[WWYC] 10 years ago

[Thomas Andersen]

Hi everyone!

Did you realize that WWYC is celebrating it's 10th birthday these
days? I made a trip down memory lane to try to remember how it all
started. This is what I found out.

10 years ago I was 16 and had just started contesting on the HF bands.
I didn't know any other young guys interested in contesting until some
contest in the fall of 1999 where the exchange was the age of the
operator. I remember being very happy when I worked Dimitar LZ5AZ.
Dimi gave me 599 15. I just checked my logbook and sure enough there
is a QSO with LZ5AZ in the 1999 JARTS RTTY contest:

RK3RWL 1999-10-15 13:25:02 20M RTTY
UA9CLB 1999-10-16 06:46:00 20M RTTY
--> LZ5AZ 1999-10-16 06:59:00 20M RTTY <--
RA4CTR 1999-10-16 07:00:00 20M RTTY
SV2BZQ 1999-10-16 07:02:00 20M RTTY

You will notice that the QSO took place on 1999-10-16 which is exactly
10 years ago tomorrow!

After the contest I wrote an email to Dimitar and quickly we also got
in contact with 9A6XX, YT7AW, SM3WMV and DJ1YFK. The rest is history
as they say but without the enthusiasm and work of guys such as Hrle
and Fab WWYC would not be where it is today!

To celebrate the birthday I will be QRV as OY3AA saturday morning this
weekend in the 2009 JARTS RTTY contest. Unfortunately another QSO with
LZ5AZ ten years later will not take place since Dimitar is sadly no
longer among us.

10 years old already! As Fab said, WWYC will soon have to stand for
"We Were Young Contesters" :-)


73,

Thomas OZ1AA

http://www.oz1aa.com