In August Estonian amateur radio celebrated its 100th anniversary! It is known that schoolboys in Pärnu built and completed their first amateur radio equipment (was a receiver) on August 5th, 1924 - this date is considered the start of amateur radio hobby in the country. 

To celebrate this date, a special event station ES1924TE was activated for 2 weeks - activity dates were 5.08.-18.08.2024. The suffix TE reminds about the first "invented" call-signs the Estonian hobby pioneers started to use - first known calls on air were TE2OL and TE2WA. ES1924TE was active on all amateur radio bands and most common modes, more than 14000 QSO's were made during this period. 

We also created a special web-site for the event and launched an award programme. To get an award you needed to collect 100 points - if you made QSO-s with ES1924TE, check from the web-site below if you have got a right to download this nice award! We will also send out a QSL-card via bureau to all who have requested it or sent us a card. 

See the ES1924TE special web-site and read about the award programme here!

Thank you for calling us and for overall good activity!

ERAÜ board  

EESTI RAADIOAMATÖÖRIDE 60. SUVELAAGER

TORUPILLI TALU, VALGAMAA  

14.07. - 16.07.2023

ES1LL Video Youtubes

On a general meeting of the ERAÜ that took place on April 27 at Türi, the new board for the society was elected for the next 3 years - see the info here! Small changes were also made in the committees. 

We are glad to announce that an international team of operators under the call ES9UKR came first in the CQ WPX SSB Contest 2023 in M2 category! The operation was carried out from ES5TV's contest station and an outstanding score of 36.7 million points was achieved (8815 Q-s and 1754 prefixes). The results table can be seen here!

The operators were: UR0MC UR5ECW UR5YKO UR8UQ US0YW US2YW UW7LL UW8SM ES2MC ES2RR ES5JR ES5MARI ES5QA ES5RY ES5TV ES6QC LY1FW RC5A

Special QSL-s were also printed, so, if you had a qso and would like to get a card, please send one to ES QSL bureau and your card will be answered. 

Slava Ukraini!

ERAU HF Committee

We have updated the Estonian "firsts" tables (DXCC count) on VUSHF bands, that can be followed from the link below. If you find that you have a QSO with an ES- (or former UR2-) station before the date in the table or that your country is not in the list at all (but you have a QSO), please let us know via e-mail to es2nj[ät]erau.ee. 

ES firsts on VUSHF

Gratefully,

VHF Committee 

We herewith inform, that due to the continuous Russian invasion in Ukraine ERAÜ has decided to cancel also the 2023 ES OPEN HF CHAMPIONSHIP on April 15th. We are hoping for the restoration of peace in Eastern Europe soon that would allow us to invite you to participate in ES OPEN in 2024!

ERAÜ Board and HF Committee

Seeing the brutal invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, ERAÜ expresses our deep sympathy to the Ukrainian people and is totally condemning this military action! To show solidarity with the hams in Ukraine, ERAÜ proposes that ES amateurs should temporarily stop working with Russian hams on air, though understanding that they can not be blamed of the current situation.

We are glad to announce, that the Lithuanian Amateur Radio Society (LRMD) has joined the proposal.  

Slava Ukraini!      

ERAÜ Board

On August 20 Estonian Republic celebrated its 30th anniversary of restored independence. On that occasion special event station's ES30ES activity was launched from 20.08. till 29.08. The station was active on most HF bands and modes. The operation was coordinated by ERAÜ's president ES7GM. Logs will be uploaded later to LotW, QSL-cards will be sent out centrally to all correspondents, no return-QSL is needed! More info at qrz.com.

Happy anniversary, Estonia!

ERAÜ board

The amateur radio societies of the 3 Baltic States were jointly celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Baltic Way with activating special event stations from each republic. Special calls - ES30WAY, LY30WAY and YL30WAY were operating from August 19th till August 25th 2019 on all HF and VHF bands. A nice award is issued to commemorate this event - this is free (to download) to all, who fulfilled at least 30 points.

