FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, December 19th, 2018
FROM THE VILLAGE OF SANTA CLAUS, FINLAND
THE NEXT GENERATION SANTA CLAUS AT OF9X, WITH A GLOBAL MISSION
https://www.visitfinland.com/lapland/
Thank you kindly for the many letters addressed to Old Father 9 Xmas, OF9X. Many have wondered what has happened to old Santa Claus and his communication arm Santa Radio?
Has he faded away with the poor radio conditions or simply gotten old and unable to travel the world for Christmas?
The answer is Ho-Ho. All is fine and Santa Radio is ready to pass on short Xmas messages to people of all ages around the world.
This year, however, the actual radio operations will be led by the younger elves.
The seasoned elves from the different villages of this land of Christmas - Finland - will be substituting.
The Hunt for Santa Claus (HSC) will start on Friday, December 21st at 1800 UTC. It will end at 2400 UTC on Monday, December 31st.
This year Niko, OH5CZ (18), Otava, OH3OT (16) and Arttu, OH2FB (15) are heading the mission along with many others from their age group, while the more seasoned elves bang the drums in between.
The youngsters will be 25 pointers, and you can identify them by a two-letter X-report.
For example Niko will give you 59 XN. The regular elves will give you 5 points and a three-letter identity, such as 59 RAI or 59 TIM.
Your target is to contact OF9X once on each band-mode. For example once on 20m CW, once on 20m SSB, etc.
Your score is band-modes (5 pointers) added together plus number of X-QSOs (25 points each).
The five (5) highest scores from each continent will be awarded and all high-scorers (up to 10 from each continent) will participate in a lucky draw of a unique first prize - one that only Santa's office is aware of at this point.
This year's Santa Radio is organized by three regional groups: Radio Team Mustila, OH5Z, The Radio Club of Pusula, OH9W, and northern Radio Arcala, OH8X, with their associated elves, supported by the Finnish Amateur Radio League (SRAL).
Watch the OF9X QRZ.com webpage and Club Log (www.clublog.org) for your progress and the latest news.
Enjoy the Hunt for Santa Claus Activity, which is dedicated to two prime causes this year:
First, counting on young elves for this Christmas, as the future of Amateur Radio.
Second, please kindly consider sharing in a common mission to save our planet.
Santa's operations are carbon neutral. We balance our carbon footprint and believe that all institutions and individuals with sufficient means ought to consider doing the same.
We trust our fellow amateur radio operators to be good citizens and we value honest dedication to promote local and global social good.
Radio Arcala, OH8X, has partnered with the Norwegian Worldview International Foundation (www.wif.care) in its mission to restore the mangrove forests in Asia.
They have planted 90,000 mangrove trees in WIF's Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park, located on the west coast of Myanmar.
The late Thor Heyerdahl was a world-renowned explorer and used amateur radio (LI2B) when he was sailing his balsawood Kon-Tiki raft across the Pacific Ocean, from South America to the Polynesian Islands.
Please join the Thor Heyerdahl spirit and our Santa mission to do your share in saving our planet.
All Club Log donations of ten (10), twenty-five (25) or one-hundred (100) U.S. dollars will result in the planting of 10/25/100 mangrove trees in the dedicated Santa Claus section at WIF's Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park in Myanmar.
It is targeted that 10,000 new trees will be planted as part of the 2018/2019 Santa activity. This represents a new frontier of Amateur Radio in this good global cause.
You can use the Club Log donation option that will be opening soon to have your support transferred directly to WIF.
The OQRS for OF9X QSL requests and the OF9X QSO leaderboards will also be operational soon.
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