This Xmas issue is the 61st published

PileUP!. When I now read the first issue

(1/97), I realize that this publication was
started by Harri, OH6YF (sk), Timo,
OH1NOA, and Ari, OH1EH. The excitement
and enthusiasm of the (then) young organizers
is evident. It was also catchy: our club
soon had lots of members in Finland 5% of
the ham population! This autumn we had a
little project regarding PileUP!. We asked for
paper copies of the early issues and they
were scanned into pdf-files and archived at
the CCF web site. All but two were found.
2002 was a busy year for CCF because of
WRTC2002 and from that year we are still
missing #2 and #3. If you happen to have
those, please contact us. Our compliments
are due to Arvo, OH3CV, who did the hard
work.
The previous issue of PileUP! (September
10, 2010) was a double issue, and it has
been accessed over 4,000 times from nearly
100 countries. Since then, we have worked
the SAC and CQ WW contests, inter alia. We
have also heard about the possibility to join
the January CCF/OHDXF cruise, which
again has an interesting agenda (ohdxf.fi).
Hurry along; you still can book a trip. This
one we owe to OH6KN-OH6UM and their
team of guests.
In December the sad news reached us. Pioneer
of OH radio contesting and inspirer of
many, Axel, OH5NW, passed away at the
age of 80. We have lost a true gentleman of
the bands.
Following the spririt of Axel and others, great
scores were achieved by OH hams in last
autumns contests. The number of Sunspots
still remained very low, which resulted in migration
towards the south in hopes of a thicker
ionosphere. The real long-distance traveler
was Seppo, OH1VR, who cleared several
customs checks to reach the distant ZL7land. The Canary Islands and Azores were
again a resort of many OH migratory hams.
Team Arcala announced last spring the

acquisition of reinforcements to the locker

room. Jeff, N5TJ, was promised to return to
the European scene, which he certainly did
from CR2X in CQ WW SSB. Records were
(will be) broken from the same station again
in November, when Toni, OH2UA manned
CR2X on CW. Congratulations to the Arcala
team. Lots of behind-the-scenes-hours were
certainly put to the project by many. We
earth-borns may not comprehend your (oversized)
activities, but we appreciate the reputation
that leaks a bit to us (CCF folks) too.
Talking about jumbo antennas - I have had
the opportunity to operate from OH8X a
couple of times during CQ WPX in M/2. On
the 2nd occasion in 2009, I saw the Mammoth
standing calmly in the snowy March landscape.
The coax cable came into the shack
too. One light press of the switch and it
would have been connected for me. But I
never did it, thinking Id be spoiled by the experience.
I just let Veijo OH6KN next to me
work the JA pileups on 80 and 160 SSB...
Not very smart thinking, many might say.
Well, I still get some pleasure from the 40M
dipole, 80M vertical and the 3-el motorized
and tunable fiberglass yagi at home.
The editors of this issue want to thank all
who contributed and you were many!. Jari,
OH6BG, covers VOACAP and reports great
work by many, and our congratulations are
due to Jari & team. We got some participants
to the rewrite-lyrics-to-Irwin-Goodman-songs
contest, TNX. Carl, K9LA, brings hope and
discusses solar flux and sunspots. CQ WW
CW aftermath comes in several articles by
Juha, OH8NC, Teemu, SM0W, and Ilkka,
OH1WZ. PileUP! interviewed Jeff, N5TJ, to
catch attention to his most recent achievement
from CR2X. He seems to be native to the
region EA8-CT3-CU2. PileUP! also interviewed
OT Pertti, OH2PM, on the eve of his special
day. Pertti has experience of radio
contesting from seven decades. Kari, OH5TS, covers SAC activities from the historical
town of Hamina and Antti, OH7EA, exposes

us to 5R8, where he was during CQ WW

SSB. All this and much more in this 72-page
PileUP! 15(1-2), another joint-work talkoo-issue
by CCF friends.