See the Award Rules here!

30 years ago we joined our hands, now were joining in on-air activity!

Baltic Way Award Organizing Committee

ESFF as a Hunter

1. Register to http://wwff.co and fill your profile (registration is confirmed manually, so it may take a few days).
2. wwff.co has lots of information about WWFF-programme, operation agenda, WWFF DX-cluster and WWFF-reference directory.
3. Work WWFF-stations! The popular Flora&Fauna frequencies are:
   Phone: 3.744, 7.144, 14.244, 18.144, 21.244, 24.944, 28.444
   CW: 3.544, 7.024, 10.124, 14.044, 18.084, 21.044, 24.894, 28.044
4. Your QSL-card is not needed for WWFF-awards! What is needed is that WWFF-station who worked you, will send his/her log to WWFF-manager (in Estonia to ES1NOA). You can manage your awards via “Logsearch” on wwff.co.
5. Apply global and national WWFF-awards via Logsearch-page. Awards hosted at WWFF-site are free and are sent by email (JPG or PDF).
6. Logsearch -> Top operators page lists top hunters and top activators. Number #1 hunter has over 13000 WWFF-references worked!
   
   

ESFF as an Activator

1. Check ESFF directory at: http://wwff.co/directory/ and choose the reference to activate. Directory also shows how many accepted qso-s from that reference has ever been worked.
2. Choose your QTH carefully. The whole station: radio + antennas must be located inside the reference area. The blue question mark on directory page opens  Protectedplanet.net map for this reference.
3. Additional information about references and their borders can be found from:
   1. https://tinyurl.com/esffmap (by ES1NOA - ESFF-references on the map)
   2. https://tinyurl.com/esffdatabase (by ES1NOA - ESFF-references with additional information on Google spreadsheet)
   3. http://natura2000.eea.europa.eu/ Natura 2000 areas on the map
   4. X-GIS 2.0 [looduskaitse] (maaamet.ee) Estonian Nature conservation and Natura 2000 sites (Looduskaitse ja Natura 2000 alad)
4. Make an operation! Minimum of 44 qsos is needed to “qualify” the operation for the top operators’ list, but you can collect 44 qsos on separate occasions. Even if you work less qsos, send your log, as it is good for hunters! For hunters there is no minimum requirement.
5. Name format for your log is like ES1NOA @ ESFF-0001_20190101 (call @ ref# date).
6. Any log programme which has ADIF-format (.adi/.adif) is good, but your log needs the following fields:
   Callsign used: STATION_CALLSIGN
   Operator callsign: OPERATOR
   Hunter’s callsign: CALL
   Date: QSO_DATE
   Time: TIME_ON
   Band: BAND
   Mode: MODE
   MY_SIG is “WWFF
   MY_SIG_INFO is your ESFF-reference like ESFF-0001SIG is “WWFF”
   
   If you have qsos to other WWFF-references (so called “park to park qsos”) you need also:
   
   SIG is “WWFF”
   SIG_INFO WWFF-reference number of worked WWFF-station like OHFF-0123
    
7. If you use paper log, the recommended software to convert it to ADIF is DF3CB’s Fast Log Entry (FLE) which is free and an easy text editor to produce ADIF-files for WWFF. You can use FLE in real-time or off-line.
8. Submit ADIF-log to ESFF manager to: . If you visit several times the same reference area, send your log after each operation. QSLs are not needed for WWFF awards.
9. Send also documents to prove from where you operated. Take e.g. a snapshot of your smart phone’s map programme or photo from your GPS position or send another document proving your location. You can also send photos of your WWFF-setup and nature area border signs.
10. ESFF manager will inform you when your log has been accepted and uploaded to WWFF.co.
11. Logsearch -> Top operators page lists top hunters and top activators. Number #1 activator has over 1200 WWFF-references activated! 
    
    Good luck!
    Timo, ES1NOA