KØTVD Remembers KØAIR
When I heard the call, KØAIR, on the air a few weeks
ago, it brought back some very powerful memories of days
gone by! I was asked to share them, so here goes.
While I was stationed on the island of Okinawa, in the
Ryukyu Islands, with the US. Army, during 1967-69, I had
the opportunity to have many conversations with KØAIR,
who, at that time, was operated mostly by a wonderful
airman named "Al." I never got the opportunity to actually
meet him face to face, but I felt like I knew him just the
same.
As a 20 year old midwestern boy, far away from home for
the real first time, and having been a ham for ten years
at the time, when I arrived on Okinawa, I immediately
sought out anything resembling an HF antenna. Luckily, in
the barracks next to mine, was the 555 LE Maintenance
Company, who had a Tri-bander mounted on the roof of the
building! I went back several times until I finally met
the "Chief Operator", Rick Crabb, a great guy from New
Mexico, who traveled quite extensively with the USARPAC
Calibration Team throughout Southeast Asia. After checking
out my license and operating qualifications, I received a
key to the shack and permission to operate whenever I
wanted! What a thrill!
Since 1967 was approaching the peak of the sunspot
cycle, world-wide communications were routine and being on
the "other end" of a DX pileup as KR6CF, is a thrill that
I will never forget! I, of course, sought out a station in
the midwest to see if I could get a phone patch through to
my family back in Omaha, Nebraska. I had recently married
and was expecting my first child at this time, so I was
anxious for any news from the homefront! I was very
fortunate to hook up with several stations from Omaha, who
were very happy to provide phone patches for a local ham
overseas. Unfortunately, many of these same stations
didn't have the signals that could compete with the
extremely strong stations in California or Japan.
Enter KØAIR. Al heard me trying to get through one day
and jumped right in with his powerful signal! He told me
that he would be happy to patch me through to my family
and pass other patches as well! We set up a schedule a
couple of times each week and he provided me with
information and updates on a regular basis that would have
taken weeks to accomplish through the US. mail. One day,
while making a patch home, my Grandmother, WØCCD, informed
me that my new son had just been born a couple of hours
before and that I could talk to my wife in the hospital.
Al immediately dialed the number and I was connected with
her 10,000 miles away, to celebrate this wonderful
occasion!
Since my wife and son were planning to join me on
Okinawa as soon as the doctors allowed them to undertake
such a journey, we spoke often, trying to iron out all the
details of such a trip. Al was also very helpful to me in
getting thousands of phone patches passed for service men
and women that had been wounded in Viet Nam, and were on
the hospital ships "Sanctuary" and "Repose", as well as
the hundreds of fellow Army guys that had witnessed my
communications with my family over those several months.
One specific instance stays in the forefront of my mind
even today, some 30 years later. We had an Army General
who had two teenage daughters who had boyfriends back in
Texas. There were days that, even with good propagation,
that we weren't able to make communications with the
mainland that was of phone patch quality. This particular
evening, when we were unable to get through, I received a
call from the General, asking me why we weren't able to
patch his daughters through. I informed him that our
station was old and in need of a serious upgrade to
provide reliable communications. He asked me what I
needed, in the way of new equipment, to continue to
provide phone patches in a reliable manner. I figured that
I had nothing to lose, so I told him, "A new HyGain TH6DXX
antenna, a complete Collins S-Line, with 30S1 amplifier,
should do the trick!" He told me that he would see what he
could do!
I had completely forgotten about this conversation
until about 2 months later, when my CO called me in to
tell me that there were "many" large boxes in the mail
room, addressed to KR6CF "MARS" Station and for me to come
pick them up. What a surprise! The General had come
through!!
During the weeks that followed, we assembled all of
this wonderful new equipment, installed the new antenna,
and tested it out. The General, in the mean time, had
phoned me and informed me that he could now see of no
reason why I couldn't patch his daughters through to their
boyfriends in Texas! I had really stuck my foot in my
mouth this time!
Everything went along wonderful for quite some time.
The General's daughters were happy because they were able
to communicate with their boyfriends. The General was
happy because *they* were happy, and I was happy because
all of them were happy! One day, while trying to pass a
patch, the conditions were horrible and phone patch
quality was not what it should be. I was having a very
hard time hearing Al at KØAIR. I told him of my problem
with having promised the General that I would provide
phone patches for his daughters and mentioned that I
probably would be operating from the Republic of Viet Nam
very soon! Luckily, Al understood. He told me to standby
for a few minutes and he would see what he could do to
improve his signal strength on my end. In a few minutes,
he came back on the frequency and was 20 over S9. What an
improvement! I told him how much his signal had improved
and asked him what he had done! He informed me that he
didn't think that the Air Force would mind if he
"borrowed" their worldwide communications antenna system
for a little while! What a guy!
Soon, I was transferred to another position, away from
the 555 LE Maintenance Company, and a new operator came on
the scene, to replace me. This gentleman was another "Al"
from California. By this time, my family had joined me on
Okinawa, and I knew that the station was in good hands. By
the time that I returned to the States, in August of 1969,
the operator of KØAIR, Al, had left the service and
returned home to somewhere in Florida. I never had the
pleasure of meeting this wonderful man, to personally
thank him for all that he did for me and the others who
were thousands of miles away from home! So, if by chance,
you ever get a chance to read this, Al, THANK YOU from the
bottom of my heart! KØAIR will always hold a special place
in my memories!
Chuck Sudds KØTVD
csudds@probe.net
July 28, 1997
Missouri Valley, IA USA
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