I encourage every OM to use this wonderful tool which is LoTW (FAQ). I do not collect paper QSL cards anymore, so, please send your card via the Bureau only if you really need it! TNX.
Direct link to "how to send your license photocopy to ARRL for LoTW activation"

QSL info for outside of Italy

DIRECT    I regret asking for money but due to today's very expensive Italian postal rates for postage (see down below), for direct QSL cards a contribution for return postage + S.A.E. (or a Self Addressed Sticky Label) are required as I do this way when requesting a QSL to other hams and read carefully what they require for QSL exchange in their qrz.com pages. I'm sorry, I'll reply via the bureau to QSL received without contribution, unless the QSL has been received from a "most wanted" Country.

I usually go to the post office every other Saturday 

3 (three) U.S.$       for       "outside EU"  ( no IRC )

1 U.S.$ or 1Euro     for      "EU"           ( no IRC )

Equivalent in Italian postage stamps is fine. PSE do not forget S.A.E.

  Italian postage rates for outside of Europe vary from 2.50$ to 3$ 

QSL info per l' Italia

PREFERISCO conferma tramite il sistema LoTW. Per QSL dirette è sufficiente una busta pre/auto-indirizzata e pre-affrancata

Icom IC-7300 HF & 6m

Kenwood TS-870 HF

Kenwood TM-V7 V/UHF

Vertical X-200 for V/UHF

LZA-5-6 :  5 element Yagi for 6m by LZ ANTENNA

LZA1 40/30 :  Rotative dipole for 30/40m by LZ ANTENNA

LZA-9-5 :  9 element - 5 band Yagi for 20/17/15/12/10m by LZ ANTENNA

Home-made inverted V full size wire dipole (unfortunately close to the roof) for 80m

Rotative dipoles for 10/15/20/12/17/30/40m  on single boom and single feeding line (made in Italy)

Home-made rotative dipole for 6m

Feeding lines:  M&P Ultraflex 10 / RG-213 / RG-58

LDGelectronics DTS-4 antenna switcher

Rotor Kenpro KR-450XL Yaesu G-1000DXC with ERCkit (rotor control device) and PstRotator (software)

CW paddles Bencher BY-1 and BY-2

E-SSB audio chain by BEHRINGER

MIC2200

DEQ2496

EX3200

MDX2600

DSP2024

FX2000

Audio Technica AT2035 condenser microphone

W2IHY 8 band audio EQ

Trust "COMO" PC headset microphone

KENWOOD MC-80 microphone

Sennheiser HD-437 headphones

HDSDR (software) and Softrock (device) Spectrum scope 

Winlog32 logging software

My short name is Nico, I was born in March 1977 (I'm 40) in the town where I still live in (Avola which lies onto the south-east coast of Sicily island).

I used to look at a radioamateur's antenna situated along the street where I and my family were in the habit of having a walk on Sundays. It was something that fascinated me.

I started enjoying this beautiful hobby, believe it or not, by getting a couple of those so called "walkie-talkie" toys and playing with my sister in 1988. While using them I could hear CB voices and it was kind of a torture not to be able to talk with them and my father (CBer of the 70's) told me I needed a CB radio, so, then I had fun on CB with a transceiver my grandmother gave me as birthday present. That was the time I got ill since as I realized about worldwide communications on SSB, so, in 1990 at the age of 13, I tried anything possible to get myself all necessary devices to work DX.

On 26th of October 1999 I got my ham radio licence: I was really excited.

I used a cheap 10m transceiver (President Lincoln 26/30 Mhz) for more than 10 years till summer 2003 and now I have a better radiostation!

I like CW. I still have to learn a lot to be a skilled operator. Sorry!

My wife Ilenia is 5 years younger than me as well as my second hobby!!! Eventually, after just nearly 19 years of engagement, we got married on 8th August 2015 and had our honeymoon in NY City and Mexico.

Other interests of mine at this present time are: bodybuilding, learning English (also French and a bit of Spanish), my motorbike (600 cc. DUCATI Monster year 2000), listening to any type of catchy music and photography.

My dream: to travel around the world not only by the airwaves!!!

