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W8USR - Special Events Archive

Early American & Colonial Heritage

July 2017

9th Annual 13 Colonies Special Event Celebration

Logging a major national multi-station activation celebrating original independent colonial territory history and early American heritage footprints.

February 2009

Plymouth Museum Lincoln History Exhibit

Commemorating the legacy and regional documentation of Abraham Lincoln with historical artifacts on display at the Plymouth historical center.

June 1992

Kentucky Statehood Bicentennial On-Air Celebration – WA4QMQ

Commemorating 200 years of Bluegrass history and early frontier settlement milestones with regional emergency tracking operators.

Maritime & Great Lakes History

June 2022

Museum Ships Weekend – USS Nautilus (N1S) Activation

Commemorating the world's first commissioned nuclear submarine from the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut.

August 2007

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse – K8E Private Expedition

Commemorating the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend activation from the Keweenaw Peninsula, running entirely via private operator funding.

June 2022

Museum Ships Weekend – SS Col. James M. Schoonmaker (K8E)

Broadcasting directly from on board the historic 1911 bulk cargo freighter and former "Queen of the Lakes" preserved at the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

November 2006

SS Edmund Fitzgerald Commemoration Event

Honoring the loss of the legendary merchant vessel and her 29 crew members with special operations mirroring historic Great Lakes shipping frequencies.

November 2007

Mackinac Bridge 50th Anniversary Celebration

Celebrating the golden anniversary of Michigan's iconic engineering marvel connecting the Upper and Lower peninsulas.

Naval Operations & Maritime Legends

October 2007

USS Midway Museum Special Event – NI6IW

Participating in the annual international Jamboree-on-the-Air event aboard aircraft carrier CV-41 in San Diego, utilizing authentic combat-era rigging systems.

June 2006

Remembering the First LORAN Experiments

Archiving tactical naval wireless history and the groundbreaking wartime developments of Long Range Navigation systems across maritime theaters.

April 2012

Remembering the World War II Jimmy Doolittle Raid

Honoring the strategic joint Army-Navy carrier aviation assault launched from the deck of the USS Hornet to turn the tide in the Pacific theater.

Air Force Operations & Aviation History

May 2022

95th Anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's Transatlantic Flight – K2CAM

Commemorating the solo 1927 transatlantic crossing with special operations hosted by the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island.

September 2007

60th Anniversary of the United States Air Force

Commemorating six decades of military aviation history, strategic air defense development, and aerospace milestone tracking operations.

July 2007

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Rollout Celebration

Tracking the official factory unveiling milestone of the revolutionary carbon-composite commercial airliner from Everett, Washington.

May 2008

Yankee Air Museum (Willow Run) Open House

Archiving historic bomber manufacturing history and tactical flight logs straight from the legendary Willow Run manufacturing complex.

Space Force Operations & Space Exploration

July 2019

The Eagle Has Landed – GB5EHL Apollo 11 50th Anniversary

Commemorating the golden anniversary of humanity's first moon landing using critical trans-Atlantic 20-meter Gray-Line propagation paths during a solar minimum.

July 2019

First Manned Moon Landing 50th Anniversary – WB4ICJ

Honoring the scientific and symbolic legacy of Apollo 11 using the historic call sign of the Space Center Amateur Radio Society concurrently with global NASA club trackers.

December 2018

50th Anniversary of the Apollo 8 Mission

Celebrating the historic 1968 Christmas Eve lunar orbit crossing and the pioneering tracking communications of humanity's first flight to another world.

July 2015

The Year of Pluto Special Event

Tracking real-time planetary communications and flyby achievements of NASA's historic New Horizons deep-space probe milestone.

Amateur Radio Awards & Clean Sweeps

August 2007

The Checkered Flag Award – W9IMS Sweep

Archiving a full 3-lap racing season sweep of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Amateur Radio Club spanning the IndyCar Grand Prix, Indy 500, and NASCAR Brickyard 400.

September 2008

Blue Ridge Bonanza 12-Station Clean Sweep

Archiving a full 12-station operational sweep along the 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, jointly hosted by Forsyth ARC (W4NC) and Roanoke Valley ARC (W4CA).

Civic Heritage & Regional Milestones

June 2022

Red Skelton Museum Festival – K9R Activation

Honoring the enduring physical comedy legacy and historic 1969 Pledge of Allegiance monologue of Red Skelton in his Vincennes, Indiana birthplace.

July 2019

150th Anniversary of Dorr Township – AC8RC

Commemorating 150 years of community history platted by the railroad, featuring unique folklore tied to regional late-19th-century temperance movements.

October 2003

15th Anniversary of the Warrensburg Area ARC – W0W

Commemorating regional amateur radio club development and severe weather auxiliary spotter communications networks with Missouri operators.

February 2009

Buddy Holly Cultural Commemoration Event

Honoring the lasting musical legacy, cultural history, and memorial milestones of an early rock and roll pioneer.

