Hi!
Omar XE1AO, a regular satellite operator from central Mexico, e-mailed me news of a special callsign that will be showing up on the satellites between now and 31 August 2009. The call, 4C50C ("Four Charlie Fifty Charlie"), is part of the "Trabaja Todo Colima" (Work All Colima) special event currently taking place in the central Mexican state of Colima. This event is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the creation of the J. Roberto Levy radio club in that state.
During the months of June, July, and August, stations from all over Colima have been on HF and the satellites, trying to put all 10 Colima "municipios" (municipalities, similar to counties in the USA) on the air. On HF, the special call XE50C has been used from different parts of Colima. Now, four hams (XE1AO, XE1ATZ, XE1AY, and XE1J) have been authorized by the Mexican telecommunications regulator CoFeTel to use 4C50C on the satellites as part of this event.
Initially, XE1AO will attempt to put 4C50C on AO-51's evening passes along with VO-52 and FO-29 evening passes. Omar and the other 3 hams hope to expand the use of 4C50C onto SO-50 and AO-27, plus look at passes at other times of the day during this period.
For hams outside Mexico, XE1J is the QSL manager for these special calls. The Mexican QSL bureau will take care of QSL requests from XE hams. Along with the QSL cards, there will be a certificate available to stations that work stations in at least 7 of the 10 Colima municipalities and also accumulate at least 74 points based on the location of the stations worked in Colima. Additional points are available for working certain stations like XE50C and 4C50C.
More information (in Spanish) is available at:
http://arco.sat-xe.org/XE50C/XE50C.html
and also:
http://arco.sat-xe.org/4C50C/4C50C.html
For now, the 4C50C page is a mirror of the XE50C page. It will be updated shortly, with new information related to the 4C50C call.
Good luck, and 73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/