Collins Special Event Stations

Following up on a recent post – Special Event Stations – the Collins Radio Club is currently running a special event to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Collins Radio and the 50th Anniversary of the S-Line. There are 6 stations participating in the event, 5 of which are in the US and the other in France. Making contact with 4 of the stations qualifies you for a special certificate. Last weekend I was able to make contact with W0CXX on 20m and 40m and W5ROK on 20m. Since last weekend, the other US stations weren’t online when I was and if the DX cluster spotting would have shown them online even if I wasn’t, they showed nothing during the week for those stations.

Well last night, after dinner, I got on and N0CXX, W4CRC and W6CXX were on the air. I was able to quikcly make contact with W4CRC in Florida. The operator said I was busting through the pileup on my simple 100w G5RV. Always amazes me when they say that. It took a while longer to track down N0CXX as they were moving around on 20m. It was frustrating for a while because the op and some other contacts were rag chewing while there was a large pile up waiting to make contacts. But finally, I got in and was able to make contact with N0CXX which is located in Cedar Rapids along with W0CXX. I found W6CXX which is located in California but there was too much splatter from other stations on nearby frequencies to get a good copy on them even if I could make contact.

So I have the 4 I was looking for, but I’d like to still make contact with W6CXX if I can before the special event ends on the 20th. No one, including the other Collins ops that have mentioned it, have heard the France station online so I don’t think there’s much hope to make contact with K6FNZ for a clean sweep.