K5AN 1935 Canal Zone

Name on this card is St. Sgt. Lloyd E. Brown

Here is Marion Brashear W6LBE at the mike of station K5AN, a single button carbon mike.

Marion G. Brashear, W6AJH, W6LBE, K5AN, HR1MB, later W7IB, Silent Key (1898-1995).

The present K5AN came into active being on October 21, 1937, and has been on the air continually since that time at Fort Randolph, Canal Zone, near the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. It was built of equipment brought by the owner, M. G. Brashear, from W6LBE. The transmitter consisted of a 6A6 oscillator doubler, 807 buffer-doubler link coupled to an 801 final. When operating on 28 Mc. the final was also a doubler, as only 80-meter crystals were used. The receiver was an SW-3. The antennas used were an 80-meter zepp 133 feet long, about 45 feet high and a single wire fed horizontal Hertz 33 feet long and 32 feet high. The receiving antenna was identical to the latter but was at right angles to and 75 feet from it, making break-in operation possible at all times. The average power input to the final on all bands was fifty watts, and in this form K5AN won the 1938 dx contest (c.w.) for the Canal Zone with a score of over 94,000 points. Corporal Joe Hybach doing all the operating on 10, 20 and 40 meters.

During the summer of 1938 the regulations governing amateur radio in the Canal Zone were modified to permit the use of phone and on October 26, 1938, K5AN made its debut on the 28-Mc. phone band and shortly thereafter on 14-Mc. phone. A T55 final was incorporated and grid modulated when on phone. The audio equipment consists of a 6J7 speech amplifier and a 6F6 modulator and the mike is a single-button carbon. On phone the average power to the final is 100 watts and on c.w. 150 watts. The rack is made of duralumin angles obtained from obsolete, discarded aerial bomb racks. The antenna system in use at the present time is a vee beam 132.5 feet long, 32 feet high with two positions. One is pointed due north toward New York, the other toward San Francisco. It requires but three minutes to change the position of the beam.

Phone schedules are maintained weekly with W6BIY in San Francisco, W6LZV in El Monte, Canifornia, W4TJ in Concord, N. C., and every two weeks with W6PFA in Long Beach, California, and W4EMV in Hickory, N. C. Through these schedules contacts are maintained with friends and relatives "back home."

WAC has been made many times during the eighteen months the station has been in operation and some rare ones worked, including I7AA (3 times), VQ8AS and VR4AD. All states have been worked and WAS will be applied for as soon as the necessary QSL's are received An average of 300 contacts per month are made and all QSL cards are answered upon receipt but seldom are sent first. SWL cards are answered only when accompanied by postage.

Ownership is being transferred to Staff Sgt. E. J. "Chick" Hansen upon the return of the present owner to the States in the near future

Source: Radio, June 1939.

Note: In 1940 Warrant Officer Brashear was stationed in Illinois and living in Bellwood, Illinois.

This is the receiving position of K5AN and WVDI, Fort Randolph, Canal Zone

QSL from the estate of W9ABB / W9HK
Photos from the estate of W6PFA
Info from "Radio" magazine June 1939, Tnx W5KNE