Call sign: N9N

IMPORTANT: Special operating event dates for N9N from USS Nautilus were August 2 and 3, 2008.  If you worked N9N at any other time, it was NOT the special event operation in commemoration of Nautilus to the North Pole.   Contacts with N9N at any other time were with other special event or contest operations, including in the Indiana QSO Party in May 2009.  Look for KJ9D here on QRZ.com for QSL info for that use of the special event call sign.

UPDATE: Thank you to all who helped us honor the crew of USS Nautilus with this amazing event. We had over 2,000 QSOs! This might be a record for a non-DX, one-weekend special event operation. Please be patient when you send QSLs. We will confirm all valid contacts as soon as possible.

Location: Submarine Force Museum and Library and Historic Ship Nautilus, Groton, CT, operating August 2 and 3, 2008. 

Sponsors: Southern New England Navy-Marine Corps Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS), Submarine Base Amateur Radio Club (K1SSN), and Don Keith (N4KC), co-author of The Ice Diaries, a new book about USS Nautilus and her historic trip to the North Pole in August 1958 (See www.donkeith.com)

The event commemorated the historic voyage beneath the polar ice pack by the world's first nuclear vessel, USS Nautilus (SSN-571). Under direct orders of President Dwight Eisenhower, and as an answer to the Russians' launch of the Sputnik satellite, the most famous vessel in the world undertook this dangerous Cold War mission. Only about a dozen people outside the hull of the submarine knew of the top-secret mission. The goal was to prove the capability of the nuclear submarine to operate beneath the ice pack, and to make a transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic through the long-sought Northwest Passage. Along the way, she became the first vessel to reach 90 degrees north latitude, the North Pole, but at great peril to the ship and her crew of 116 men, under the command of Captain William R. Anderson. She was using unproven under-ice sonar and prototype navigation equipment while traversing one of the most inhospitable spots on the planet. When Nautilus finally emerged from beneath the treacherous ice pack, she radioed the message to the White House, "Nautilus 90 North," to announce the successful completion of the mission. (One of the Navy radio ops at Pearl Harbor who copied and relayed that message was Harold Dennin, AC3Q, and we had the pleasure of working him on CW during the weekend, recreating that moment.)

Her feat was front page news around the world, her crew was treated to a tickertape parade through Manhattan's "Canyon of Heroes," and the trip was later named by Time Books as one of mankind's greatest adventures. The special event call sign N9N remembers "Nautilus 90 North" and the on-air event commemorated the 50th anniversary of reaching the Pole - 11:15 PM Eastern time on August 3, 1958.

QSL info: Send confirmation of contact and SASE to N4KC, Don Keith, 40 Red Stick Road, Indian Springs Village, AL 35124 for a special commemorative QSL card. No confirmation will be returned without SASE.

More information: www.n4kc.com -- www.n4kc.blogspot.com -- n4kc@bellsouth.net