It’s All in the Cards! QSL Cards from Morocco

Today, OnAllBands turns its attention to Morocco—an African country known for its rich history, vibrant culture, and stunning landscapes, from the Sahara Desert to the Atlas Mountains. If you’ve seen “Laurence of Arabia” and “Gladiator”, both filmed in Morocco, you’ve gotten a taste of its diverse scenery.

The 1942 classic film “Casablanca”, (Morocco’s largest city), however, was filmed almost entirely on the sound stages of Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California. While its shooting locale was inauthentic, who can forget Humphrey Bogart’s parting words to Ingrid Bergman at the airport:

“Here’s looking at you, kid. 73!” Or something like that.

As always, we’re featuring some of the QSL cards the active operators at DX Engineering have collected over the years.

Morocco on the Air

The 40-10M CN2CN activation by VA3QSL is scheduled to run through February 14 from Agadir, a city of close to 500,000 on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. You can attempt to reach this holiday-style operation on CW, SSB, and Digital.

Located in northern Africa, Morocco has a population of 37 million and covers an area slightly larger than California at 172, 410 square miles. This measurement does not include the disputed 266,000-square-mile Western Sahara region, which the U.N. considers non-self-governing territory.

Some Quick Facts

Morocco gained its independence from Spain and France in 1956.
Morocco is the only African nation with coastlines on both the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
Its national drink is mint tea, known as “Berber whiskey.” Despite the name, the beverage is non-alcoholic. The boiled concoction contains Chinese gunpowder green tea, fresh spearmint leaves, and plenty of sugar.
Morocco is home to the world’s oldest continually operating university, Al-Qarawiyyin, or Kairaouine. Founded in 859 A.D., the university in Fez, Morocco, is part of the “Medina of Fez” UNESCO World Heritage site. Read more about it in this article from the BBC. Morocco boasts nine UNESCO World Heritage sites in all.

QSL Cards

The active hams at DX Engineering have had great success contacting Morocco (a good reason to contact them for help with your gear if you’d like to do the same). Here are a few of the QSL cards from their collections.

Mark, W8BBQ, DX Engineering customer/technical support specialist, contacted 5E50SA in February 2010 on 17M SSB. The card is in memory of the victims of the February 29, 1960, magnitude 5.9 earthquake which destroyed, by some estimates, 90% of Agadir. It killed up to 15,000 people (a third of the city’s population at the time) and left scores of Moroccans homeless. The tremor struck just before midnight and lasted 15 seconds. Due to its shallow depth, the earthquake caused extreme surface shaking, turning it into the deadliest quake in Moroccan history.