K7D

K7D Special Event celebration of Lost Dutchman Days, continuing the tradition

2013 Lost Dutchman Legend Celebration

The Superstition Mountains have a beauty all their own, most spectacular when we get up close and personal with the mountains.

The city of Apache Junction sits at the western base of the mountains and about 35 miles east of downtown Phoenix.  There are many celebrations going on, with the recent (relatively speaking) addition of the running of the Lost Dutchman Marathon on February 17, to the long-standing Lost Dutchman Days Parade on February 23 in downtown Apache Junction.  Many other events take place through the week, including a rodeo.

Operation from February 15 through March 1

We of the Superstition Amateur Radio Club will place K7D on the air, from our homes, from various public places perhaps, as well, but we will be on the air on February 23 out at Goldfield Ghost Town behind the saloon.{{We were supposed to be using the day area of Lost Dutchman State Park, but what we reserved would have been a ramada and no place to put up antennas.  Ouch.

The Mayor of Goldfield Ghost Town suggested a better place than where we were originally looking, up on a hill and with many people around.  We might actually do more public contact during our K7D Special Event operation than we did at the museum as W7W in past years.

Goldfield Ghost Town Pictures February 23 K7D

• K7D Pictures February 23, 2013
  Some editing and picture resizing taking place as these 20 pictures get added.

2007 W7W Pictures from Lost Dutchman Days

Larry, WD0AKX, has a slide show of our 2007 W7W Lost Dutchman Days special event operation at Superstition Mountain Museum on YouTube.

A few links

K7D Operator Guide

Frequency Coordination Committee

Directions to Goldfield Ghost Town

Our gathering spot February 23.

K7D Listed on QRZ

I placed a request with the administrators of QRZ and we are now listed.

• "Please follow directions on QRZ for QSL info!"

That simplifies things considerably!  This came to pass when I saw other 1x1 calls listed there, and took a poke at it myself!

K7D to be on air from February 15 through March 1, 2013

This year, the Superstition ARC is issuing a QSL card, already made up by Steve, KY7W, and a certificate still on the drawing board by Larry, WB7C.  All that remains is to place the text on the the background and that project has been derailed in the month of January that has not been too kind, but Larry will devote a weekend to getting that finished up.

K-7-Dutchman

The Superstition ARC decided to abandon any further use of W7W and chose to go with K7D, which stands for K-7-Dutchman.

There was too much use of the old call locally during February by a group not related to the club resulting in QSL and event confusion on the air.  It's a shame that an ongoing event known over the years to take place in February under this callsign should have to change course, but we decided to make that change effective 2013 and all time forward.

There was a reason why the Superstition ARC started its Lost Dutchman celebrations under W7W, something having to do with people's initials.  We know that the "Dutchman's" last name had a W for "Waltz" or "Walsh" depending on the source of information, but possibly certain people in the club who started the tradition some years ago also may have had W in the name or personal callsign.

In any event, K7D carries on a tradition started with callsign W7W by this club, but the Superstition ARC and K7D have nothing in common with any ongoing use of W7W in 2013 forward.

Silent Key Harold Newman, KD7VK was a spark plug in organizing past years' W7W Lost Dutchman events for the Superstition ARC, and we dedicate K7D in his honor.

Operating Frequencies

We intend to repeat the frequencies the Club used for W7W in our 2012 operation, with one minor shift on 15 meters.  Our chosen frequency was just 15 kHz from the top, making "Plus-or-minus 20" slightly at odds with the band edge!

The ARRL asks for four exact frequencies, allowing plus-or-minus 20 kHz.  Listen for K7D on:

• 28.470
• 21.425
• 18.135
• 14.325

Additional frequencies:

• 24.955
• 7.225
• 3.925

CW Frequencies:

• 28.030
• 24.899
• 21.030
• 14.030
• 10.109
• 7.030
• 3.530

Digital frequencies: 28.045 24.915 21.045 14.045 10.115 7.045 3.545

147.12/449.60/KB7KWK-L EchoLink Linked Repeater system

Additional operations

In addition to the operations out at the park as a group outing, we will also operate from members' homes, to make full use of K7D from the morning of Friday, February 15 through till the evening of Friday, March 1, UTC -0700.

Frequency Coordination Committee

We will call upon the "FCC" to keep things straight.  People wishing to operate during the license period from their homes, mobile or from public locations, are urged to contact the committee and book the band they will use and when, and that information will appear on the Committee page referenced in the heading.

We can only run one K7D per band, so we will work up a schedule; and then if someone wants to run a different band already assigned to another, then positive contact must be made with the other station to affirm that it is ok to switch frequencies.

If you want to work K7D, please contact Larry, WB7C at 480-986-2298.  Choice of band is first-come, first-served for the time period in question.

If you want to be a part of the committee, please also contact Larry.

QSL and Certificate Information

Steve, KY7W has taken one of his W7W QSL designs and reprinted it with K7D, on a high-gloss card stock, together with fitted envelopes, since the card is larger than the standard card.

Larry, WB7C has the basics laid out for a certificate, but the month of January was not very helpful to say the least, so work is still ongoing to get a 5x8 certificate that would fit in a 6x9 envelope.

The story of the Lost Dutchman is on the back of the QSL, and information about the Superstition Mountains themselves is going onto the certificate.

QSL address

K7D Lost Dutchman Legend

Superstition ARC

PO Box 21522

Mesa, AZ 85277

Please enclose a 6x9 SASE to receive the certificate and QSL, or just postage and a return label to receive the QSL only.

See also K7D on QRZ.