I recently returned from Northern Cyprus and managed to do a bit of radio work

I like to visit intresting places for my holidays and when my wife told me there was no TV i insisted that i would take my radio hi hi

There seems to be some troubles between Turkey and Greece over who has what in Cyprus and to be honest it is of no concern to me as a radio amateure we must not involve polotics in our hobby as it will cause friction (as i found out) as we must not discuss religion.

I contacted the 5B side of cyprus and was told that i should use 5b4/g7paf I then found out that if i use that prefix then i would risk attention from the Turkish Cypriot Police and would be put in jail.....yadda yadda yadda....... Have we seen the film Midnight Express hi hi

So I made contact with 1B1AD Mustafa who gave me a lot of info into how i must apply for a 1B callsign

I contacted Ofcom and explained that the Turkish aurthoritys in Northern Cyprus requested validation of my Ham Licence of which Ofcom drafted me a More than comprihensive letter.

And so it was to be ... Igot my writtten permisission / Licence from TRNC to operate as 1B/G7PAF and 1B/N9YGF (the ARRL) were happy providing i had written permission.

I have since found out on my return the RSGB have said they dont approve (read my bit on polotics and radio).

So that was that I ran into a couple of stations who seemed hell bent on causing the maximum of havoc and did not have the balls to even give there call signs to be honest i dont care about the polotics all i wanted to do was use my radio to speak with other ham operators were is the problem with that. ????

SERIOUSLY WERE IS THE PROBLEM IN SPEAKING WITH FELLOW HAM OPERATORS

I WILL SAY HERE AND NOW THAT TRNC IS NOT A VALID DXCC SO THE QSL WILL NOT COUNT FOR ANY AWARD BUT HEY YOU DID HAVE A QSO WITH TRNC

I will be sending out the qsl cards when they arrive from the printer.

Although  asked for all I spoke with to qsl direct and not via the Bureau

I have had a large amount of cards arrive from the Bureau to those who did send this way you must be patient in the return !!

I made some 1,123 QSOs and I will return a card to you all but you must bear in mind that to do this in one hit would be very expensive so you will get your QSL in time as my funds permit.

To those who were kind enough to send a contribution or even an Envelope I thank you very much and your return will be PRIORITY here is the final design

My Trip to TRNC (TURKISH  REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS) was a Holiday nothing more and nothing less !!!

Here is the equipment i took with me

Radio ICOM IC-7000

PSU MYDEL 4128                    

ATU LDG Z-100

Mic Icom SM-20

Interface for digimodes  Microham IC

Computer ACER Aspire 1683 running MIXW

Antenna a closed loop antenna mesuring 125 feet

And that was the antenna I used .

Location was Katalkoy wwl KM65OE and 465 feet above sea level with a mountain range to the back of me my view out was to the north.

The weather was never below 30c (night time)and max was as high as 43c for a few days in the afternoon.

I was bitten alive by the Mosquito's to the point of not being able to go out

They really give me a serious problem hi hi

Anyway i worked most modes even getting some SSTV contacts

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT MY HOLIDAY TRIP TO TRNC

REGARDS

BOB

G7PAF / N9YGF

HERE ARE A SELECTION OF THE E-QSL CARDS I HAVE RECEIVED

1B/G7PAF QSO Statistics

Band/Mode Breakdown