In 1959 I was a newly minted general, K9LIO, in Goshen, IN. Katashi, KH6IJ,
was in MA during 1958-60 while he was doing graduate work at Harvard. In 1959 I
worked him as KH6IJ/m on CW (!) near Goshen, MA (I still have the QSL). This
was our first QSO.
In 1960 he was my first Hawaiian QSO. The date suggests it was in the CQ WW CW,
which would have been my first effort there. I'm surprised I could copy him.
Neither of us ever forgot our Goshen-Goshen QSO and every time we met
thereafter outside of a contest we'd stop for a short ragchew. Then there were
many years of inactivity on my part as I moved about.
Eventually I moved to New England and for a while lived in Belmont, MA and
became AB1J. One 20m evening in 1979 I worked Kastashi and he was surprised to
find out who I was and where I was and told me he had lived very close by
during his two earlier visits, 1958-60 and 1968-69. We both took evening walks
in the same areas. We QSLed and he sent me a nice foldout QSL with a
typewritten note, which is where i got most of the above info. He also sent me
a photo of when he was a teenager in 1932 at his station (his call was K6CGK at
that time). I think this photo was also published in QST at some point.
I have a photo album where I keep a QSL for each DXCC entity I've worked and
his card for our 1960 QSO represents Hawaii. And that's where it will stay.
He was a gentleman and a legend.
73,
Ken, AB1J
On Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at 08:55:26 PM EDT, Zack Widup
<w9sz.zack@gmail.com> wrote:
Katashi had a daughter who was going to school in Joliet, IL. at one time.
I was a member of the Joliet Amateur Radio Society. He came to one of our
meetings and demonstrated some 10 GHz equipment. So I got to meet him.
I worked a lot of DX as a Novice in 1967. Mostly on 15 meters, but some DX
hams came into the 40 meter Novice band once in a while. I worked a couple
South Africans and CO2BB (remember his banana boat swing on CW?) I don't
think I worked any KH6 on 40 as a Novice, but I did after I got my General.
I was a member of the ARRL CD (as an Intruder Watcher). I may even be in
your log. My call then was WA9UOT.
73, Zack W9SZ
On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 8:20 AM Art Boyars <artboyars@gmail.com> wrote:
> Writing up my 3830scores report for Sprint CW, I reminded myself of this
> story.
>
> In the mid-1960s, in a CW CD Party, on 40M I was called by "K5BIJ". I sent
> him my report, but it took Katashe several tries for me to get his call
> correctly. I was astounded. Back then I didn't know it was possible to
> work Hawaii on 40M from Maryland.
>
>
> My antenna was a dipole. Pretty sure rcvr was my RME-4350 (maybe the "A"
> version), and that I had already upgraded the xmtr from the BC-459 to a
> second-hand Viking Ranger.
>
> 73, Art K3KU
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>
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