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KL7NWR
 Alaska
KL7 NWR Amateur Radio Club
PO BOX 1268 Homer, AK 99603 USA [+] Mailing label | ||
Lookups: 2954
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| QSL: LOTW, DIRECT VIA KL2HD, BUREAU OK | ||
20130603 0650UTC 14221kHz KL7NWR
Date : 03/Jun/2013 0650UTC
Freq : 14221kHz USB
Rig : ICOM IC-7200
ANT : LOOP
PC recording
IOTA NA-064 !! Tnx fer QSO 73's : )
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This is a Special Event Station commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Attu in 1943. In 2013, Attu Island and other Aleutian Islands,also celebrate being part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge for 100 years. Attu is the westermost point of North America and the end of the Aleutian Islands (IOTA NA-064). We will be QRV on 15, 17, and 20m from 2-5 June 2013 from Invasion Beach Yellow in Massacre Bay on Attu. See below for QSL info.
Beach Yellow in Massacre Bay where we will operate
The Battle of Attu which took place from 11-30 May 1943, was fought entirely between forces of the United States and the Empire of Japan on Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The action, which was part of the Aleutian Islands campaign during the Pacific War, was the only land battle of World War II fought on territory that was part of the incorporated territory of the U.S. It is also the only land battle in which Japanese and American forces fought in Arctic conditions.
On 7 June 1942, six months after the United States entered World War II, the 301st Independent Infantry Battalion from the Japanese Northern Army landed unopposed on Attu. The landings occurred one day after the invasion of nearby Kiska. The U.S military now feared both islands could be turned into strategic Japanese airbases from which aerial attacks could be launched against the West Coast of North America.
In May 1943, units from 17th Infantry, of the U.S. 7th Infantry Division made amphibious landings on Attu to retake the island from Japanese Imperial Army forces led by Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki. Despite heavy naval bombardments of Japanese positions, the American troops encountered strong entrenched defenses that made combat conditions tough. Arctic weather conditions and exposure-related injuries also caused numerous casualties among U.S. forces. But after two weeks of relentless fighting, American units managed to push the Japanese defenders back to a pocket around Chichagof Harbor.
On 29 May, without hope of rescue, Yamasaki led his remaining troops in a banzai charge. The momentum of the surprise attack broke through the American front line positions. Shocked American rear-echelon troops were soon fighting hand-to-hand combat with Japanese soldiers. The battle continued until almost all of the Japanese were killed. The charge effectively ended the battle for the island, although U.S. Navy reports indicate that small groups of Japanese continued to fight until early July. In 19 days of battle, 549 soldiers of the 7th Division were killed and more than 1,000 injured. The Japanese lost over 2,850 men; only 29 prisoners were taken alive.
We have formed a club to help celebrate the wonderful Alaskan National Wildlife Refuges and are now using club call KL7NWR. Visit a refuge near you, but if you can't get to Alaska, talk to us on the air for the next closest thing! We hope to put you in the log. See QSL information below. A partnership of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, Moosehorn Amateur Radio Club, and Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges.
The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is the most remote and far flung unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System. It is a place of great distances and greater dramas. Here winds whip through the grasses of rugged, wave-pounded islands; and active volcanoes simmer, venting steam above collars of fog. It is a place of contrasts, where relics of a past war slowly rust in deserted valleys, while, nearby, great forests of kelp team with life. It is, and has long been, a place of refuge, and has seen some of the most dramatic wildlife conservation stories in our nation's history.
- There are over 27 active volcanoes on the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
- The refuges uses a 120ft research ship to visit the remote refuge each year
- The refuge consists of more than 2500 islands, rocks, and spires around the entire massive Alaskan coastline
- There are over 40 million seabirds breeding on the refuge - more than all the rest of North America combined
- Remants of WWII can be seen on dozens of islands in the Pacific theatreknown as the "Forgotten War"
Containing some of the first conservation-unit areas to be established in America, today's Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge includes lands that were formerly parts of ten previously established refuges comprising over 4 million acres. Because it is spread out along most of the 47,300 miles of Alaska's coastline, the sheer span of this refuge is difficult to grasp. Its more than 2,500 islands, islets, spires, rocks, reefs, waters and headlands extend from Forrester Island, to the north of Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands deep in the southeast tongue of the state, to the westernmost tip of the Aleutians (and of America!), and north to Cape Lisburne on the Arctic Ocean. Traveling between its farthest-flung points would be the equivalent of taking a trip from Georgia to California!
The refuge was established, in part, to make possible a program of national and international scientific research on marine ecosystems. Facilitated by the 120-foot ship, M/V Tiglax, refuge staff study seabird and wildlife populations to collaborate with others on marine ecosystem research.
No other National Wildlife Refuge in America is as large or as productive. Alaska Maritime's seashore lands provide nesting habitat for approximately 40 million seabirds, or about 95% of the USnesting seabird population. Long-term monitoring of seabirds can uncover trends in the ocean environment that are profoundly important to conserving marine ecosystems for wildlife and people. We wanted to tell the amateur radio community about this wonderful refuge during National Wildlife Refuge week.
QSL info: We have a wonderful Special Event Station QSL card . See photo in upper right header. For IOTA hunters, we will have NA-064 stamped on the card or we might have a special card designed and sent out if there are enough contacts. If so, QSLs would go out approximately in September.
US - Send a QSL card with a self addressed label for your return card which we can put on our our envelope to send to you along with a nice brochure.
International - Send QSL card with 1 IRC or 2greenstamps and Self-addressed envelope or label.
Interested in more about the Alaska Maritime NWR? You can like the refuge on Facebook AMNWR facebook or go to theAlaska Maritime NWRwebsite for detailed information on planning a visit.
You can watch a great movie about the Alaska Maritime NWR with this link here. It's really worth watching if you like wild places and wildlife.
73, Jeff KL2HD
Still not had enough? Check out more pictures on my KL2HD website here on QRZ.com
Bogoslof Island with large numbers of seabirds andNorthern fur seal rookeries
Common and Thick-billed murres on South Island located in the Semidi Island group off the Alaska Peninsula. Similar in many ways to penguins except they can fly, these birds nest in massive numbers on cliffs on the refuge.
Least auklets (1 of which is banded) on Kasatochi Island. Millions of least auklets nest on the refuge. They are the most abundant breeding seabird in the North Pacific.
A male Steller sealion (which can weigh over a ton) with his harem of females in the eastern Aleutian Islands
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