Welcome back to contesting Waldemar, SM0TQX

It is always fun to see old friends back on the air. Contests give excellent opportunities for meeting many old friends in short time. It is slightly annoying and confusing with all these new short callsigns, contest expeditions and �special event stations�. It takes long time to associate names and faces with new callsigns - sometimes you exchange numbers with someone you despise and sometimes you miss a good friend disguised with some odd callsign.

Waldemar, SM0TQX, whom I have known for more than 35 years, surprised me on the last weekend of September 2005 when he out of a sudden appeared on 20 meters in the Scandinavian Activity Contest from �land Islands as OH0JFP. I have known Sture, OH0JFP for a few years and I knew that he was only interested in VHF and UHF regional weekly contests, known as NAC - Nordic Activity Contest.

Later, I was given a good explanation from both of them: Waldemar, SM0TQX has been off the air for a few years and Sture, OH0JFP is leaning toward shortwaves now and wanted to get a demonstration of an easy-going HF competition of world-wide scope.

The point of this story is that we should co-operate more with each other. There are many great and well-equipped stations, there are many stations with good location, there are many Amateur Radio operators who have contesting experience and many who would like to get into it but don't have a tutor.

Sture, OH0JFP has built an impressive contesting station out of town in five years. His station is competitive only on VHF and UHF, but he has a few HF antennas as well. I am sure there will be more of this stuff next year.

I met Waldemar in 1969 when we both lived in Warszawa, Poland. He was the chairman of the Warsaw Radio Club and was looking for operators for this club. At that time I was not really interested in Amateur Radio anymore, my licence had been revoked and I was considered an �enemy of the socialistic republic of Poland� according to the chief of the PZK organisation. Waldemar, who at that time held the callsign SP5DZJ, managed to convince me to join the club, which became the most active and the most successful one in the country in the first part of 1970's chiefly because of his determination and energy. Eventually, Waldemar lost his licence as well, for doing too much and too well.

A few years later I managed to leave the country and quite accidentally settled in Sweden. Waldemar came here in 1981 and stayed in Sweden because of martial law in Poland, but it took almost 10 years before I managed to talk him into getting a licence and joining a radio club near Stockholm that I was a member of. He became SM0TQX but never used this callsign, always prefering the club's callsign. During a few years in the second half of the 1990's we built a number of large Quad antennas for 40,20,15 and 10 meter bands at this club. However, in the year 2001 Waldemar, SM0TQX terminated his engagement in this club when some members openly complained about �the Polish mafia controlling the club and repelling pure-Swedish hams�. We were 2 Poles, approximately 5 % of the total membership, never held any seat on the board, but most likely we did too much work there and too well.

He went QRT and got fully engaged in the family business. I've kept trying to get his Amateur Radio interest alive but failed.

Now that Waldemar got in touch with Sture, OH0JFP who is like-minded - serious, hard-working and purposeful - I am sure there will be more and better contest activity from OH0JFP in the future. His first attempt during the Scandinavian Activity Contest on 14 MHz SSB Single Operator netted over 1000 QSO's which is not bad at all.

Sture, OH0JFP welcomes visitors, in particular those who can contribute to the development of Amateur Radio activities in his home area - �land Islands. Please check his website http://www.qsl.net/oh0jfp for more details and information.

Text and photographs

� Henryk Kotowski, SM0JHF

October 17, 2005