Topband: 4U1UN and VP9 activity

[Pete Smith]

At 01:39 PM 8/24/02 -0300, Mike & Coreen Smith wrote:
>If anyone should contact a 4U1UN operator can you please put in a request
>for 6m activity too?
>I know a lot of 160m ops are also found on the magic band.  Been looking for
>4U1UN on 6m for over a decade
>and nuttin' yet !

I wouldn't hold my breath.  At one point K2GM, an enthusiastic contest op, 
was either trustee or at least a principal operator.  I remember visiting 
the station with him back in the 1980s when he told me about their having 
deployed a 160M dipole sloper from their shack on the 50-something floor of 
the building down to the banks of the East River.  I bet that played to 
Europe, since the bottom of the antenna would have been maybe 300 feet up.

In more recent years, my understanding is that K2GM (who wasn't a direct UN 
employee as I recall, but rather a contractor) lost his access, and the 
station was taken over by some members of the UN Secretariat.  DX Summit 
shows some operation as recently as March (by KU9C)  and a little 30M 
operation in July.  The 28200 beacon is also still working, but no sign of 
topband activity back through 2001 at least.

73, Pete N4ZR
Sometimes a tower is just a tower