Amateur station K6KPH will be on the air for this year's Night of Nights event. Professional operators will be at the key to receive signal reports for commercial coast stations.
Night of Nights is an annual event held on 12 July by the Maritime Radio Historical (MRHS) Society to commemorate the history of maritime radio.
Once the maritime mobile bands were populated edge to edge with powerful coast stations operating from virtually every country on every continent. Once the ships of world trade and the great passenger liners filled the air with their radiograms - and with their calls for help when in danger on the sea. Now those bands are largely silent.
But once a year the the MRHS returns stations KPH, KSM and KFS to the air. Other stations including WLO, KLB, NMC, NOJ and, we hope for the first time this year, NMN often join us. Calls from ships at sea make the event seem like we have returned to the golden age of maritime radio.
This year, for the first time, we plan to have K6KPH on the air on several frequencies to receive signal reports from amateur stations. The operators at K6KPH will be seasoned commercial operators with years of experience "sitting the circuit". This will give us information about how well the stations are being heard and will give amateur stations the experience of what it was like to work a real coast station.
Details of Night on Nights VIII will follow, including times, frequencies and QSL information for all stations. But we wanted to get this notice out early so you can mark your calendars for this year's event.
VY 73,
Richard Dillman, Chief Operator
Maritime Radio Historical Society
