Those of you who know me know that I’m a huge World War II history buff. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by the stories of bravery, sacrifice, and technological innovation that defined this era.

That’s why the activation I performed on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, was very special.

I activated the Battleship North Carolina from inside the ship, using a modern transceiver, and one of the original vertical antennas mounted on the ship.

The Battleship North Carolina State Historic Site (US-6831)

The Battleship North Carolina is a World War II-era battleship that served in the United States Navy from 1941 to 1960. It is currently a museum ship in Wilmington, North Carolina.

The ship was launched in 1940 and commissioned in 1941. During World War II, it served in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, participating in several major battles, including the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of Iwo Jima.

The Battleship North Carolina was decommissioned in 1960 and donated to the state of North Carolina in 1961. It has been open to the public as a museum ship since 1962.

Growing up in North Carolina, I’ve always considered the Battleship North Carolina the icon of Wilmington. You can’t cross the Cape Fear river and miss this brilliant bit of naval history–it’s so prominent and accessible.

I had not actually toured the battleship since I was a child–some 40+ years ago. Last week, however, our family spent the week in Wilmington and the battleship was first on the to-do list.

Azalea Coast Amateur Radio Club

A couple months ago, I mentioned to my buddy Bob (K4RLC), in passing, that one of my daughters was attending a week-long residential program at NC State University while the other daughter would be attending The University of North Carolina Wilmington. My wife and I would stay in Wilmington for the week and I would somehow love to activate the Battleship North Carolina for the POTA program.

Fortuitously, shortly thereafter, Bob attended a presentation about the Battleship North Carolina by Mike Hartmann (NI2S) at a radio club meeting in Raleigh. Mike is with the Azalea Coast Amateur Radio Club, the caretakers and curators of radio central in the battleship.

Bob put me in touch with Mike who then graciously accommodated my schedule, even though it required his presence throughout the activation.

Mike did make it clear that the radio room is three decks below, has no air conditioning and is a proper “sweat box.” Turns out, too, that the week we were in Wilmington coincided with a bit of a heat wave which was affecting much of the eastern US. Because of this, I asked if we could meet on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at the earliest possible time–8:00 AM, when the museum opened.

It was a beautiful morning and I arrived on site perhaps 15 minutes in advance. I needed to pull my camera gear out of the car and allow some time for it to adjust to the humidity (which was extremely high).

I thought my lens had finally acclimatized when I started the video before Mike arrived, but it turned out the lens was still a bit foggy for a minute or two.

Mike arrived and we walked into the ticket booth where I purchased my ticket. He then led me onto the deck and into one of the roped-off entrances to the lower decks.

He kindly allowed me to film walking through the ship into the radio central area. I’ll admit that it was difficult for me to keep my attention on the camera as I was walking through a ship I remembered from my childhood! Since my video is real-time, real-life, you experience it with me–I didn’t check out the ship in advance.

I was amazed at how much of the ship was open to the public and in superb, original condition.

In radio central, Mike allowed me to peek behind some of the closed off sections with my camera, so you’ll get the follow along with me.

What I didn’t realize was just how much signal intelligence was happening on a fast battleship like the USS NC.

There were rooms dedicated to listening posts, decryption/encryption, and sharing of intelligence. This was all so fascinating and enlightening.

Next, Mike opened up the actual radio room where an Icom IC-756 Pro III was hidden in one of the original ship radio desks. This being a museum, all modern gear was hidden as well as possible.

Mike was right about the room being a sweat box–even in the early morning, it was pretty hot and humid in there. Fortunately, he had two fans he turned on and pointed at us.

Mike set up the IC-756 Pro III by connecting it to a power supply, then attaching a Bencher paddle.

The vertical–again, one of the original Battleship North Carolina antennas–also required a little bit of matching for 20 meters.

Any movement of 10 kHz or so, required engaging the 756’s internal ATU.

As I set up the camera and made a comfortable operating position, I realized just how noisy the room was with the normal ship sounds (it has its own fresh air ventilation system) and the two fans running full-bore.

I set up my wireless mics–one on me and the other inside the portion of the desk that housed the radio.

