WA1NPO

One of, or perhaps the very first Special Event Station that I worked, after I upgraded to General, was put on the air by the Whitman ARC in Whitman, MA.  For several years they put WA1NPO on the air to commemorate the Plymouth Plantation around Thanksgiving. When you sent in your QSL card, you received a nice certificate. I still have the two that I earned for working them a couple of years.

Sadly, they don't do that anymore. I checked the ARRL Special Event Station calendar and there are NO Special Event Stations on the air this weekend.  I widened the date from today until December 1st and there are NO Thanksgiving Special Event Stations to be found, anywhere. THAT surprised me. With all the rich history in New England, I would have thought that some club would do something special for Thanksgiving.

I went to the Whitman ARC Webpage and there's no mention of them having done a Thanksgiving Special Event in the past. You'd think they'd want to include that in club history, but I guess not.

When I was with the Piscataway Amateur Radio Club, we were "into" Special Event Stations. We did them for Hallowe'en, we put the Edison Memorial Tower on the air as a Special Event Station, and every year we commemorated the Voice Of America transmitter that was once located in Piscataway, using the club call sign K2VOA.

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The South Plainfield ARC has only done one that I can recall. We put NJ2SP on the air to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the establishing of our Boro. The banner that I had made for that still hangs in our meeting room.

When I was with the Raritan Bay Radio Amateurs, we put W2CG (borrowed) on the air for an entire weekend to celebrate the birthday of the Coast Guard. We were granted permission to operate from the Coast Guard station located at Sandy Hook. Our station was in an all purpose room, we were allowed to eat in the Mess Hall, and we were given places to sleep (if we wanted) in the Officer's Quarters. That was a weekend I'll always treasure.

I have always thought about putting the Middlebrook Encampment on the air for Flag Day. The encampment is located on Bridgewater, which is not far from South Plainfield. This is the place where the 13 Star Flag was first flown for the Continental Army. The encampment was granted permission by Congress to be the only place in the US where the 13 Star Flag could be flown continuously, 24/365.

The only problem is that Flag Day is sooooooo close to Field Day weekend and the W2QW Hamfest Saturday. I might have to do it by myself one of these years, as I think it might be a tough road to hoe to recruit volunteer operators.

Special Event Stations can be tedious to organize, put on the air, and then deal with the QSL aftermath. But I guarantee that when the station is actually on the air, making contacts, the club members will not only enjoy themselves, but will have something to talk about in years to come.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!