XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, rec.radio.amateur.policy, uk.radio.amateur
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"Les Hamilton was the amateur radio operator who told the British
government the islands had been invaded and the only person in Britain
to be in regular radio contact with islanders during the Argentinian
occupation."
https://www.scotsman.com/news/clydebank-radio-ham-helped-win-back-falklands-2510342
"The Falkland Islands weekly Penguin News reported this week on the
death in England of Reginald (Reg) Silvey, one of the perhaps lesser
known civilian heroes of the war in 1982, but almost certainly the one
whose activities put him most at risk of arrest and possible
execution."
https://en.mercopress.com/2019/03/18/falkland-s-1982-civilian-hero-and-life-long-radio-ham-dies-in-england
Did 'ham' radio operators on the Falklands really contact the
U.K. during the Falkland War? (Yes)
https://www.quora.com/Did-ham-radio-operators-on-the-Falklands-really-contact-the-U-K-during-the-Falkland-War
"Kasanzew was right in one respect: the islanders refused to accept
Argentinian rule, and many of them went to great lengths to make the
occupiers' lives as miserable as possible and to assist the British
task force. Resistance ranged from the comic - Eric Goss, the farm
manager at Goose Green, managing to persuade the Argentinians that the
odd lights probably emanating from British special forces in Falkland
Sound were due to moonlight reflecting off seaweed covered rocks - to
the downright dangerous: Reginald Silvey, the former lighthouse keeper,
spent the war broadcasting details of Argentinian troop movements on an
illegal-held radio. At the perilous extreme, several fully-armed local
men went into battle with the men of the parachute regiment at Mount
Longdon."
[...]
"When ham radio operator Bob North, a debt controller in North
Yorkshire, heard a south Atlantic call sign crackling faintly through
his headphones he reacted with great excitement. "It was about 20.00
GMT," he recalled, "two days after the invasion. I heard a station
trying to contact me with a VP8 call sign. I suddenly realised that
this could be in the Falkland Islands. I told the VP8 to repeat his
call, which he did, telling me that his call sign was VP8QE, his name
was Reg, and that he was in Port Stanley. Could I get some urgent
messages through to his relations?" Eight thousand miles away in a
small stone cottage, lighthousekeeper Reginald Silvey, redundant since
the invading forces extinguished his paraffin light on Cape Pembroke,
was taking the first step of a defiant campaign that would increasingly
frustrate the Argentinian forces. Alone in his house, Silvey was
reasonably sure he would not be disturbed, but took a risky measure to
give him a little more security. He got hold of a notice, signed by the
Argentinian governor, General Menendez, indicating that the house had
been cleared by the military police and should not be entered by
Argentinian forces. The notices had been produced on Stanley's ancient
printing press for official use, but, thanks to a casual run-on, extra
copies were circulating. Nevertheless, Argentinian signals troops
searched with increasing frustration for the source of the radio
transmissions.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/25/falklands.world4
"Back in 1982 I was a BBC journalist and also an amateur radio operator -
I still am. That means I have a call-sign - G3UML - and some expertise
in long-distance short-wave communications."
[...]
"So I took up a vigil in room 701, listening carefully across the 14, 21
and 28 megahertz bands for anything from VP8 - the international
call-sign prefix for the islands.
And about six hours later, I struck gold. On 21.205 megahertz at 1600
London time, that rather distinctive accent, a bit West Country - a
Falkland Islander.
And what a story he had to tell - a true scoop, an exclusive of the
greatest magnitude.
The voice was that of Bob McLeod, and he lived in the settlement of
Goose Green on East Falkland. His call-sign, I realised, was VP8LP but
he was anxious that it shouldn't be used. I have much of what he said
that day recorded on an old-fashioned audio cassette."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6514011.stm
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