In search of KH6SP club members from the past

[Robert Carleton]

During field day a few of those operating may have heard the call sign
KH6SP from the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The call sign is
held by the US Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation committee and
presently, is not directly associated a club at Pearl Harbor.

There are a number of people in the local Hawaii area that would like
to bring the original club back to life but there is little
information about the club in it's previous form.

If anyone out there could supply us with information regarding the club
we would be happy to hear it. Please send E-mail to r...@pegasus.com, or
bcol...@pegasus.com. We can also be reached at (808)472-7394 as Robert
Carleton or Brett Collars.

Thanks in advance,

Robert Carleton

[wa6...@yahoo.com]

Well, this reply may be a bit tardy (your query was posted in 1993 and it's now 2014).

I was stationed at CINCPACFLT in '67 and gained access to KH6SP in my spare time. A few of us (K5LTH (now W5LE), WB6BNQ, and K7TKX) operated the station heavily, running phone patch traffic for submariners on Guam and Marines in VietNam to their families in the US. The station at that time was a Collins S-Line and 30S1 Linear. Previous members left us with a big 4 element tri-band Quad. The station was located in a WWII era wooden building at the edge of the harbor. WB6BNQ and I ran the Typhoon Sara (Wake Island) relief operation from that building.

In late '67, I became CHOP at KH6SP as my full time assignment. We were told that the station would need to be moved to another location, a VERY HEAVY DUTY blockhouse on the other side of the Submarine Base, it had been constructed a few months after the Pearl Harbor attack to protect some 12KV switchgear, we moved into the second floor. The tower and Quad were moved as a unit by a large crane and placed on the roof of the blockhouse.

We were able to improve the station, adding RTTY capability and hosted a terminal on the Pacific Tsunami Network. We maintained a heavy schedule of military phone patch traffic on MARS channels and Amateur phone patching for folks on the smaller Pacific Islands and Antarctica. We had daily schedules with Guam and Okinawa on MARS RTTY cutting long tapes of Heath/Welfare messages that we relayed to CONUS MARS stations for further distribution. I continued as CHOP for a year before my enlistment expired and passed control to Les, W5LE.

-Mike-
WA6ZTY

[Jerry Stuckle]

Mike,

LOL, this is the first time I've seen a USEFUL post to a message over 20
years old :).

But I, for one, found it very interesting. I wonder if they ever got
the club restarted.


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Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry, AI0K
jstu...@attglobal.net
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[mikepro...@gmail.com]

I also operated from KH6SP located in a 2 story tower at the sub base Pearl Harbor. Was stationed on the USS LANSING DER388 part of DesRon 5. The equipment at the time was an HT37 and an NC303. A homebrew amp was also part of the setup altho I don't remember what. The quad was in use at that time and the station put a formidable signal to the mainland. I ran a few phone patches, not alot, but Viet Nam hadn't started or at least wasn't public knowledge. This was in 1961-1963.

[mikepro...@gmail.com]

Late again, but I think the call is now located on the USS MISSOURI at Ford Island... NOt sure. Seems as though someone told me that.

[mart...@gmail.com]

Greetings just ran across this article was looking up some old History on my call then K6BEY I operated the station from 1959 to 1960 when I left the service. Ran lots for phone patches for the sub sailors and also cincpacflt where I was stationed . My barracks was the sub-base
Martin Reynolds NV5D.

[c.kih...@gmail.com]

I operated the station for about six months prior to Les getting out of the Navy - sometime in late 1971 or early 72. Not sure who replaced Les - I left in May of 72 on my last patrol on Aspro SSN 648. Tom Hawkins also operated the station while I was there. The S line was there and I did some repairs on the receiver and transmitter. Had problems with Geckos crawling into the power supply and shorting out parts. Seems that we had a secondary rig setup, but I do not remember the setup. I don't remember any other location having the strong signals that I heard from KH6SP.

Clint Chron
W7KEC

[gac...@twc.com]

I too operated KH6SP, in the upstairs of the block building, much as Clint Chron W7KEC did. I was a radioman on the USS Ouellet (DE-1077) home-ported there in Pearl Harbor. We were there from around June 1971 through February 1972, so I often went up to KH6SP and ran phone patches for the submariners on Guam. Besides the Collins S-Line, I think there was a Drake R-line, with a Henry 2K amp as the backup station.
Gregory Cross
W8FJK (ex-WA8FJK)

[Navy Sailor]

I
I'm Alan, WB6THE
In about 1972-1974 time frame I used to hang out at KH6SP when I could get off the old oiler USS Kawishiwi (AO-146) where I was a Machinist Mate. I recall there was an S-Line and a Henry 2K3 anplifier and the 4 element quad.
Used to walk past that transformer building and wonder if that antenna was amateur radio. One day figured security would shoot me or I'd be chased away but there sat Les who said come on in. Ran many phone patches into CONUS but I missed the heyday of the station's heavy operation. BTW it's November 21st 2022 today.

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