LU/WD9EWK - April 2004

Argentine flag

Updated 27 January 2006
In April 2004, after many years of traveling to nearby Canada and Mexico, and with the active encouragement of several friends, I visited Argentina for the first time.  A 10-day trip, including the travel time to and from the USA - 2.5 days in and around Buenos Aires, followed by 6 more days on the island of Tierra del Fuego.  A wonderful trip!  A great country, with friendly people, and they were able to understand my imperfect Spanish. 

Now that I am back, I have assembled descriptions of each day my trip along photos.  Please follow this link to my day-by-day description of my trip.  I also made a presentation to the Central Arizona DX Association (CADXA) on 1 July 2004 about this trip, and made a PowerPoint file with photos and other information.  If you would like to obtain this file, or the same presentation in a PDF file, please contact me. 

Radio operating
I operated only in Ushuaia, on 146.520 MHz FM chatting with local hams and one evening (Wednesday, 21 April) on 20 meters PSK31 from the Radio Club Ushuaia (LU8XW) station using my LU/WD9EWK callsign.  I made contacts with Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Spain, Uruguay, USA, and two Argentine stations (one in Salta in the north of the country, and the other was only a couple of km from the club station in Ushuaia).  Not much radio time, but I had much time to get to know the Ushuaia hams. 

Before my trip, I obtained an International Amateur Radio Permit (IARP) from the ARRL.  It is valid for one year, and costs US$ 10 plus a passport-type photograph.  You may view several pages from my IARP: 

There are other pages in the IARP in French, Spanish, and Portuguese (to substitute for the third page above in English), and other pages with information supplied by ARRL, which I did not include here.  I obscured the photo on page 4, since it was not a good photo, and nobody needs to have their eyesight damaged by seeing it. 

Along with the IARP, I applied for an Argentine permit from the Comision Nacional de Comunicaciones (National Communications Commission, similar to the FCC in the USA, and abbreviated to CNC).  The permit from the CNC is free, and valid for up to 60 days at a time.  I filed my paperwork in February 2004, specifying that I need the permit for March and April 2004, covering the period of time I was thinking about for this trip.  I had to complete a three-page application, and include copies of my passport's identification page and my US amateur license.  Claudio Fernandez LU7DW took this paperwork to the CNC, and obtained my permit in late March, about 2 weeks before my trip. 

The Argentine permit is two pages, with lots of legal citations, and my copies have stamps on the back of each page stating they are true copies of the original - wherever the original pages may be.  You may view this permit: 

With these permits, I have the legal authority to operate amateur-radio equipment in Argentina.  Unlike my Mexican amateur-radio permits, there are no restrictions written into the Argentine permit on my operating - other than to conform to the Argentine Superior class, the top class of Argentine amateur license.  You may view a copy (in Spanish) of the Argentine amateur regulations from the CNC.  In particular, the band allocations starting from page 55 in that PDF file - there are some differences compared to the band allocations in North America and other places. 
LU/WD9EWK online log
You may search my online LU/WD9EWK log for your contact.  This has some of the information from my logbook I take with me on my trips to other locations with radios. 

I will design a QSL card for my LU/WD9EWK activity and send one out for each contact.  If you wish to send me your card, I can receive it directly or through the QSL bureau system via WD9EWK. 

Thank-yous
I must acknowledge some people, for helping me plan this trip and their assistance before and (later) during it (in no particular order): 
Questions or comments?
Please contact me, and I would be happy to chat more regarding this trip, or answer questions related to my trip and Argentina in general. 
WD9EWK/VA7EWK - Ham Radio - LU/WD9EWK - QSL VIA WD9EWK