1Z9A 2009 East Karen State, Burma

Operator Laydo Moo is there now and operating QRP

I went to DX Summit and did a search for 1Z9A and found him spotted in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Most of the 5 to 6 spots were for only one or two days, in the same month and most were on the 40 meter band. There was no pattern as to which month he was active. Of course, the spots were obviously not all of his activity. I did not spot him when I worked him in 2009, but I did see 6 additional spots for Sept. of 2009, the same month and day I worked him. 9V1RA worked him at 1357Z on 7/9 and I worked him at 1400Z on 7/9, then he was spotted on 40m immediately after, by 9V1RA again at 1403Z. Gene AF3Y

Hi Gene, This is a most interesting card. Back in the 1980's there was a lot of activity from XZ5A, XZ9A, 1Z9A, 1Z9B, 1Z9D. I worked most of them several times. This was a rebel group called the Karen National Union stationed in East Karen State that fought against the then Burmese government. If I remember right, they were trying to declare independence for East Karen from Burma. They were on the ham bands as pirates. Back in 1981 Laydo Moo was probably a teenager. In 2009 he was probably around 47 or 48 yrs old. He apparently escaped being captured by the now Myanmar government. Myanmar does not issue callsigns starting with 1Z and its still very hard to get a legitmate license starting with their ITU assigned prefix of XY, XZ to operate in Myanmar. Laydo is still a pirate! This never counted for DXCC at the ARRL and the 2009 operation also will not count. It is interesting that he has a stateside QSL manager. Back in 1981 he had JA8BMK as a manager. They went quite for a while and reappeared in 1988 with AA6BB as a QSL manager. I personally don't have a problem with him getting on the air from a semi-rare country (ranked #39 in 2009 and #36 in 2010). To me, he would be fun to find and work and get another card. I just wouldn't send it to the ARRL...hi Tom K8CX

QSL & info courtesy of AF3Y
Last paragraph courtesy of K8CX