Ham radio operators around the world are queuing up to work the official flagship Olympic callsign 2o12L. FrequencyCast went behind the scenes to find out what it’s all about, and how this unique callsign is being managed.
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Here’s an extended version of our 2o12L Interviews (Duration 7 minutes)
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2 Oscar One Two London:
The 2o12L amateur radio special event station started up on the 25th of July 2012, and will be operating around the clock, with the aim of “working” 60,000 amateur stations around the world, during the 2012 Olympic Games. For FrequencyCast Show 78, we looked behind the scenes, and spoke to the team operating this prestigious flagship station.
The 2o12L Operating HQ in New Eltham
Pete M0PSX operating the 2m VHF station under the callsign 2o12L
One of the HF operators, working the world on the amateur radio bands
2o12L Video Montage
Here’s a short video montage, voiced by our Pete, taking a look behind the scenes:
2o12L Interview Transcript:
Here is the transcript of our look behind the scenes at callsign 2o12L.
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Here’s an extended version of our 2o12L Interviews (Duration 7 minutes)
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Transcript continues from London Film & Comic Con
Pete:
Right, it can’t have escaped your notice that there’s a major sporting event taking place at the moment, and we’ve been looking at a rather special radio station. If you tune in, you won’t find any music, adverts or DJS, but lots of this.
Radio Operator:
We’re located in south-east London, and as you may have gathered, this is the Special Event station for the 2012 Olympic Games. 2 Oscar 1 2 L .
Pete:
We caught up with team leader Bob to talk about the hottest spot on the amateur radio dial.
Bob:
The aim is twofold: one, to have a great time playing radio; the second is to encourage visitors to take up the hobby. We have an exhibition which explains to people who are complete novices to radio. We have five stations here, three HF stations, two VHF stations, and we have six big antennas outside which Pete will attest to, because he’s drooling at them.
Pete:
And if I understand correctly, you have a target to try and talk to 60,000 other amateurs around the world in the seven weeks that the event is on. How achievable do you think that is?
Bob:
We’ve actually been blown away by the amount of people that are queuing up to make contact with us, such that, with 7,500 contacts in less than two days, I think that the 60,000 contacts is going to be achieved much much quicker than we thought.
Pete:
We also caught up with one of the busy operating team, Kevin – M0KSJ. Now Kevin, you’ve been working since the first day of the station, and hard at work mostly on the HF bands. How’s it been?
Kevin:
Oh, it’s been fantastic. If you come on the air with a special event call sign of this magnitude, everybody in the world wants to work you, so if you’ve been struggling to work stations from your home, you come on with Two Oscar 12 London, everybody wants to work you, so yeah, a fantastic experience, and a great team event as well, from all the members down here.
Radio Operator:
Two Oscar One Two London – thank you for calling.
Bob:
The station and the exhibition here is open daily, from ten in the morning till four in the afternoon. That runs until the end of the Paralympics. All the details of the event are on our website, which is www.2o12L.com. We’re also on Facebook, and on Twitter.
Pete:
Well done to the 2O12L amateur radio operators, working around the clock for seven weeks. See the video clip up on our site for some behind-the-scenes pictures.
Transcript Continues: Phoenix FM Interview
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Here’s an extended version of our 2o12L Interviews (Duration 7 minutes)
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