZB2WZ (now AE0Q)
CW DXpedition to Gibraltar in 1974 with Paul
WA3IJR / ZB2WY (now W3FO)
Equipment : Drake R4A/T4X, Tempo-One, dipoles on hotel roof.
Photo above taken from hills west of Algeciras,
Spain. The EA-to-ZB2 border had been closed for
many years, so to get to the 'Rock' we had to take a car ferry
from Algeciras, Spain across the
Straits of Gibraltar to Tangiers, Morocco; clear Moroccan
Customs with a car full of
ham gear; then take another ferry back to Gibraltar just across
the bay from Algeciras.
Above : Glenn WA0VPK (now AE0Q) and
Paul WA3IJR (now W3FO), standing in Spain,
our DXpedition destination is behind us across "no-man's-land"
at the border.
Gibraltar was needed on CW in the early 70's because the 5
active ZB2 hams only
operated SSB and AM ! We wrote to a few of them and
received letters asking us to
please, please come and operate CW for a week. Paul and
I only operated CW :-)
Paul WA3IJR at the Spanish / Gibraltar border
crossing which was closed
for many years (including the entire time that we were there).
We had to take a car ferry across the Straits of Gibraltar to
Africa (Morocco)
and then another ferry back to Gibraltar. When we
arrived at ZB2, the Licensing
official had gone to England on vacation for a few
weeks!
He had written to us and said he would give us our callsigns
when we got there
but the office person was afraid to issue the wrong
call. We got her to
let us see the notebook with issued calls and found that
someone had once gotten
ZB2WX which was waay out of the normal sequence of calls
issued, and
convinced her to officially issue us ZB2WY and ZB2WZ !
Whew !!!
Photos and article in 1974 CQ Magazine
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