[BARC-List] For the history buffs among us, an opportunity for Boston area hams

[Arthur Ashley]

   Copied from: http://www2.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/05/03/4/?nc=1
     This Web URL has PICTURES
  
LST-325 Plans Amateur Radio Operation During East Coast Cruise 

NEWINGTON, CT, May 3, 2005--The LST-325, a 327-foot World War II
vessel designed to transport and deploy tanks and troops during
coastal beach landings, will have Amateur Radio aboard when she
cruises up the East Coast and back this spring and early summer. The
historically significant vessel is officially a cruising museum ship,
but she still carries the USS LST-325 name and World War II marine
radio call sign NWVC. For this voyage, LST-325 will be on the Amateur
Radio bands as WW2LST. 

"Her radio room features functioning vintage receivers and
transmitters that are true to the models she carried into battle
during the 1942-1945 time period, including the RBB, RBC and TCS-12
receivers, plus the TDE and TCS transmitters," says Tom Pendarvis,
W0MTP, LST-325 radio operator. "The ship's radio room also carries
modern marine and Amateur Radio transceivers for routine
communications." 

Pendarvis will share LST-325 radio room duties with Perry Ballinger,
W8AU. Both are US Navy veterans and Navy-Marine Corps MARS operators.
They also split duties working the radios during the LST-325's
two-month cruise of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in 2003. 

Where applicable, AM and CW operation will occasionally use the LST's
WWII-vintage transmitters and receivers. Phone-patch traffic will be
handled on Navy-Marine Corps MARS frequencies and via the ShipCom
Coast Radio station WLO. During these periods, WW2LST likely will be
off the air due to antenna logistics. 

Crewed primarily by US Navy veterans--including some who served on
LSTs during World War II--the ship will depart her home port of
Mobile, Alabama, on or about May 17, bound for Alexandria, Virginia,
where LST-325 is expected to arrive May 26. The vessel will depart
May 30 for Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, arriving
on or about June 3.

                 >>>   BOSTON ARRIVAL   <<<
>>> From there, the ship will sail to Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard,
arriving on or about June 8. On June 11, the USS LST-325 will lead
the column of ships with the USS Constitution. On June 18, Capt
Robert D. Jornlin and crew will participate in the 60th anniversary
salute to WW II veterans sponsored by the US Department of Defense.
<<<

Her final port of call will be on or about June 20 in Gloucester,
Massachusetts. The vessel will set sail for home on June 22 and
arrive back in Mobile on July 4. A detailed--and still
tentative--itinerary is on the USS LST Ship Memorial Web site. 

Tentative LST-325 WW2LST/mm Operating Schedule

While in port, the radio operators will attempt to maintain a reduced
operating schedule while also giving ship tours and participating in
port activities. Any additional operating information or changes will
be posted on the USS LST Ship Memorial Web site. Updates also may be
listed as bulletins with the Maritime Mobile Service Net (MMSN). 

Bob Wilder, AF2HD--a retired USAF veteran with sea duty
experience--again will serve as "mission control" for Amateur Radio
operations during the May, June and July cruise. He also will handle
QSLs when an SASE is supplied. QSL to USS LST 325 Amateur Radio Club,
6032 Idlemoore Ct, Theodore, AL 36582-4117. 

LSTs--or Landing Ship Tanks--typically had no names, just numbers.
They were strategically pivotal in many Pacific and Atlantic
assaults, and LST-325 made landings in Sicily and Salerno as well as
at Normandy. 

Following WW II, LST-325 was on loan to the Greek government, which
handed it over to the USS LST Ship Memorial Inc at the beginning of
the new millennium. In 2001, and showing manifold signs of age and
neglect, LST-325 completed a 4200-mile journey from Crete, Greece, to
Mobile, Alabama. Operating as WW2LST/mm, Executive Officer Jack
Carter, KC6WYX (SK), was on the air throughout the voyage. On board
were more than two dozen sailors--men in their 60s, 70s and older and
most of them retired US Navy veterans--who were determined to deliver
the ship, built in 1942 in Philadelphia, to a permanent berth in
Mobile. Volunteers from all over the US have completed substantial
repairs and updates to the ship since her arrival in the US in 2001. 

After returning to Mobile this July, LST-325 expects to be moving
northward to a new freshwater home port on the Ohio
River--Evansville, Indiana--where many LSTs and P40s were built
during the Second World War. 

There's additional information on the USS LST Ship Memorial Web site.


*************************************
Arthur  N1NHZ, 73
BARC Membership Services Committee

For an unofficial and informal look at the
Boston Amateur Radio Club
www.aabb.eboard.com



		
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