Home station of VS6AA with K8MFO operating in 1969

I was the house guest of VS6AA/VS5MC and his XYL in Hong Kong in April 1969. Maurice had a plan in place for an expedition to Spratly, and I was invited. Of course with my lowly status as SGT, and even later as Staff SGT, I was in no position to manage my time for such a venture!

Maurice, LA2UA, OZ7SM/G0WAZ, and I did do a WPX Contest together from a bunker atop Mt. Davis, perhaps the highest point in Hong Kong, using the call sign VS6AJ. That was great fun. The bunkers were built during WWII by the Brits, so they could watch for the Japanese. All were built in the same direction, and of course the Japanese came in the opposite way!

Our location was so high that we looked down "through the clouds" to Hong Kong proper. When I worked K1ZZ from K8UDJ in the Lansing MI area, he said it was the loudest Asian signal he had ever heard! All we used was a Hy Gain TH-3 on a mast about 25 feet high. The takeoff was quite outstanding! The night before the contest I did a bunch of CW operating on 20 meters, working old pals N4AR, W3MVB, and my buddies in Lansing. The antenna developed a high SWR, and it was thought that a trap had gone west. Luckily, it was just a flaky PL-259.

K8MFO is operating .. in the foreground is Maurice Caplan - VS6AA/VS5MC, taking a small drink of "snake bite medicine". Way off in the background is VS6EF, an American ... very quiet guy, who periodically identified as VS6AJ HONG KONG, dragging it out a bit with equal emphasis on both syllables! Sort of sounded like a BBC announcer, telling you that Big Ben was about to toll!

Here is another photo of that operation, recently sent to me by Andy Cawthorne - G3TDJ, who was VS6FZ at the time, and took part in the operation..    He is in the immediate left foreground logging, while Bill Brack - VS6EF was operating.

I believe that is the last time I operated in a WPX SSB Contest. It was great fun. The most amazing signals were W6VSS (later K6UA) thundering over the Japanese pileups any time he wanted, plus the magnificent 20 meter signal of W9EWC - Eat Wisconsin Cheese, an old operating hangout of Fred Laun - K3ZO. EWC was so loud, and 20 was a lot smaller then .. that I asked Butch if he could QSY just a tad so that I could have a KC slot for split operation. He kindly obliged, and we remembered that in April 1974, when I was working in Canton, Ohio -- it was my birthday and some folks took me out for lunch and drinks. When I got back to my office there was a note to call Butch. I did and he told me that Fred K3ZO had just been shot in Argentina and left in the jungle by the "rebels" .. Obviously Fred was a bit tougher than the rebs figured!

Photo and info courtesy of K8MFO