by Micah (N4MJL)

It’s not every day that I get the chance to do a POTA activation from the radio room of a battleship. But thanks to the Azalea Coast Amateur Radio Club, I was able to do a POTA activation of US-6831 from the radio room of (BB-55) USS North Carolina in Wilmington, NC.

If you would like the chance to be a guest radio operator for the BB-55, check out http://ac4rc.org to set up your activation.

The below-deck self-guided tour takes you through Radio Central. The radio room that the radio club utilizes can be seen from Radio Central; however, it is separated from public access by a clear plexiglass bulkhead door. Because the public can watch from the other side of the glass, be aware that it can be very noisy.

To make things more distracting, there is a loudspeaker in the radio room central playing pre-recorded Morse code for ambiance.

Radio Central is located a couple of floors down in the belly of the iron-armored beast, so be sure to schedule your activation on the POTA page. There is no cell phone reception below decks.

The radio club has an IC-756 Pro III available for use. I am not sure about the status of the other WWII vintage radios. I definitely recommend you bring your own key! They had a Bencher paddle thrown in the filing cabinet; it was not usable due to the contacts being bent way out of position. Fortunately, I brought my BaMakey TP-III key with me. If you are using a 3.5mm stereo plug, make sure to bring a 1/4” plug adapter for use with the IC-756 key/headset jacks.

The radio club has the IC-756 and external tuner hooked up to one of the battleship’s original long wire antennas. During the activation, I only operated on 20M. I did attempt to tune 17m and 15m, but I was unsuccessful in getting a match. However, that may have been operator error on my end since I was unfamiliar with the radio and that particular external tuner.

After a minute or so of calling CQ, the Reverse Beacon Network did its magic, and I was blown away by an insane pileup. I realized that I am used to operating QRP with somewhat compromised antennas. In sheer panic, I started looking to see how to turn the power down from 100 watts to, say, 2 watts!!!!

In that moment, I saw a vision of a seasoned Navy Radio OP sitting beside me. He reached over and smacked me on the back of my head and said, “Listen, kid, you’re not some hippie tree hugger operating QRP on some windswept mountaintop. You are operating from the battleship USS North Carolina. She has participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific area of operation during WWII. Now stand tall, run full power, and work ’em all!”

With that old-school counseling session complete, I began to work the pileup. After being on the air for one hour and fifty-three minutes, I worked 67 stations, with two duplicates and one busted call sign (that I know about). Eventually, no one responded back to my CQ, and I sent “Last call fer POTA de N4MJL” twice. After no one responded to my second message, I quickly sent QRT and started breathing again!!!!!!

In addition to working SA4BLM from Sweden, one of the coolest contacts I got that day was from my dad, AC0UT, located in Missouri.

It’s not every ham that can say that their dad called them using CW while on a battleship.

CW actually runs in my family. I am a third-generation CW op.

My grandfather was issued the callsign W9POW on January 5th, 1941. After WWII, the FCC added a tenth call district in the USA, and my grandfather’s call sign was changed to W0POW. My grandfather’s older brother was a licensed ham in the fall of 1940 as W9JSE; after WWII, his call would eventually be changed to W0XU.

The picture above is my grandfather next to his Sky Buddy receiver. I am guessing that he was probably between 16 or 17 years old.

The QSL card above was found on eBay. It is from my grandfather; it is dated 6th November 1941.

My grandfather sent it two weeks after turning 17 years old. My grandfather’s radio log below shows several interesting QSOs. The first QSO of interest, circled in red [click image to enlarge], is the one matching the QSL card shown above between my grandfather and W9DGA. It shows a QSL card was sent and received. The last QSOs of interest, circled in red, were with three different stations and were all dated 7th December 1941, at 4:07 PM, 4:27 PM, and 9:58 PM. I wonder what they could have possibly been talking about that night!

