On a warm Sunday morning in Dec. 1941, while
American service men were at church, on the
golf course or tennis courts or just relaxing,
Japanese naval aircraft slipped in from the
north and attacked Pearl Harbor. When the
attack finally ended, the bulk of American
naval power in the Pacific lay crushed and
burning. And, several thousand young American
military men, women and civilians lay dead
and wounded. The Hawaiian Islands were left
open to invasion. It was, as President Roosevelt
put it, "a day that will live in infamy,"
and it changed America forever.
In the memory of those who died and were
wounded at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941,
the North Kitsap Amateur Radio Club, of Poulsbo, WA. sponsored An Amateur Radio special event
station (KC7Z) at the Naval Undersea Museum
in Keyport, WA. This is the story of that
event.
The idea for this event came from Bob Tomas
(N7KTP). This was the sort of thing Bob would
do. He had been interested in ham radio since
he was a kid -- introduced to it by his father
(W9NXP). Bob naturally gravitated to Electrical
Engineering at the University of Ill. His
college career was interrupted for service
in the Navy during the Korean War; he returned
to graduate in 1956. Following graduation,
he entered Civil Service and, for 28 years,
held a number of responsible jobs in missile
guidance and support equipment. With his
engineering background, ham radio exams were
easy: Tech Plus in 1987, General and Advanced
in 1988 and Extra in 2000.
As his Deputy Project Manager, Bob selected
Ed Bruette (N7NVP). Ed was an avid reader
as a youngster. His favorite subject was
submarines. He joined the USNR while a jr.
in high school, went to submarine school
and then to active duty. His first boat was
TRITON (SSN 586), which earlier had been
the first submarine to circum-navigate the
globe submerged. He spent his first 19 years
as a submarine Quartermaster and his next
11 years as a Chief Warrant Officer. Three
years prior to retirement, Ed became active
in emergency communications in Kitsap County WA He is currently active in the Western
Washington Repeater Association, serving
as Vice Chairman for their Six Meter Committee
as well as Chairman of the Repeater Association.
He is also ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
for Western Washington and Asst. State RACES
Radio Officer. He holds a General Class License.
With invitations to the principal radio clubs
in the greater Puget Sound area, the project
came together nicely. Operators joined us
from Mike and Key, Radio Club of Tacoma,
and from several of the smaller clubs in
the Kitsap County area - Burley Amateur Radio
Club, North Mason Amateur Radio Emergency
Service (NMARES) and the Peninsula Amateur
Radio Emergency Team (PARET). At the Naval
Undersea Museum, our hosts were Museum Director,
Bill Galvani and Exhibit Director, Ron Roemholdt.
In spite of heightened security, following Sept. 11th, there were very few restrictions
on where we could string antennas, raise
towers and park trailers and vans.
On Friday, Dec 6th, everyone arrived on time
and with the promised equipment. We set up
two ICOM 746s just inside the entrance to
the display area in the museum. Charles Richard
(W4HFZ) set up an APRS (Automatic Position
Reporting System) on the opposite side of
the entrance. Many visitors to the museum
stopped to ask us what we were doing ---
a good public exposure to ham radio. We set
up two more ICOM 746s in the parking lot,
one each in a trailer and van. Antennas went
up with little difficulty, The antennas for
the two rigs inside the museum were a Cushcraft
five band vertical on the museum roof and
a B&W (10-160) dipole provided by Deputy
Project Manager Ed (N7NVP). The dipole was
strung between the sail from the submarine
Sturgeon (SSN 637) and a tripod at the corner
of the Museum The antennas for the two outside
rigs were a Cushcraft tribander at thirty
feet, a home brew ten meter monobander at
fifteen feet and a five band vertical. The
two yagis and supporting towers , and the
five band vertical, were supplied by PARET
(Peninsula Amateur Radio Team) under the
able direction of Mark Yordy (W7BBO). PARET
also provided a 5KW generator which powered
the outside rigs for the duration of the
event. The ten meter monobander was assembled
by Mark, from spare parts. PARET also strung
an eighty meter dipole between the towers
supporting the outside yagis. It was fed
with four hundred and fifty ohm line and
defied all attempts to bring it to resonance
until we realized that it was too close to
the ground and close and parallel to a half
wavelength of chain link fence!.
We began operations at 0800 local time on
Dec 7th and closed at 1600 on Dec 8th. everything
worked for the entire on the air period -
almost no Murphy! In fact, Jerry Felton, (W7TVA) worked a VE1 in Nova Scotia on six
meters using the all band HF dipole.
Our objective was to tell the Pearl Harbor
story in such a manner as to commemorate
those who lost their lives or were wounded
in the attack, and we did it well. We operated
in two hour shifts around the clock, and
by startup time, there were very few vacancies
in the ops roster. We operated the two rigs
inside the museum both days from 0800 until
the museum closed at 1600 and the two outside
rigs for the entire event. We made it apparent,
in our invitations to the area clubs, that
we wanted to bring as many operators into
the event as possible irrespective of license
class. We succeeded. There were several new
tech licensees who had had no previous HF
experience. With just a little prompting,
they were at like pros! We invited the local
newspapers (CLIPS??)) to cover the event,
and they did. Seattle TV station KIRO (Ch7)
also covered our event while covering the
Pearl Harbor Survivors ceremony at the museum
on Dec. 8th.
At the end of the event, we took the stations
down in record time. Discussing the best
way to take down the outside yagis, some
sage remarked: "just cut the guys!"
Field Day style events always come down faster
than they go up, and this was no exception!
When the event was over, twenty seven operators
of all license classes made five hundred
and two QSOs on all HF bands, including six
meters. We worked forty eight states and
five countries, although we didn't try to
work DX. The QSL Manager for the event is
Project Manager Bob Tomas (N7KTP) - see any
recent Call book. An SASE will bring you
a special QSL designed for the event. In
spite of the typical windy and rainy Northwest
fall weather, we had a great time for a worthy
cause and we did it at a very interesting
and historic site. Our next event will probably
be the sixtieth anniversary of the signing
of the documents ending WWII See you on the
bands on Sept 1, 2005.
We want to thank the North Kitsap Amateur
Radio Club for sponsoring the event, the
Naval Undersea Museum, and Bill Galvani and
Ron Roemholdt for hosting us, ICOM for providing
us with four ICOM 746 rigs, Mark Yordy and
PARET for their significant contribution,
the news agencies and TV who covered us and
the clubs of the greater Puget Sound area
who joined us as operators. It was a great
working team, and we left promising ourselves
that we would do other events together ----
Sept. 1, 2005?
Finally, we especially want to pay our thanks
and our profound respect to the Pearl Harbor
Survivors who met at the Museum during our
event. It was in memory of their fallen comrades
that they and we were there.
Author Bio notes -------
Tom Sanders (W6QJI) is a retired Consulting Engineer and Adjunct College Professor in Computer
Science. He was first licensed as W6QJI on
Sept. 17, 1938 , and he has been continuously
active, with time out for WWII. He spent
WWII in submarines in the western pacific.