[South Florida DX Association] ARO activity in Vatican City

[Bill Marx]

>From DAN,  W2NDP

 I thought some of you might find this interesting. It is via a team of
>  Monitoring Times writers. My thanks to them for sharing this info.
>   73,
>   Larry Van Horn, N5FPW
>  Assistant Editor/Milcom Columnist
>  Monitoring Times Magazine
>   
>   
> 
>  ** VATICAN:  HAM RADIO DYING IN THE VATICAN **
> 
>  Ham radio could soon be a thing of the past in the Vatican. This is
>  because there are no longer any H-V prefix stations to man the
>  controls. Amateur Radio Newsline`s Mark Abramovich, NT3V, was in Rome
>  covering the selection of the Catholic Church`s new pontiff when he
>  discovered that ham radio operations from all three Vatican stations
>  may soon be QRT for good:
> 
>  This was one of those stories I really didn`t expect to find. I knew
>  the challenge of going over to Rome to cover the election and
>  installation of a new pope would be enormous. I had been there in
>  2000 to cover the elevation of St. Katharine Drexel from
>  Philadelphia. This time, this ham was determined to take a little bit
>  of personal time to investigate the status of amateur radio at the
>  Vatican and also to look into the possibility of visiting one of the
>  few Vatican ham radio stations.
> 
>  Much to my surprise, e-mails sent a week in advance of the visit to
>  some of the call signs I managed to find went unanswered. A quick
>  call to the American Radio Relay League for an assist produced a call
>  sign at Vatican Radio, but there was no response to an e-mail sent
>  there, either.
> 
>  When I finally got to Rome, the days were long and the story of the
>  papal conclave and the elevation of the new pope kept all of us in
>  the news media busy. It wasn`t until near the end of my eight days
>  covering the story that I learned the shocking news - ham radio may
>  be disappearing from the Vatican.
> 
>  It came at the end of a briefing from the director of the Vatican`s
>  TV operations about the papal installation Mass. I approached one of
>  the engineers handling sound for the news briefing and asked him
>  about ham radio. He pointed me to Monsignor Lombardi, who handles
>  communications for Vatican TV and Radio.
> 
>  I asked Monsignor Lombardi about the Vatican`s ham stations and was
>  shocked to learn that they had all fallen silent. That`s right, he
>  says HV1CN - assigned to Vatican Radio - as well as HV5PUL, operated
>  out of the Pontifical Lateran University, and HV3SJ, held by the
>  Jesuit house in the Vatican City - were all inactive.
> 
>  Now I had learned just days earlier that the North American College
>  located on Vatican territory on the Geniculum Hill above St. Peter`s
>  Square had a ham station - I spotted the beam on a trip up there to
>  meet seminarians studying there who are from the Camden area just
>  across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.
> 
>  Monsignor Lombardi said as far as he knew, that was the only station
>  left in Vatican territory. But the seminarians and another monsignor
>  who was responsible for clearing communications with the North
>  American College, were unable to tell me anything about it. One said
>  he heard it was going to be dismantled because there were problems.
> 
>  I was unable to learn more about those problems due to the press of
>  my work covering the installation Mass for the new Pope Benedict XVI
>  and the aftermath for my commercial news station in Philadelphia.
>  However, e-mails are going back and forth to find out the status of
>  the North American College`s station and to press for more
>  information about getting it re-activated. At this point, I don`t
>  even know whether it has an active call sign.
> 
>  If Vatican ham radio is to survive, it looks like it will take an
>  experienced DXer with some good diplomatic skills to get in touch
>  with the Vatican or the North American College to offer an assist in
>  keeping it alive.
> 
>  In the meantime, Amateur Radio Newsline will stay on top of
>  developments and report them to you here. For now, making ready to
>  depart from Rome, I`m Mark Abramowicz NT3V signing /HV from St.
>  Peter`s Square for Amateur Radio Newsline.
> 
>  If all this comes to pass as Mark says, then the only way you will
>  ever again hear HV stations I if a Dxpedition is mounted to put the
>  Vatican back on the air. According to the 425 DX Newsletter, stations
>  in the Vatican are among the most wanted contacts, worldwide.