Veterans Day Radio Activity

Except for some casual scanning, I really didn't do any monitoring today. My radio activity today was Veterans' Day related. After attending a Veterans' Day Ceremony in Effingham County, my father Mac McCormick, Jr. AF4KL and I spent some time searching the HF bands for some Veterans' Day special event stations. Band conditions weren't all that good this afternoon, but here are the stations we found and worked:

WW1FWB - A special event station in Charles Town, WV commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War 1 and honoring Frank W. Buckles, the last surviving American WW1 veteran. What an honor is was to work WW1FWB, we both passed on our thanks and best wishes to Mr. Buckles.

K0GRL - A special event station at the East Nebraska Veteran's home by the Strategic Air Command Memorial Amateur Radio Club, honoring America's Veterans.

K8V - A special event station in Iron Mountain, MI honoring America's Veterans.

W5M - A special event station in Spiro, Oklahoma celebrating the 233rd birthday of the United States Marine Corps.

We wanted to get the USS Essex and USS Kidd special event stations, but propagation wasn't with us for those. I could hear stations talking to the Kidd, but couldn't hear the Kidd itself. The Essex was coming in weak, but the signals weren't strong enough for us to go back to it. They seemed to be only working 20m and the signals were just going right over us.

It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon with my father and the hobby we both enjoy. If you're interested in the Effingham County Veterans' Day Ceremony we attended, you can see my blog post about it here.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net