VE7CT K5K Kingman Reef 2000

The K5K Kingman Reef site, October 2000, with five-station tent on left, and two-station tent.

Steve VE7CT was a member of the highly successful K5K - Kingman Reef 2000 DXpedition. Beginning October 21 and running through November 1, the K5K team delivered over 80,000 QSOs to the deserving around the world.

Operating on all bands (including 6M), the operation included RTTY which proved to be very popular in Europe on 15M.

The other DXpedition members were: Garry, NI6T; Tom, N4XP; Ann, WA1S; Ned, AA7A; Bob, K4UEE; Roman, RZ3AA; Kimo, KH7U; Mike, KH6ND; Patrick, NH6UY; Katsu, JH7OHF; Alan, K5AB; Joe, KO4RR; Max, I8NHJ, Dave, WB4JTT.

Location: Oceania, reef in the North Pacific Ocean, about half way between Hawaii and American Samoa.

Geographic coordinates: 6° 24 N, 162° 24 W

Area: 1 sq km

Local History: Kingman was discovered in 1798 by the American Captain Fanning, but it was named after Captain Kingman, who visited the reef in 1853. It was annexed by the US in 1922 and made a US Naval reservation in 1934. In 1937, Pan Am began air mail service between Hawaii and New Zealand using flying boats, and they used Kingman Reef's sheltered lagoon as a stopover. A schooner was anchored there as a sort of hostel and supply ship. The route was abandoned after a seaplane was lost off Samoa in 1938. Kingman Reef is still under control of the US Navy and permission to visit is only occasionally granted.

Previous DXpeditions to Kingman included: KP6KR - 1974 The "First" KR Expedition; KP6BD in 1977; WA2FIJ/KH5K in 1980; AD0S/KH5K in 1981; K9AJ/KH5K in 1988 and N9NS/KH5K in 1993.

K5K - Tent layout (L to R): Stores, Operating, Gazebo and the Shower / Latrine. Note: the 3-el triband yagi was consistently outperformed by the 2-el 1/2-wave verticals -- by as much as 10 to 15 db

2el - SVDA (Switchable Vertical Dipole Array) at dawn

The relentless wave action at K5K

The Machias at sunset

VE7CT delivering K5K to the deserving

Inside the five-station tent