Members of Flotilla 4 took to the airwaves as K0G on November 18th. In a facility that would make the people at NORAD jealous, seven Flotilla 4 members took to the air waves to participate in the Coast Guard Auxiliary's "Special Event Amateur Radio Day 2008."
This special event has been running for the past 10 years, and now has up to 60 U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary High Frequency (HF) Stations operational for this year's event.
The event commemorates the 69th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and HF Stations from all across the country were operational on amateur radio frequencies all day during this event.
Stations operated from Coast Guard Bases, ships, lighthouses and other HF facilities
Flotilla 4 operated from an HF station ran by Tony Radebaugh (N0NI) on his acreage outside of Perry, Iowa. This unique facility has over twenty radio towers and an unknown number of antennas from which to transmit.
The Flotilla made contact with 530 unique callsigns. We worked several stations more than once on the same band. We made the following number of contacts on the amateur bands:
- 15 Meter Phone 5
- 20 Meter Phone 265
- 20 Meter CW (Morse Code) 5
- 40 Meter Phone 255
- 5 Countries (Algeria, Belgium, Hungary, Korea, Venezuela)
- 40 States
- 2 Canadian Provinces
Twenty one 1×1 call signs were worked, these are special event stations, but all may not have been from the Auxiliary stations.
John Halbrook (KC0RAM) organized the day's events. Flotilla 4 members who participated included Roland Newton (KC0IEA), Nick Critelli (K0PCG), Norma Newton (KC0LIN), Doug Jansen (KB0UUJ), Brandon Butters, and Jeff Towle. Chuck Brudtkuhl (WA0ROI) also checked in as a special event station from his location in the Virgin Islands. Brandon and Jeff, being new to the experience, quickly picked up the procedures and sat for three and a half hours straight taking in a constant stream of contacts. They now both know what QSL, QTH, and CW mean.
When the event's nationwide organizers heard about our success they had a few things to say about it:
"WONDERFUL ! That is amazing – Hope all had a great time and Thanks ! "
Bravo Zulu – Dan
"I assume these people were K0G —- You guys were consistently the loudest station of all the CGAUX that I heard. CONGRATS and GREAT JOB!"
Bill
(l to r) Roland Newton, Brandon Butters, and John Halbrook work the radios during the Coast Guard Ham Radio Day. This station, K0G, was sponsored by Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 4 from Des Moines, Iowa. Photo Courtesy of Doug Jansen.
Nick Critelli makes a contact using Morse Code during the Coast Guard Auxiliary Ham Radio Day. Photo Courtesy of Doug Jansen.
Roland Newton (left) explains what he is doing to Jeff Towle during the Coast Guard Ham Radio Day. Photo Courtesy of Doug Jansen.
Brandon Butters adjusts his radio during the Coast Guard Auxiliary Ham Radio Day. Photo Courtesy of Doug Jansen.
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