Conducted by Bob W1RH
To have your favorite QSL card featured in the Nugget, just email Bob W1RH an electronic copy or trust him with a hard copy and he will scan it and return it to you in the same condition he received it.
This month’s QSL card comes to us from Rick, WA6NHC. Rick worked this isolated island in November, 2013, on 20-meter CW.
The ZD8O callsign was used for contest operations, between 2010, 2013 AND 2014, by Marko, N5ZO. Marko has operated from all over the world, but Ascension Island has got to be one of the most remote locations.
Ascension Island is part of a British Overseas Territory which includes Saint Helena Island and the Island group of Tristan da Cunha.
From the CIA Factbook:
This barren and uninhabited island was discovered and named by the Portuguese in 1503. The British garrisoned the island in 1815 to prevent a rescue of Napoleon from Saint Helena. It served as a provisioning station for the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron on antislavery patrol. The island remained under Admiralty control until 1922, when it became a dependency of Saint Helena. During World War II, the UK permitted the US to construct an airfield on Ascension in support of transatlantic flights to Africa and anti-submarine operations in the South Atlantic. In the 1960s the island became an important space tracking station for the US. In 1982, Ascension was an essential staging area for British forces during the Falklands War. It remains a critical refueling point in the airbridge from the UK to the South Atlantic. The island hosts one of four dedicated ground antennas (the others are on Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory,; Kwajalein, Marshall Islands); and at Cape Canaveral, Florida) that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation system. NASA and the US Air Force also operate a Meter-Class Autonomous Telescope (MCAT) on Ascension as part of the deep space surveillance system for tracking orbital debris, which can be a hazard to spacecraft and astronauts.
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