Update August 21, 2025:  "K9HEI/KH9 is officially shutdown. I started packing for my trip home tomorrow. Wish I had been able to work more bands and modes, hurt Knee prevented that. Thanks for all the contacts and advice from everyone."

Update August 16, 2025:  "All, I had an accident at work, so you may only hear me on 20 Meters for a while. Can't climb the ladder to tune the antenna. First had a problem with someone taking the ladder, and now I have a ladder and can't get up it."

Update August 9, 2025: After a flight delay getting to Wake island, Jim is now up and running. He’s been on 20m FT8 and mentions all QSOs made so far have been uploaded to LoTW and QRZ. 

Update August 7, 2025: Jim K9HEI reports the LoTW certificate for his upcoming Wake Island activity was received yesterday for K9HEI/KH9 meaning it’s likely he will run with this call and not KH9/K9HEI. On August 5th he was on his way to Hawaii, then on to Wake Island. 

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you know I will be going to Wake Island for a couple of weeks and will be taking a station with me. I have already talked to the USAF Com unit on site and they have told me it will be okay for me to operate a station during the time I will be on Wake Island. I'm only scheduled to work 40 hours a week, so I should get some time to get on the air. I will try to get on the air as much as I can. Dates are 8 to 22 August 2025. There maybe future dates, however, no schedule has been set at this time.

The station will be an ICOM 7300 and a Super Antenna vertical. I plan to use FT8 and SSB for the most part. Sorry, not very good with CW, I'm a long way out of practice with that mode. I may bring a 1/2 dipole as a backup, it all depends on how much I can get to fit in the weight limit. Unfortunately, clothes and safety equipment I need for work will take priority.

I have talked with QRZ and LoTW about logging QSOs. QRZ says I should change my QTH when I get there and that location will be logged with the entries as I log them. LoTW says I should send a certificate request with proof of my permission to be on the Island. I have requested a copy of the permission and hope to receive a copy by next week and hope to get the callsign registered before I go. I plan to take some pictures while on Wake and have a card made up after I get back. I will post an update to this Thread as thing progress. Hope to talk or contact you from Wake.

Jim