Franco is a second place of the SBA Award 2024! His constant commitment and especially the performance of his Fixed Station are remarkable. We have often connected him in backscatter mode! Even if you would think that it would be easier for him to connect us because he lives in Sardinia. We know well that the eleven meters allow direct connections up to a maximum of 50 – 70 km in flat conditions, for this reason with Franco we have often connected in backscatter anyway.
SBA TEAM: Dear Franco, how does it feel to be a deserved third place of SBA 2024?
FRANCO: Having ranked in 2nd place by participating in the “SARDINIA BEAUTIES AWARD 2024” was a great satisfaction for me (to which, among other things, I dedicated considerable effort, which will remain in me as the memory of an excellent radio event, based on the friendship and fairness of the participants.
A sincere thank you to the Team: Alex 165 DA 101, Gaetano 1 DA 005 and to the Group’s “mascot” the Penguin Giacomino!
165 AT 448 Franco.
We meet Franco 165AT448, a very correct and friendly radio operator, until now often present at every on air appointment with SBA! Franco transmits from the city of Sanluri, in Center South Sardinia Island. Here is his self presentation:
Hello Friends,
I’m Franco 165 AT 448, an old CB born in radio way back in 1973 (my first CB Authorization
dates back to 1975) and Radio amateur with license and license since 1987.
My first DXs confirmed with QSL date back to 1975, naturally we are talking about AM
connections, within the 23 channels authorized in Italy at the time, which ranged from 26,965 to 27,255 MHz. Here in Sardinia we were at the dawn of CB, a period that I remember with immense pleasure and a pinch of nostalgia!
In 1980 I joined the Alfa Tango Group, with a predominant passion for long-distance connections, and I was assigned my first call sign 1 AT 448 (until 1982), which was followed by 165 AT 448 (1983-1995) and 165 AT 011 (1996-2005), and with enormous satisfaction, I held the position of Coordinator of Sardinia Division from 1983 to 2005, the year in which I had to abandon radio activity (both in 27 and in the HAM bands) for both work and family reasons.
In October 2021, having regained some free time to dedicate to hobbies, which had to be neglected, as already mentioned, due to work and family commitments, I decided to resume radio activity (both as OM and in 11 m. ), requesting the assignment of a new callsign and license for the
HAM bands and “re-entering” the ALFA TANGO Group, with my old call-sign 165 AT 448, used by me with large satisfactions from 1983 to 1995.
And here I am…… still on the radio, with the same passion and spirit as fifty years ago, in
search of “new country”, which is increasingly difficult to find!
73’s de Franco 165 AT 448!
SBA TEAM: How do you find the sba award and what does it convey to you?
I think your idea of bringing the beauties of Sardinia “directly to your correspondent’s home”
through the SBA, with radio activations, is excellent! A combination of passion for the radio and for
activations with the beauty and culture of a thousand-year-old island, thus giving those who
connect to you the opportunity to know and appreciate, through images, films and explanatory
writings, the sites that active! Finally, thanks to the work of Gaetano 005, we will send you a
beautiful diploma in memory of the contact! I believe that this experience and the results and
consensus you are obtaining are a source of pride for you in moving forward with this activity of
yours, and that they at least partially compensate for the sacrifices it entails!
Compliments! Keep going!
Franco 165 AT 448.
Thank you Franco for your beautiful words, we greet you cordially and look forward to seeing you in the next SBA activations, always as one of the firsts in the log!
SBA TEAM.
WBA - HOME PAGE 