Go to http://www.w6nmc.org for latest updates!

W2AIR has been with the U.S. Coast Guard for years. The military recreational callsign was applied for and issued when the Coast Guard had a training center (TRACEN) and base located at Governors Island, New York. Thus, the 2-Land callsign.

The station is now located at Coast Guard Island and is on the air. This station includes the call signs of W2AIR, W6NMC, and KF6FVK.

The station is still under development at the moment and there is much to do. More information will be available as time progresses.

73 de Eric, KB6YNO

In my quest to find more information about the history of W2AIR, I was finally able to get the details of how W2AIR came to the West Coast. It has been edited:

--------------------------------------------------------------------

From: John Zantek/K3JZ

To: Eric Simmons/KB6YNO

Subject: RE: Coast Guard Ham Radio/W2AIR

It was after ET/TT school moved from Governors Island (Govis), Eric.

I was both a W2AIR and W6ZZM operator when I was an RM-A student during that school's transition from Govis to Two Rock. When I returned as the RM/ET/TT Branch Chief in 1991, W6ZZM had expired and the building that housed the Ceramics Shop and the W6ZZM Shack was gone, replaced by the Juliet Nichols building.

W2AIR was about to expire, too, and was still assigned to the CO, Tracen Govis. Since that command no longer existed, I didn't need permission to seek its release. I submitted the Military Recreation Station application to "renew" the station, with an updated address.

At first, we used the old antenna patching room in the back of Building 500, where the abandoned heliaxial feedlines for the numerous tower arrays were coupled to the receiver rooms of the old intercept station (Building 500's original purpose in life).

The old farmhouse inside the main gate was deleted from the base housing inventory in 1992, so I moved our operation there. We planted two aluminum crankup towers, a pair of telephone poles (previously from the TT climbing yard) for a full 80m folded dipole, and a third pole for our satellite array for tracking the Microsats. We had the largest packet BBS on the West Coast from 1993 to 1995, with ports on 20m, 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm. We had a 1.2GHz link up to our node on Sonoma Mtn.I added an Internet feed to the Tracen in 1994.

I PCS'd out in 1995, and a year later, they removed all the gear from the farmhouse and burned it down as practice for the Tracen FD.

FYI: the W6ZZM and W2AIR callsigns were actually derived from Army MARS. Those stations were AA6ZZM and AA2AIR, respectively, before the USCG took possession of those properties.

73 John K3JZ

(ex WN3AIC, WB3AIC, AL7IN, WX3K)