SUBMARINES ON THE AIR:
April is the birthday month for the US Navy Submarine Force. Every year, the Submarine Museums and Amateur Radio forces join together to run a Special Event to commemorate the contributions of "Silent Service". This year, the event was on April 24th and April 25th. Kitsap County is the home of the Bangor Submarine Base and it is appropriate that a Special Event be run during this period.
A Special Event is an opportunity to operate with a group of fellow Hams in an atmosphere away from the home QTH. It is a way to learn how to operate with just the bare essentials – something we would have to do in an emergency situation. It is also an opportunity to show Amateur Radio to the community and make people aware that we are there to serve. We are there to provide alternate communications in times of an emergency or disaster at no cost to the taxpayer.
The Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport has invited NKARC to run a special event station any time we could find a reason. The possibility of running a "Submarines on the Air" event was discussed and quickly endorsed by the museum. The NKARC board has approved the event and preliminary plans are underway. Bob Tomas, N7KTP, has volunteered to coordinate the event with the museum staff. Plans are to operate two stations within the museum. Setup was on Friday afternoon, April 23rd.
Bob Thomas, N7KTP will be approaching the club members for sign-up to various tasks. We had fun at the last event so don’t be bashful about joining for this one. We will also be announcing this to the rest of the clubs and amateurs in the county to get a sufficient number of operators for the event. More than 30 museum submarines worldwide will participate in this
Submarine Veterans Amateur Radio Association special event. Stations will transmit on 80, 40, 15, 10 and 6 meters--CW and SSB..Follow Up 2004...
The Submarines On The Air event was a success this year despite the poor propagation experienced on most of the Ham bands. The club trailer was towed to the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport on Friday afternoon, April 23rd. Those present got to work and installed the new B & W folded dipole recently purchased by the club. The vertical antenna was installed on the club trailer to give it the "Ham club" look.
Russ, KI7PG, brought his ICOM rig on Saturday morning and contacts were started on the 20 meter band. The 10, 15, 17, 40 and 80 meter bands were tested during the event, with a small number of contacts made on each. Twenty meters was the band of opportunity. On Saturday, Russ (KI7PG), Tom (W6QJI), and Jerry (K9CCZ) fired up a rig in the club trailer and worked some CW stations on the 15 meter band. Operations were shut down when the museum closed at 1600 resuming again on Sunday morning.
Saturday was also designated as E-Day (Ecology Day) which brought a significant number of visitors to the museum giving them a look at Amateur Radio.
Sunday’s operations were conducted using the NKARC Cart Station which was wheeled into the museum and put on the air for operations. The event proved that NKARC is capable of setting up for emergency communications with the club trailer if needed.
In summation, one hundred forty contacts were made by Bill, W7ARC during the event with one station operating continuously and five from the second operating CW for one hour on Saturday afternoon. Contacts were made with stations in thirty seven states and Canada. Five of the contacts were with submarine museums. Two of the museum contacts were with Russian museums on display in the United States—one in Washington and the other in Rhode Island.
Thanks to those who participated in the event and to the Naval Undersea Museum for allowing NKARC to use the museum as the operating base. Next year will provide another opportunity for SOTA 2005. Let’s plan to be there.