A Visit With Radio Club Rosario
from
Henryk Kotowski
on
March 13, 2002
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A Visit With LU4FM, Radio Club Rosario
I visited this club a few years ago and I still remember how
impressed I was by the spirit of contesting and team work.Today,
in this time of social unrest and economic disturbances in
Argentina, I thought it would be appropriate to cheer the club
members up and let them know that we miss their Multi-Multi
efforts from the 90's.
When I came to Rosario one October Sunday, the War was on. I mean
CQ World Wide Contest. I phoned Francisco, LU9FDG but he was not
at home. All I understood was that "Francisco was at the
farm". Campo de antenas, antenna farm, to be exact.
But he had given instructions in case I would phone his home and
in less than a quarter of an hour I was located by Rolando, LU2FYU
and was on my way in his car to the outskirts of Rosario town.
The antenna farm was compact but impressive.
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Campo de antenas,
Rosario, Argentina LU4FM. Rotary yagis for 10,15,20,40 |
The small house had a few operating positions, each in a
separate room to avoid vocal interference. Three stations were
running HF bands and when the sun started descending, also 40 and
80 meter bands got some attention. Roberto, LU9FIO was not
operating himself, he was the computer guru of the club. He
checked the multipliers and shouted "We don't have YV on 40
yet". I went out to take a few shot in the sinking sun.
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LU4FM: left Jorge LU7FW, right
Marcello LU8FFU |
I inspected all the operating positions and
took some pictures, of course. Operators were relieved every two
hours or so.
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Rolando LU2FYU at the radio, Roberto
LU5FYV supporting |
Francisco LU9FDG |
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Ed AZ8FAD travelled from Santa Fe for
the contest |
Gerard LU1FZR |
I was chatting with Rolando LU2FYA, enjoying a cool beer in
this early-summer evening, when Hernan LU3FSP interrupted: "Now
it's your turn. 20 meters is open to Europe. Go and get some of
your friends!" And so I did.
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Hernan LU3FSP |
Rolando LU2FYU gets the last
multiplier on 80 meters |
At LU4FM I saw for the first time in my life two of now so
popular categories: Single Operator Assisted and Single Operator
2 Radios.
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Gerard LU1FZR assisted by Florentino
LU2FYA |
Ed AZ8FAD in front of 2 radios, gets
instructions from Francisco LU9FDG |
In Central Europe it's 1 A.M.when these 48-hour contests end.
But in Argentina it's time for a beef dinner so we all went to a
restaurant down town Rosario and enjoyed great red wines from
Mendoza. Yes, you've guessed, after Rosario I went to Mendoza to
visit some wine cellars, among other things.
But before that, I visited Radio Club Rosario's main venue of
daily activities, the spacious premises in the centre of this
second-largest city of Argentina. There are rooms for DXing,
training, reading, computers and an office with a part-time
employed secretary. At that time there over 400 paying members
and the club was open every evening of the week.
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Members of the board discuss current
affairs |
Brass, brass and wallpaper. |
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They take care of visitors at LU4FM.
Ricardo LU9FIO presented me with information leaflets
about the town. |
Newcomers are introduced to operating
techniques on 80 meters |
On the roof of the club, there is an impressive multi-band
array for daily routine DX work.
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A tribander for 10-15-20 m and 2el 40m
yagi@LU4FM |
The club was founded 75 years ago, another good reason for
presenting LU4FM here. Radio clubs in South America play also
important social role. Members bring sometimes their wives and
children when they drop in. Other subjects can be discussed but
obviously radio is the main theme here.
Contesting from LU4FM in recent years has been reduced. Sometime
Single Operator or even Single Operator Single Band entries can
be seen in contest results. The club has potential for serious
Multi Multi operations. I only hope that the reason of this
diminished enthusiasm and contesting spirit is a temporary spell
of weak economy in the country. I hope that it is not, as in case
of a club I knew well near Stockholm, that impotent and ignorant
people, like corporate bandits, took control over the club and
strangled enthusiasm and activity.
Radio Club Rosario has an informative web site but only in
Spanish, as far as I know, at http://www.lu4fm.org.ar/
Henryk Kotowski, SM0JHF
* It is not Single Operator 2 Radios in one of the pictures.
One radio malfunctioned so instead of fault-finding, they quickly
brought in another transceiver.
All photographs and text copyright Henryk Kotowski
A Visit With Radio Club Rosario
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Reply
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by LZ1ABC on March 14, 2002
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Very nice story!
But i dont remember this LU stn.
Maybe because i am from 3 years on the band.
well anyway 73's de Chav/Lz1abc
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A Visit With Radio Club Rosario
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by VE2DC on March 17, 2002
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Interesting article....
A quick check of the log and I see I have worked them on all bands (80-10) many times since '88 when my electronic log starts...
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A Visit With Radio Club Rosario
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by SM0JHF on March 19, 2002
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It seems that nobody can explain it to me why my photographs uploaded as 300x500 pixels each are sometimes larger sometimes smaller on this web site. I have tried MS Word and HTML to write articles for contesting.com but the graphic results are unpredictable. Irritating.
Henryk SM0JHF
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A Visit With Radio Club Rosario
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by vu3pai on April 2, 2002
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It is very greate Station , Congratuations, keep it up CU, TU, bye bye 73's, de VU3PAI going QRT.....
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