2m local monitor frequency  145.212,5 FM simplex

Sicily, with its area of about 25,500 square kilometres, with more than 1,000 kilometres of several kinds of coastlines (indented, linear, rocky, sandy, etc.) and its nearly five millions inhabitants, is the major island in the Mediterranean Sea and the widest region of the Republic of Italy.
Because of its central position in the inland sea faced by three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa), the island has always been representing the meeting place or the collision point among several civilisations of the ancient, medieval and modern world.
Over the centuries Sicily has been ruled by up to thirteen peoples and noble families: from the Phoenicians-Carthaginians to the Greeks, from the Romans to the Byzantines, from the Arabs to the Normans, from the Suevians to the Angevins, from the Aragoneses to the Spanish, from the Savoy to the Austrians and the Bourbons; and inspite of this fact the Sicilian people never let itself be completely assimilated by any of them, but welcomed their cultural and linguistic contributions, without loosing its distinctive features consisting, as Cicerone noticed in the I century B.C., in distrust, intelligence and sense of humour.
To testify that the Sicilians were a self-formed people is the fact that in the VII century B.C. they already used their unitary symbol composed by the Gorgon’s head (the Gorgon is a female mythological monster that can make adversaries petrified) surrounded by three legs representing sunbeams as well as the three extremities of the island of Sicily.
The name Sicily derives from an Indo-Germanic root-word which sounds as seek, denoting growth; therefore it is supposed to signify land of fertility, so that it was long believed the name derived from the union of “sykon” and “elaia” (the ancient Greek language for respectively fig and olive, typical trees of the island). The island of Sicily has got another old name, still used: Trinacria (deriving from its triangular shape). The north-eastern side of Sicily, and precisely the Ionian coastline going from Taormina towards Messina, was called “Vitulia”, name deriving from the “vitelli” (the Italian for calves) farming practised there. Someone thinks that, from this area, the name, crossing the Straits of Messina and changing into “Italia”, ascended the peninsula and gave it the new name after several others.
Siracusa (the name of the main city of my province) derives from the ancient Sicilian “Sùraka”, signifying abundance of water, because of the proximity of the rivers Anapo and Ciane. “Katàne” is the ancient Sicilian for Catania, signifying grater, because of the volcanic soil on which it lies (a still active volcano is Etna whose height is more than 3,300 metres above sea level).
Sicily went through three important periods in particular. These periods let Sicily express the Mediterranean culture in the Greek, in the Arab and in the Norman form. During the Greek period Sicily produced geniuses such as Archimede, whose scientific contributions in the fields of physics and mathematics are still valid. Greek Sicily had the most beautiful coins of the “ancient world” (the “decadrammi” of Siracusa); two of the three metropolis of the “classical Mediterranean world” (Agrigento and Siracusa), the other one was in Greece (Athens). Siracusa was home of great philosophers and artists. One of the most beautiful passages of ancient Sicily’s history is the one regarding the peace treaty of 480 B.C.: the Sicilian winners imposed on the defeated Carthaginians, afterwards Imera’s battle, to give up sacrificing humans in their religious rites. This was the respect that Sicilians (considered as incurable bloodthirsty people by Denis Mack Smith, an historian who spoke of “cannibal” Sicilians who would be all Mafia members) had for human life even since the V century B.C. During the Arab period Sicily amazed the European continent by flooding it with wonderful textiles produced mainly in Palermo, and by introducing the use of paper instead of parchment; new agricultural cultivations, such as the one of citrus, were introduced as well. Sicily became the busiest centre for commerce and trades in the Mediterranean basin. With the Normans and the Suevians, Sicily became a model for Europe. In 1936, the historian Herbert A. Fisher, in his “History of Europe”, wrote that the Norman kingdom of Sicily was the best organized of any other European government of that time. It even had its first parliament in 1129. Of greater importance is the fact that the State was founded on an effective spirit of toleration of any religion.
Not only in the above mentioned three periods that Sicily went through, but also in several other occasions, Sicilians showed love for freedom, respect for democracy, authentic cult for humanity.
I hope I have not annoyed you too much and that you find this writing interesting! So, just let me finish by writing that besides the marvellous archaeological remains and ruins relating to those periods, in the island of Levanzo (Trapani) are some graffiti (dated back 50,000 years ago) representing scenes of humans. In Avola’s territory is a “dolmen” (funeral monument widespread in France and England) dated back to the prehistory. Give the sunshine island a couple of weeks of your life and it will show you more than 3,000 years of history.
Researches into these topics and translation into English language carried out by IT9PQJ Nico.

SICILY

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About my town (Avola)

My town Avola has a population of about 32,000 inhabitants and is situated on the south-eastern corner of the island of Sicily, lying just on the Ionian coast (downtown is at an altitude of about 40 metres above sea level), 25 Kms S-SW of Siracusa (the ancient city founded by the Greek people in 734 B.C.). At less than 6 Kms north-west of Avola are some 600 metres hills and a deep quarry with a river and two beautiful small lakes. Avola is known for its precious high quality almond, its vine (called "Nero d'Avola") and its sweets. In Avola's territory are several eighteen-century's churches (Avola was rebuilt on the plain after 1693's tremendous earthquake which destroyed the old village situated on the hills, following an hexagonal scheme whose shape delimits the today's town's centre).
Being a fine resort to visit, tourism is good in springtime and especially in summer to enjoy the wonderful seaside. Warm temperatures can be enjoyed until the end of October. In winter temperatures are not below 5° C (usually around 10° C).

AVOLA

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