In truth, I wasn’t confident the audio would work out at all. First thing I did when I made it back to the house that day was to check the audio–turns out, it came out pretty darn well all things considered.

In fact, the audio in the video was much better than my own two ears experienced while operating. Having one of the mics much closer to the speaker and protected from the wind blowing really made a difference.

Case in point: In the video, you’ll see I struggled to copy OE6GND–his signal was weak, but I copied it first go when I listened to the video.

On The Air

I had scheduled my activation on the POTA website in advance. I was so pleased I did this because, three decks below in a battleship, there’s no hint of mobile phone service.

I was a little concerned that 20 meters might not have much life that early in the morning and I was also concerned that propagation might have been poor. Mike had mentioned that they had only recently operated a special events station (13 Colonies, if memory serves) and they struggled to make any contacts.

I started calling CQ POTA and my fears quickly dissipated–the contacts started rolling in!

Here’s the funny part: I got so into the moment, I never thought to check the power setting on the IC-756 Pro III until well into the activation. Turns out I wasn’t QRP at all–I was running a full 100 watts.

That was easy to justify, though, because even though the Battleship NC has guest operators, not all are doing it for the POTA program, so this certainly cast the signal as far as I could. That said, I couldn’t really tell a difference between the contacts I made running 100 watts and running 5 in CW.

All told, I logged 55 stations in 58 minutes. The contact rate could have been higher, but the fan noise, while essential for comfort, made it challenging to hear weaker stations. Listening to the video now, I can hear stations I couldn’t easily hear in real-time.

I could have stayed in the ship operating for another hour or two quite easily, but I didn’t want to impose any longer on Mike’s time especially as the day progressed, it got hotter (high that day was almost 100F/37.5C not including the heat index) and more guests started making their way through the lower decks of the ship.

QSO Maps

Here’s what this Battleship North Carolina activation looked like when plotted out on QSO Maps (click to enlarge images):

Eastern NA Detail

Western NA Detail

Europe Detail

Video

Here’s the full video of my anticipation, activation, and summary. This is an activation I’ll never forget and, in fact, I hope I get another opportunity in the coming years to operate the Battleship North Carolina!

Click to watch the full (ad-free) YouTube video.

Commemorative certificate and QSL

After the activation, Bob handed me a certificate memorializing my Battleship NC activation and also one of the QSL cards they issue.

Exploring the Battleship

After the activation and after I put my gear in the car, I took a full self-guided tour of the battleship. I only had about one hour or so to tour the ship and I wouldn’t have the opportunity to read each sign I passed, so I took a lot of photos thus allowing me to catch up on the reading later.

The following Saturday morning, I ended up taking one of my daughters to the Battleship NC for another full tour. We had a few hours at our disposal that morning before picking up her sister at UNC Wilmington. She enjoyed the tour as much as I did.

If you’re ever on the coast of North or South Carolina, I strongly suggest you check out Battleship North Carolina and the city of Wilmington. Allow a good three hours to tour the ship if you can and, if it’s going to be a hot day, I recommend starting the tour as the doors open at 8:00.

Click here for more about the Battleship North Carolina, the city of Wilmington, and the Azalea Coast Amateur Radio Club.

Thank You!

None of this would have been possible without Bob (K4RLC) putting me in touch with the Azalea Coast Amateur Radio Club, especially Mike (NI2S), who went above and beyond to accommodate my vacation schedule and meet so early on such a sweltering day.

Thank you so much, Bob and Mike.

This was a dream come true for this radio enthusiast and WWII history buff!

And Thank You, Supporters!

I mention in the video that Patreon and Coffee Fund  support actually paid for this vacation with my family and even the tuitions for the residential programs my daughters enjoyed at NCSU and UNCW. After I pay the bills for running my sites and producing videos, the rest goes into my family fun account so we all get to enjoy the fruits from this labor of love.

Also, the Patreon platform connected to Vimeo makes it possible for me to share videos that are not only 100% ad-free but also downloadable for offline viewing. The Vimeo account also serves as a third backup for my video files. This has become an invaluable archive for me.

Thank you, again, for spending part of your day with me and I hope you have a brilliant–radio-active–week ahead!

Cheers & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)