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| Märket Reef Finnland , Oj0C most wanted ham radio hot spot, August 2018 |
You could ask "why is this a magic? With email or a mobile phone you could do the same" You are right, but with radio communication you don´t need any infrastructure to communicate, you do not need any provider like a telephone company or a internet company. This makes this hobby and technology so interesting in many world traveling situations.
A special challenge in ham radio is to contact "rare locations" world wide, it is like to hike one of the highest mountains in the world.
One of this locations is a tiny island between Finland and Sweden the MÄRKET REEF, just big enough for a automated light house.
This island was "activated" for a view days in August 2018 by a team of enthusiastic ham radio operators to bring this spot on "the air".
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| Märket REEF OJ0C |
Which means to bring all things needed for living and other equipment including radios and antennas to the island just to perform a 24/7 operation.
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| Florian OE3FTA, the Austrian member of the team, operating night shift |
The aim is then to make as many contacts around the world as possible, to give the ham radio community the opportunity to get a confirmed communication to "Märket REEF - OJ0C".
At the end of the week they made more than 15000 contacts around the world.
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| Ham radio communication Austria OE3SEU - Finnland Market Reef island OJ0C using 100 watt and wire antenna |
As I knew that also a young Austrian ham radio operator, Florian OE3FTA, was part of the team, I was trying to contact this hot spot and at least I was lucky to get a 2 way contact on frequency 7150 MHz - for sure once a life time.