The bad news is that the group of individuals near Wright-Patterson AFB
that I was working with to recover K8AIR were not successful in
obtaining the callsign. It was just recently assigned to another
applicant (from http://www.qrz.com/):
Callsign: K8AIR
Name: ROGER A MUNDY
Addr1: 3596 BEAGLE DR
Addr2: MILFORD MI 48042
Country: USA
Class: Extra
Effective: 06 May 1998 (EV)
Expires: 06 May 2008
Prev Call: KQ8C
Location: 42.608 N 83.691 W Macomb County
Email: rmundy@hotmail.com
The good news is that Roger is a former operator at K1AIR (at the
now-defunct Otis AFB) and is aware of the historical significance of the
AIR callsigns. Furthermore, he's not only expressed interest in
allowing use of K8AIR for future special events at or near WPAFB, he's
managed to make contacts at the base, including the base newspaper, and
an article detailing the history of MARS and K8AIR is quite likely in
the near future. Here is Roger's E-mail to me, which he said I could
pass along to the mailing list:
>From rmundy@hotmail.com Wed May 20 09:26:18 1998
>Received: from hotmail.com (f135.hotmail.com [207.82.251.14])
> by oasis.novia.net (8.8.8/Novia) with SMTP id JAA19306
> for <pschleck@oasis.novia.net>; Wed, 20 May 1998 09:26:16 -0500 (CDT)
>Received: (qmail 5953 invoked by uid 0); 20 May 1998 14:25:44 -0000
>Message-ID: <19980520142544.5952.qmail@hotmail.com>
>Received: from 207.220.150.68 by www.hotmail.com with HTTP;
> Wed, 20 May 1998 07:25:44 PDT
>X-Originating-IP: [207.220.150.68]
>From: "Roger Mundy" <rmundy@hotmail.com>
>To: pschleck@oasis.novia.net
>Subject: Re: K0AIR de KK8AIR
>Content-Type: text/plain
>Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 07:25:44 PDT
>Status: RO
>
>
>
>>From pschleck@oasis.novia.net Tue May 19 15:19:50 1998
>>Received: (from pschleck@localhost)
>> by oasis.novia.net (8.8.8/Novia) id RAA19364;
>> Tue, 19 May 1998 17:19:43 -0500 (CDT)
>>Message-Id: <199805192219.RAA19364@oasis.novia.net>
>>Subject: Re: K0AIR de KK8AIR
>>In-Reply-To: <19980519220511.779.qmail@hotmail.com> from Roger Mundy at
>"May 19, 98 03:05:11 pm"
>>To: rmundy@hotmail.com (Roger Mundy)
>>Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 17:19:35 -0500 (CDT)
>>From: Paul W Schleck K3FU <pschleck@oasis.novia.net>
>>Cc: cgauder@erinet.com
>>X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL39 (25)]
>>MIME-Version: 1.0
>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>>
>>> Paul,
>>>
>>> Per your e-mail I shot off a request for info on this call to Wright-
>>> Patterson AFB and received a call from Mike Wallace at the base
>>> Newspaper. Mike wants to do a story with pictures about the old mars
>>> station but neither of us has much info to go on. He gave me the
>>> phone number of the mars station and I called only to get an airman
>>> who told me the station closed 2 years ago. He gave me the number of
>>> a Vance Mosser who he said worked at the station. I called Vance and
>>> here is what he told me. He was a cadet in 1969 when he was asked to
>>> come to the mars station to help pass traffic. Since he was a radio
>>> amateur he was selected to help. He worked there for 1 hour and said
>>> they used a w8 call, and he would have remembered if there was a call
>>> like K8AIR. He also told me the station was located at the Kittyhawk
>>> center, also know as wood city because of the wooden baracks.
>>> Vance said he remembers passing the old mars station in 1977 when it
>>> was being torn down and remembers seeing an airman cutting up the
>beam
>>> with a hacksaw. He and several other people re-instated the mars
>>> station in 1985 and used their amateur calls to pass traffic. Due to
>>> declining interest it was closed for good in January of this year.
>>>
>>> I have sent e-mails to the QCWA, and ARRL for help in identifying if
>>> this call really was assigned to Wright-Patterson and will see what
>>> they provide me with.
>>>
>>> The base newspaper would like to do an article with pictures if
>>> possible, and I would like confirmation the call belonged to WPAFB
>>> before designing a memorial QSL card.
>>>
>>> Do you know for sure the call belonged to WPAFB?? If so what proof
>>> do you have and from what source?
>>
>>The 1963 Amateur Radio Callbook lists K8AIR as the following:
>>
>>K8AIR
>>2046 Comm. Sqdn.
>>Bldg. 199
>>Wood City
>>Dayton, OH
>>
>>This confirms the previous information you had about "Wood City" (I was
>>wondering about the meaning of that name).
>>
>>In addition, I found Chuck Gauder, W8XG, during my "sweep" of
>>Dayton/WPAFB area clubs and trustees. He was the station custodian of
>>K8AIR when he was assigned to WPAFB as the MARS Director and is the
>>current trustee of W8DOZ at the University of Dayton. He was our
>likely
>>candidate for trustee of the recovered K8AIR license if we had gotten
>>our application in on time. His E-mail address is cgauder@erinet.com
>>(I've cc'd him with this message). I'm sure he would be glad to offer
>>additional information.
>>
>>The members of the SACMARC (current holder of K0AIR) would be very
>>interested in obtaining a copy of that article when it is published.
>>May I forward a copy of this message on to the SACMARC mailing list?
>>I'd also be happy to subscribe you, if you wished.
>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for your help
>>
>>Glad to be of assistance.
>>
>>>
>>> Roger Mundy
>>> The old chief operator of K1AIR (1963-65)
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Paul Schleck
>>
>>The new trustee of K0AIR (1997- )
>>
>>Thanks Paul,
>
>I shot a message off to Chuck and will see what that produces. There
>is a story here somewhere!! Please do pass my message on to your
>members and subscribe me in any future events concerning the K?AIR
>calls. I have the original K1AIR QSL card as well as pictures of the
>mars station at Otis AFB inside and out and the antenna system.
>I have pictures of all the operators there as well. What would have to
>be done to preserve that call as well. I notice it has not been
>assigned also.
>When Mike Wallace and I get all the facts together I plan on going to
>the base and getting pictures and help write the article. I will be
>happy to send you and your group a copy of the article and any pictures
>we can find.
>
>73's
>
>
>roger
73, Paul, K3FU
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 03 2000 - 15:17:41 CST