The first version of this was not formatted in Plain Text for the
list. Hopefully this one will make it OK. 73, Bill W4ZV
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: K1ZM@aol.com
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:16:39 EST
Subject: Re: Topband: FIRST EVER QSO JA (Zone 25) - VO1 Nov 23 2008
Hi There
I do believe VO1HP is first or a couple of good reasons:
1) Until Loran shut down, it was virtually impossible for an Eastern
NA station to HEAR Japan.
Several East Coast stations were copied in JA, but the US stations
could not ever hope to hear JA's coming back to them due to the
strength and omnipresence of Loran. Any station active in the 1970's
and ESPECIALLY a VO1 had NO CHANCE of working JA until Loran shut
down.
2) W8JI managed to do it prior to Loran shutting down but that was
only made possible by unique filtering Tom came up with to notch out
Loran - but he was in OHIO and not in VO1.
3) The first known Mid Atlantic/New England USA East Coast qso's with
JA were made by Bill K2GNC in 1981 not long after the shutdown of
Loran - and he was in NY - again not in VO1.
4) Even the old man himself, Stew Perry, W1BB, never made a two way
with JA - although he was heard over there numerous times in the late
1970's - but again, Stew often lamented that he could not copy the
JA's due to Loran.
The closest Stew ever got to working Japan was a rare qso with Marcus
Island (now Minami Torishima) - which incredibly was made in the
SUMMER MONTHS.
The fact that Stew, or K1PBW or Ralph Green W1HGT could never do it
from New England until after Loran shutdown, suggests to me that Frank
deserves this honor.
>From what I know of the recorded history of the band, Frank is indeed
the first and, considering his modest xmitting and Rx setup, it is
indeed a BIG DEAL!
Congrats to Frank.
73 JEFF K1ZM/VY2ZM
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