Topband: Notes on early JA to East Coast QSO's

[Earl W Cunningham]

I just checked my old log books and found that my first topband QSO with
JA was not from Houston in 1971, but it was on December 3, 1966.  But....
I was on Shemya Island in the end of the Aleutians at the time, only 1800
miles from Tokyo.  My call was KL7FRY at the time and that QSO with Masa,
JA1PVK was the first ever 160m QSO between JA and KL7.  Subsequently many
more JAs were worked.

Not many can boast of a 2xSSB QSO with JA.  I worked KA9MF (at that time,
Americans in Japan had KA prefixes) on 1880 kHz on SSB on January 28,
1967!  I worked him many times on CW on 1880 kHz, but I never asked him
why he didn't have to stay in the 1907.5 to 1912.5 JA window.

On December 4, 1966 I worked Mick, ZL3RB for my farthest 160m DX (about
7000 miles due south of Shemya) while I was on the island in 1966-67. 
That was the first ever ZL/KL7 QSO on 160m.

My farthest east QSO was also my first 160m QSO from there -- Herb, W0VXO
(now KV4FZ) in Minnesota was able to copy my homebrew 100-watter on
October 3, 1966.  Herb's big signal from his shunt-fed tower made me
decide that would be the way to go when I got back to the lower 48.

Another memorable QSO from there was on December 11, 1966 when I worked
John, W0GDH (now W5SUS), completing his 160m WAS from Arkansas.  John is
now in his 90s, and it's always a thrill to hear his swinging fist on
160m from his Florida QTH.

My antenna there was a 2000-foot long wire 80 feet high.  It started at
my room window and ran across the island until I ran out of island.  It
was a great antenna on all bands.  The rig was my Heathkit SB-400 with an
SB-300 receiver and homebrew transmitting and receiving converters for
160m.

Fond memories!

73, de Earl, K6SE