The next page from my grandfather’s radio log reads:

12/7/1941 “Amateur ham ordered off air due to war with Japan.”

I wonder what was going through my 17-year-old grandfather’s mind as he wrote those words in his log. Ham radio was shut down for national security for the duration of WWII, with very few exceptions.

It would be my grandfather’s last entry in his ham radio log until February 1946. Located on the inside cover of his radio log was a cute little pin-up with the words written beneath it: “Something from Texas, maybe.” Next to the pin-up was his attempt at drawing the pin-up with his callsign written above it. Most telling of all, he had drawn three parallel lightning bolts… No, they weren’t lightning bolts; they were sparks. The badge of a Navy radio man.

My grandfather had a plan…

The picture below is my grandfather in uniform with my great-grandmother in front of his childhood home in St. Louis, MO. Above my grandfather’s shoulder on the brick pillar is the address 6212, matching the address from his QSL card that was shown earlier. On his sleeve, he wears the rank of Petty Officer 2nd Class with the sparks of a radio man.

My grandfather enlisted in the Navy in March 1943, and he served as a radio operator. Shortly after being discharged in 1946, he re-enlisted in the USNR and was stationed a few miles from his home at USN Air Station Lambert Field, St. Louis, MO.

I attempted to get my grandfather’s service records. After three months of waiting, I was disappointed to receive no records before 1946. I received his re-enlistment paperwork for the USNR in 1946, which referenced his previous enlistment date of March 1943. I also received his discharge papers. He was discharged from the USNR in May 1954 as Petty Officer 1st Class.

During his reserve time, he attended college, eventually graduating with an electrical engineering degree. He retired from McDonnell Douglas as an electrical engineer. The last big project he was involved with at McDonnell Douglas was designing radar systems for the F-18 Hornet.

I guess I’ll probably never really know what my grandfather did during his WWII years. Family lore says that he spent some time up in the Aleutian Islands.

My grandfather was a family man raising three kids and was an active scoutmaster in the St. Louis, MO area. He passed on his fascination with ham radio to my dad. My dad was drafted in 1971 and was trained as an Army medic. He would eventually be assigned to an armor unit in Germany.

The picture above is my dad standing next to a M113. During his time as an Army medic with his armor unit, they were assigned a M113 that was converted into an ambulance.

After serving his time in the Army, he became a nurse and later became a Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). My dad would regularly have CW QSOs with my grandfather from Memphis, TN, to St. Louis, MO. One night in the middle of a QSO with my dad, my grandfather’s Heathkit transmitter blew out. The transmitter would never be repaired. Shortly after that QSO, my grandfather was diagnosed with mesothelioma. My grandfather passed away in 1994, within one year of his older brother passing away. Both brothers served in the Navy, and both brothers passed away due to mesothelioma.

That fateful QSO was my dad’s last CW QSO for 20+ years. He became busy with raising a family. In addition to his career, he was a volunteer firefighter and first responder. Ham radio would have to wait. During my high school years, my dad was active with me in the Civil Air Patrol. He was always eager to head into the field with me and my friends, participating in Ground Search & Rescue training. My dad was instrumental in training many high schoolers in medical training, radio communications, and land navigation.

During COVID, my dad convinced me to finally get my Tech license. It didn’t take much pushing after that for me to get my General license.

The picture above is my dad hunting some P2P CW POTA stations during one of our joint POTA activations. We have performed several POTA activations together in Missouri, Illinois, Virginia, and South Carolina. My dad and I try to practice our CW rag-chewing skills together about twice a week. It’s not blazing fast, but our QSOs have gotten faster and more complex with the messages we send.

He has hunted me with CW from Missouri to my SOTA summits in Utah, POTA parks in California, and now a battleship in the Carolinas.

CW is a journey; it’s not about the speed or the number of QSOs. It’s about advancing the art of code and the friends you make along the way.

I’m still a very green OP, but I am getting better each time I get on the air.

72… de N4MJL