“That was a GREAT day at the Battleship! Weather was PERFECT!” – Rebecca K3RPM
“What a great time! … The people on board are a “fountain” of information.” – Don AK2S
“It was great to see the Radio Room again, and see where they operate Museum Ships Weekend!” – Charlie N2CTW.
Four members of the DSRC visited the Battleship NJ on August 13th, with private tours provided by Rich Enwright, KB3NRL and Pete Greene, N2LVI, a member of both DSRC and The Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station.
The day began simply. We had planned all sorts of coordination via 2 Meter radios, using simplex or using local repeaters, but instead we all just sat along the dock until everyone showed up. Parking was easy, and AK2S and Charlie N2CTW arrived via the RiverLine — senior price is $0.75 each way! It’s a bit of a walk around the entertainment center to get to the dock, but not bad on such a pleasant day.
We were ushered past the part of FACCON-1/Radio Central that’s on the tour, into the back room where the modern radios are…
Don and Rebecca operated HF, making a few contacts for NJ2BB. Charlie went on a tour of lower decks with Chief Engineer, Dave Burgess, WA2TVS.
K3RPM operated NJ2BB for a 20m contact with POTA station K-1946 activated by the K8ES club at Delaware State Park, Ohio. Rebecca reports that “the Icom IC-736 worked really great after we plugged in the microphone.” And below is the antenna she used.
Next time.. let’s get a bigger crowd!