Later on, in the latter part of the fifities, one evening, just during the gray line, my mommy told me: - "Have your shower and get dressed, put on the clothes that are over your bed. We are going to have a dinner at Mr. Ferraz's home", concluded her.
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After a
long and boring dinner, finally Mr. Ferraz invited us to the library where the coffee would be served. I was counting minutes to get back home when he suddenly said to me: - "I was told that you enjoy
listening to the radio, would you like to see my radio?"
I lost my breath when he opened a little door in his bookcase producing a pair of black radios, a Collins station, I knew later. When I saw the vernier I became very impressed how precise it should be. How easy to find stations, I thought. I would love to have one of these radios, I dreamed. I spent the next couple of years just remembering every single minute of that night in Mr. Ferraz library, specially when he took the microphone and returned to a very far away station saying: -"Here is papah yankee two ocean yellow, do you read?". Several years later, in the early seventies, after being graduated as civil engineer, I was assigned to work in the Brazilian Amazon jungle. Communications, on that time, were a great problem due to the large distances and scarce population on that region. All communications at the work site were done through a telegraph radio station, the magic sounds were back. I decided to be a ham which could provide some communication with my parents. I was told that I needed to learn the code, electronic and regulations regarding the use of the radio. I did the test and got the PY8APR callsign, later changed to PW8APR, due to the new Brazilian amateur regulations, which allocated from that time and on a very unique prefix to each Brazilian state. After a few months I was assigned to the Brazilian Central region getting the PY9UC call, a couple of years more and a new assignment came through moving me in to the Brazilian Southeastern region. This time I got the PY2YP call which I'm currently signing. I'm civil engineer, graduated in 1971, presently working as a private consultant in the highway industry. During the week work days I do live in Sao Paulo, a very noisy city, moving in to a lovely place during the weekends, where real antennas are assembled as shown on this web site. |
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On the air
I do a lot of DX, which is by far my favorite radio activity, working SSB and CW in equal basis, so you can easily find me on the air either on CW or phone. When time permits I do attend the major contests as ARRL DX, CQWPX, CQWW among others.
The Brazilian legislation allow us to have additional callsigns to attend contests, I used to hold ZW2YP, ZZ2Z presently signing PR2O. I still have all the logs and QSLs, so if you are prefix chaser and need a confirmation, please get in touch with me.
You can ask me for a schedule on 80 meters where my beloved 4 square antenna would help a lot to do the QSO. Please remember that I can only assure you to be on the air during the weekends. Please check my sunrise/sunset in order to maximize the odds.
Equipment
