Subj : Newsline Part 4 To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri Dec 02 2016 06:42 am SPECIAL REPORT: PEARL HARBOR AND HAMS WHO REMEMBER DEC. 7 1941 JIM: In this special third segment of Newsline, we recall the attack on Pearl Harbor 75 years ago, with a special report from Amateur Radio Newsline's Paul Braun, WD9GCO. Paul talked to three hams who are veterans of World War Two, and remember that day well. Paul? PAUL: As we approach the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, I wanted to share some stories from three men I interviewed earlier this year. All three have been hams since before World War Two, and are veterans with a tale to tell. Arthur Kunst, W - 3 - W - M, was actually on the air, when the attack happened. As he recalled: ARTHUR: I was operating someplace about the area of about 1:00 to 1:30 or so and suddenly do-gooders on the band started saying, "Get off the band! Get off the band!" and that's something I've never heard before - the kind of commanding presence - and I really didn't know who had that kind of presence or responsibility to do that. So, a lot of us just listened and ignored that, because we didn't have any other information. PAUL: News traveled slow in those days. The family gathered around the broadcast radio to see if they could find anything out: ARTHUR: And then later on, we listened to the radio, because we had no TV, so we listened to the radio, and then further explanations came along as to what was going on. That was the last official time that I operated - it was on Pearl Harbor Day. PAUL: Kunst was in the Navy, and was stationed in the harbor at Okinawa, when the war ended, and hams were allowed back on the air: ARTHUR: Some place along the line, while there - this would have been 1946 - we had found out that amateur radio operation was permitted again, and somehow the word got down to us, and we got back on the air with the naval gear. I had a Collins, which I used there in the harbor, and I couldn't believe it - there were so many amateurs among the fleet forces there, and we're all having QSOs over there on that band in Okinawa in 1946. Of course, it was not official, and technically still banned, so that's the first time I got back on the air again in 1946. PAUL: Another World War II veteran, Cliff Kayhart, W-4-K-K-P, is still active on the air at 104 years old. Kayhart was visiting his parents, when the attack happened, and was listening to the ham bands on a shortwave receiver he had bought them. He echoed the confusion and disbelief that many felt when they were suddenly told to get off the air: CLIFF: My mother had a shortwave radio that I had given her that was capable of tuning in the amateur radio bands - of course I would buy a radio like that! - so I turned on the radio when I got there, and I heard an amateur say, "They ought to take his license away from him - he's saying that the Japanese are bombing Pearl Harbor! You know that's a terrible thing for him to say!" Well, he was quite accurate. PAUL: Kayhart was in the Signal Corp during the war: CLIFF: I was in the military, the Signal Corps, the 3116th Signal Service Battalion, headquartered in Hawaii. They sent me out to Iwo Jima when that battle happened, to install the administrative radio station for Iwo Jima, which I did. I landed the day after the Flag was raised on Mount Suribachi. PAUL: It was there, on Iwo Jima, that he saw a now-famous airplane fly overhead: CLIFF: I was waiting at the airstrip there, and we had an air-raid warning and there was no IFF on the airplane, so it was a legitimate aircraft warning. However, after a while, we looked up, and there was a single B-29 flying way overhead, flying right past Iwo Jima. I thought that was very unusual since our B-29's have been taking off and landing now from Iwo Jima... what is he doing? Anyway, I got on my airplane, and went to Guam, and in the middle of the night, I heard a lot of shouting outside, so I got up and went out and asked, "What's all the noise about?" They said, "Well, we dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima!" I said, "My gosh, they finally cracked the atom!" PAUL: After the surrender of Japan, Cliff started to think radio again: CLIFF: Then, the war ended, and I began to think ham radio. The first wavelength that the FCC opened was the 112-meter band, so I built a rig for that, and got on the air, and talked to all of the guys down below on the island, and I had a wonderful time. PAUL: There's also Robert Leo, W-7-L-R, one of the founders of Thailand's RAST organization. He was also a very skilled CW operator, and had developed the ability to copy down the Japanese code transmissions with great accuracy. Near the end of the war, he was assigned close to Midway Island, to copy down the Japanese code, to make sure the codebreakers could send good intel to the fleet, including Admiral Nimitz: ROBERT: Now, most of the admirals back East wanted him to wait until mid- or late-June to get there but he said, "No, I believe in the Japanese code that you guys have figured out," - I mean, I didn't figure it out, but I copied it - but anyway, some of the people had figured it out, and he believed in it, so he got to Midway early, and as you know, we didn't have near as many ships as the Japanese. They must have had three or four times as many, but they didn't use them right, so they sent some to Alaska, and some they held back, and they didn't do their air attack correct, so that was really a turning point in the war, because we won that battle of Midway because of some of those things. PAUL: So, to Arthur Kunst, Cliff Kayhart, Robert Leo, and all of you veterans of World War Two, we here at Amateur Radio Newsline thank you for your service. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO. ** NEWSCAST CLOSE: Thank you, Paul -- and veterans. With thanks also to Alan Labs; the Aiken, South Carolina Standard; the ARRL; the Battleship Iowa Amateur Radio Association; CQ Magazine; CNN; Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; Irish Radio Transmitter Society; Keith Miller N9DGK; the New Hampshire Union Leader; Ohio-Penn DX Bulletin; Rutherford County ARES; Southgate Amateur Radio News; Ted Randall's QSO Radio Show; the Tri-State Amateur Radio Association; Wireless Institute of Australia; WTWW Shortwave; Youngsters On the Air; and you, our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline. Please send emails to our address at newsline@arnewsline.org. More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website at www.arnewsline.org. For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and our news team worldwide, I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW, in Charleston, West Virginia, saying 73, and as always, we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. Posted by VPost v1.7.081019 .