May 2006

Annual Missing Children's Commemorative Event

Supporting regional radio tracking awareness networks and public service auxiliary communications for missing youth initiatives.

December 2007

The Avenue of Lights Special Event

Archiving a festive regional winter tracking operation and seasonal community activation across public spaces.

June 2008

Troy Strawberry Festival Special Event – W8FW

Logging a major regional community agricultural heritage gathering and public on-air deployment with Ohio operators.

May 2007

Roanoke Festival in the Park – W4CA

Archiving public service auxiliary radio shacks and local community festival support operations inside Virginia parks.

July 2019

Michigan ROBO-CON Festival – W8A

Demonstrating the intersection of amateur radio infrastructure and FIRST Robotics high-school tournament engineering at the Lapeer Center for Innovation.

July 2019

Seneca County Fair 177th Anniversary – W8ID

Celebrating nearly two centuries of regional midwestern agricultural heritage and the Civil War troop training history of Camp Noble in Tiffin, Ohio.

Military Annals & Coastal Defenses

October 2006

167th Anniversary of Fort Hamilton, New York

Commemorating early coastal artillery fortifications and military garrison history spanning the historic harbor entrance defenses of Brooklyn, New York.

August 2007

National Code Talker's Day – N7C

Honoring the secure battlefield communications legacy and unbreakable tactical code language of the World War II Navajo Marine operators across the Pacific theater.

July 2019

100 Year Centennial of World War I – WW1USA

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles via the official radio station of the National WWI Museum and Memorial.

March 2008

Accidental Dropping of a Nuclear Bomb over South Carolina

Archiving a terrifying piece of Cold War aviation history when an atomic bomb accidentally fell into Mars Bluff, South Carolina.

Wireless Seeding & Scientific Milestones

May 2007

100th Anniversary of the Long Distance Overland Wireless Transmission

Celebrating the century milestone of pioneering cross-country spark-gap transmissions and historic wireless infrastructure leaps.

December 2006

Honoring Guglielmo Marconi

Commemorating the grandfather of wireless telegraphy and his historic trans-Atlantic communications achievements from Signal Hill.

October 2009

Ontario Science Center Special Event – VE3OSC

Archiving interactive educational STEM broadcasts and advanced radio propagation demonstrations straight from the Toronto science facility.

Portable Field Deployments & Special Operations

June 2022

National Speleological Society Annual Convention – K0V

Celebrating the intersection of cave exploration and radio communications on site from the Black Hills region of Rapid City, South Dakota.

June 2019

The Golden Gate Star Party / Golden State Star Party

Promoting portable amateur radio and astronomy crossover operations at a high-elevation pasture ranch under strict dark-sky discipline rules.

February 2019

Ice Station W0JH Portable Winter Activation

Tracking a rigorous three-day cold-weather operation running dual high-power stations completely out of portable propane-heated shelters on frozen lake ice.

July 2019

Trail to Eagle XXV

Archiving provisional scout ranch field operations under call sign K2BSA/8, introducing advanced candidates to the Radio merit badge complex.

May 2006

Muscoot Farm Spring – W2F

Logging a beautiful outdoor agricultural park activation and public field deployment with New York regional operators.

February 2007

Groundhog Day Special Event – K3HWJ

Tracking seasonal winter field propagation logs and community activations celebrating traditional folklore milestones.

September 2011

Cleveland Double Anniversary – W4GZX Historical Activation

Archiving a multi-anniversary historical commemorative broadcast tracking regional infrastructure and pioneer logs.

September 2012

David Packard 100th Birthday Celebration

Honoring the centenary of a major electronics engineering pioneer, industrial powerhouse, and high-tech corporate founder.

October 2013

Aruba Amateur Radio Club (AARC) Contesting Event

Archiving a high-energy international DX contesting run tracking peak equatorial ionospheric propagation paths from the Caribbean.

May 2014

The Ghost Town of Paradise, Arizona

Logging a rugged, low-power remote portable field setup directly inside an abandoned Old West mining settlement checkpoint.

July 2015

Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant Celebration

Commemorating early frontier pioneer history and classic midwestern literacy milestones with an outdoor community field activation.

July 2019

125th Year of Snake Alley – W0FUN

Commemorating Ripley's "Crookedest Street in the World" with portable operations celebrating midwestern civil engineering and serpentine brick architecture.

Global Festivals & World History

September 2026

Route 66 On the Air Centennial – 2026 Century Adventure

Celebrating 100 years of the iconic "Mother Road" with an extensive 25-station operating lineup, tracking 7 multi-state contacts across the historic highway corridor.

January 2026

California Gold Discovery Anniversary – AG6AU Activation

Commemorating James W. Marshall's historic 1848 discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill on site from the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma.

February 2022

Hadrian's Wall 1900 Festival – GB1900HW Activation

Celebrating the 1,900th anniversary of the historic frontier wall across northern England, tracking global voice and data contacts with UK operators.