KP4KD 1957 Puerto Rico

Operator: Everett Warner Mayer
4KD in early 1925, K4KD in 1927
Silent Key (August 2 1900 - December 19, 1960).

"Pappy or Ev" Mayer, KP4KD
The top DXCC member in Porto Rico (early spelling) since the awards inception.

KP4KD recalls what DX was like in the early days; Calls were just a number and letter, in some cases just letters. With the advent of international DX, we heard such things as "4KD PR U 1ASF". What was it? Just 1ASF in the USA calling 4KD in Porto Rico. ARRL subsequently came up with a better two letter system, wherein this became "4KD NP NU 1ASF", the 1st letter of the prefix indicating the continent and the second indicating the country in that continent ("N" for North America, "S" for South America, "E" for Europe, "O" for Oceania, etc. Second letters "U" for United States, "B" for Brazil, "G" for Great Britian, "A" for Australia, etc.).

We didn't have internationally assigned bands. Various countries assigned bands centering around the 40 Meter band. The Aussies and New Zealanders worked around 33 Meters, Europeans on the other side on 40 Meters, the U.S. stations in the middle. It was somewhat like working cross band from 40 to 20 Meters nowadays.

Left to Right: Jose KP4RK, Ev KP4KD, Joe KP4YT, Luis KP4WD, Ramon KP4MV
Kneeling in front: Pedro KP4ES, Jules KP4AIO

QSL from the estate of W9PKW
1st Photo from Don Chesser DX Bulletin #60, Jan. 27, 1959
Group Photo from Don Chesser DX Bulletin #88, October 7, 1959
Name, SK info courtesy of W5KNE