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Johnston Island Revisited |
by Gary E. Belcher, KH6GMP
While I was stationed on Johnston Island in 1953 and 1954, I spent a lot of time in the HamShack. The U.S. Air Force had seen fit to allow me to spend my first overseas assignment there on that little rock in the Pacific Ocean, about 800 miles southwest of Honolulu. I had just completed Communications Center Specialist training at Cheyenne AFB in Wyoming. I felt fortunate to be sent to Johnston. Everyone in the class, but me, had been sent to Korea. I was not licensed at the time, but there was a Ham station and I hung around almost anytime I wasn’t working, just watching and listening. I remember the transmitter was a BC-610 and the antenna was a 500-foot longwire strung between the station and the roof of the barracks, and if I remember right, the call at that time was KJ6FAA. I spent my 20th birthday at Johnston Island, and 11 December 2002, I spent another birthday, my 69th, there also.
I was able to fly down on 10 December 2002 via a military contract flight out of Hickam AFB in Hawaii. It was a short flight, only a couple of hours. As we approached the island, I could not believe the change that had occurred since the early fifties. So much dredging has been done that the island seemed about ten times what it was back then. I couldn’t recognize anything. I was met immediately upon arrival by David Faucher, KH3AC. David has been on the island since 1989. He is not very active on the air because he works so hard and such long hours. Luckily, I arrived during the lunch hour and he had the time to take me on a guided tour of the island and drop me off at the shack, (KJ6BZ Club Station), so I could get started. I set up my gear and was on the air by 3 p.m. local time, making contact with my friend Gary Elliott, K7OX. The pileups began shortly after that. What an incredible week it was. One pileup after another. Mostly sideband but quite a few QSOs on RTTY. A big TH7 triband Yagi had been my mainstay antenna until Friday the 13th. Forty minutes before the start of the ARRL 10 Meter Contest, the coax opened or shorted up at the rotor and it was ‘done.’ I had to run the whole contest with a very ineffective low mounted multiband wire antenna. I operated with that antenna until the minute I had to QRT to catch the plane to come home.
My quarters were very comfortable; air conditioned, private bath and shower, 16 channels of commercial television and daily maid service. To my surprise, they also provided me with a golf cart for the duration of my stay. I lived within an eighth of a mile from the station, but the dining hall was about a mile, so the transportation sure came in handy. I never did get around to operating “Mobile KH3.” The people who live on Johnston Island really eat well. I would rate the place as “4 Stars” with no problem. There is a very small detachment of U.S. Air Force personnel on the island now. The majority of the population, which is between 800 and 900, are civilians who work for the contract companies that are preparing the island for its eventual turnover to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during the later part of 2003.
I must express my most heartfelt thanks to Colonel Timothy Bridges,
the U.S. Air Force Commander, for his approval of my visit to the
island, and to the Northern California DX Foundation for their support.
My sponsoring clubs were our local Kona Hawaii DX Club (KH6DXC)
and our Sister Club, The Spokane DX Association, (K7SDX). And many
thanks and a big ALOHA to all the DXers who were in there calling,
right up to the end. I know I wasn’t able to work everyone
who wanted KH3 for a new country but I did my very best and I will
just have to say “I’m sorry” to the ones we missed. |
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I
have returned from a little mini-DXpedition to Johnston Atoll. I
can assure you that this was the greatest, most memorable thing
that has happened to me in my 34 years of Ham radio.
I
had asked for permission to visit the island in the spring of 2003,
but was told the building that housed the Amateur Radio station
was scheduled for demolition in January. Although I had wanted to
make the trip to celebrate my Golden Anniversary, 49.9 years is
close.
All-in-all,
3,016 contacts total, 701 of which were in the 10 Meter Contest
and 206 were on RTTY. The equipment I carried down with me included
a Yaesu FT-100D HF Transceiver and a Vectronics VC300DLP Tuner.
I carried a G5RV but was unable to put it up. For RTTY, I used a
little Dell laptop (purchased on Ebay for $150) and interfaced to
its sound card, of course, the Heil Boommike/headset and Writelog
software for all my logging in the laptop. For about half my phone
operation, I used the Yaesu FT-1000 that was part of the station
equipment already there.
I
have made up a couple of slide presentations and published them
on the Internet. In case anyone is interested they might try my
page at 