Easter Island is a remote volcanic island in Polynesia and special territory of Chile. Its native name is Rapa Nui. It’s famed for its archaeological sites including nearly 900 monumental statues called moai, created by inhabitants during the 13th–16th centuries.

It’s one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. The nearest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island, 1289 miles away and the nearest continental point lies in central Chile, 2182 miles to the east.

From the radio amateur’s perspective Easter Island is in CQ Zone 12 with a primary prefix of CE0Y and is ranked 94th on the Most Wanted List. It isn’t considered terribly rare since there has been plenty of activity from there, but having never confirmed it on any band or mode it’s rare to me.

I mentioned yesterday having read that Roberto would be there this week operating vacation style as CE0Y/CE3CT with a preference for CW. I added an alert for his call sign to my logging program in the event he was spotted. Just a few hours later my phone trilled with a spot for him on 15 CW.

I tuned across him and he was weak. So weak in fact that I decided not to call unless the copy improved. Fortunately, his signal began to slowly rise and within 20 minutes or so he was solid copy here. I dropped my call about three times and finally made contact with Roberto and promptly celebrated with a glass of Marques de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon, a nice Chilean wine!

Roberto’s QRZ page says he will be uploading his logs to LoTW when he gets back home near Santiago in a few days. Happy dance!