HAGAL
INTERNATIONAL
3
3
by Ahron Kirschner 4X1AT
and Ron Gang 4X1MK
THE HOLYLAND CONVOY
There’s no stopping
him! To activate rare Holyland
squares, Alex 4Z5KJ organized a convoy. Five mobile stations hit the road on
June 3rd: 4Z5KJ, 4X6ZK, 4Z5NB, 4Z7GDF and 4Z5PM.
The goal was to traverse the
The route
was planned through
The last Holyland Program operation from this area
happened long ago before the second Palestinian Intifada
(uprising). Since then many Israelis haven’t teaken
to traveling in these districts. There have been terrorist attacks against
lone Israeli vehicles that drove this
way, with not a few people being murdered on this road. That's why it was
decided to enter this area with a special convoy of a few vehicles, equipped
with arms, VHF communication and other security devices.
Max 4Z5PM,
despite a
serious handicap and many health problems, enjoyed this trip and
wouldn’t forget that day. As he said, he is ready to come out onto the road again.
The main
HF operator for this trip was Mony 4X6ZK
who handled 7 hours of pileups making more than 700 SSB QSOs while mobile.
This well-known ham, both inside and outside Israel, got his
Holyland Award a long time ago , but decided to join this trip and renew
this fantastic feeling - to introduce this magic land on the air.
Dov 4Z7DGF got his first license two weeks before the trip. Congratulations for such a really good start for your ham career!!!
We took our first break happened
close to Kfar Alon, on the
way from
About 20 minutes from Alon , the convoy entered
the Judean Wilderness. The destination was a couple of rare squares
and famous site which is venerated by Muslims as Maqam
El-Nabi Musa,
the magic minaret in the middle of the Desert. The main body of the present
shrine, mosque, minaret and some rooms were built during the reign of Al-Dhaher Baybers, a Mamluk Sultan, in 1269 AD.
One of the most active participants of the Holyland program over the last years is
Eli Shahaf 4Z5NB. On this trip Eli took upon himself quite a hard mission - to operate on
Being in those
places and not visiting the Har-Gadir area was
unforgivable. There is no Israeli population in this area .
Those places looked uninhabitable ,but from time to
time the convoy encountered Palestinian cars on the road. The place was
uncomfortable for Jewish tourists but really very picturesque.
The ‘’Ships of the Desert " in these
lands are the usual thing.
Alexander
4Z5KJ - is very active
"Holylander" and convoy organizer. For his
next Holyland Trophy he needed the last 15 squares. Here is slices a juicy watermelon.
Another Convoy
member was Sergej Demin,
ex:UA4WGN. He has no 4X-call , lives in Haifa and his hobby now is photography.
The trip came to its conclusion near Mount Gilboa. From this place (about
Thanks to Alex Goldenberg 4Z5KJ for organizing this expedition and writing it
up in QRZ.co.il from which this article was lifted,
edited and abridged. Thanks to Sergej Demin 4X/UA4WGN), Dov Paz 4Z7DGF and Nathaly Goldenberg 4X/UA0ZFR) for the photos.
The QSL card from 4X58ID, special event station for
Israel’s 58th Independence Day, 2-3 May 2006. Operators were 4X1VF, 4X4DZ, 4X4FJ,
4X4FR, 4Z4BS, 4Z4KX, 4Z5AV, 4Z5ML and 4Z4MU. About 4200 contacts were made with 85
countries.
70 YEARS: THE VOICE OF ISRAEL
This year the Israel Broadcasting
Authority commemorates seventy years of Hebrew broadcasting in our fair land,
starting with the first broadcasts of “Kol Yerusahalayim”, The Voice of Jerusalem three score
and ten years ago.
In cooperation with Kol
Israel – a special event operstion is in the
works to commemorating this 70 birthday.
The operation will be well-publicized, with a special certificate and QSLs, with a site linked to Kol Yisrael.
The
operation will run for 14 days from Sep 9th 2100 local time through 15th 2100
local time (three hours ahead of GMT if we are still on daylight saving time).
Ten
callsigns, appearing below, will be operating, and keep your ears open for one
of them in the seldom-heard-these-days AM mode!
Like
with last year’s Maccabiah operation, if you
work all of them you’ll get a special certificate. Each one commemorates a different
station or network of the Israel Broadcasting Authority:
4X70K – Reka Network – broadcasting in 8 different labguages for new immigrants
4X79O – Reshet Gimel – popular
Israeli music station
4X70L – Reshet Dalet – Arabic
Service
4X70I –
88 FM – Progressive Rock and Jazz
4X70S – Kol Hamusica – Classical
and Art Music
4X70R – Morasha –Traditional and Judaism programming
4X70A – Reshet Aleph – Culture and Art programs
4X70E –
106FM – Educational Network – stations operated in high schools
4X70VOI, 4X7VOJ
– Reshet Bet – News and Current Affairs
programming.
It is expected that one of the stations will operate
from Reshet Bet’s studio, and that the operation
should bring a good bit of publicity to our hobby.
- . . . -
4X6KJ, chairman Joe, has a few announcements:
After a hiatus, the 2007 IARC CD will be coming out and distributed
among all IARC dues-paid members.
It will include a callbook of all licensed
Israeli amateur stations as well as listings of overseas IARC members. Other resources… articles and
software will be included. Members
are requested to send Joe an up-to-date digital photo, which will be used also
for the new membership cards, and the plastic credit-card-sized license which
is issued only to licensed amateurs who are IARC members. If your license is expiring, or
you’ve lost your plastic license, please notify 4X6KJ so you can get a
new one.
- . . . -
THE NEW IRC DESIGN
The design of international reply coupons
has changed over the years, as has the value. In
The new IRC is larger than the previous
version, and has a new color to provide a distinct visual difference in the
coupon series. The theme of the new coupon, "La lettre,
une voie vers l'alphabétisation"
(The letter – a path to literacy) has been printed in French between the
name of the country of origin and the date stamp of the exchanging country.
It has also been printed on heavier paper
commonly used for bank cheques to allow for machine
processing. The value of the new IRCs has been set at
0.74 SDR, but each country determines its own selling price in accordance with
the postage corresponding to an unregistered overseas priority airmail letter
of the first weight step.
This is the new IRC coupon to be released
on 1 July 2006 and will be valid till 31 December 2009
- . . . -
73 de Ahron and Ron