United Nations Headquarters Amateur Radio club station 4U1UN representatives are still in talks with the UN Department of Public Information with an eye toward permanently reactivating the station. Although within the geographical confines of New York City, 4U1UN qualifies as a separate DXCC entity.

“Hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to plead our case to the new administration as well. Keep your fingers crossed,” said a post this week on the club’s Facebook page. “4U1UN might be back on the air soon!”

Earlier in March, the club alerted its Facebook page visitors to reports that a pirate identifying as 4U1UN was operating on RTTY. The station was on the air for real in 2015. To commemorate the UN’s 70th anniversary that fall, 4U1UN operated as 4U70UN from a station set up at a ground-level garden area within the UN Headquarters complex.

Unlike 4U1ITU at International Telecommunication Union Headquarters in Geneva, 4U1UN typically is not open for guest operation but is intended for recreational use by the UN Headquarters staff. Max de Henseler, HB9RS (SK), spearheaded the effort that resulted in the approval of a specially designated UN Headquarters Amateur Radio station, 4U1UN, in early 1978 (an Amateur Radio station under the call sign K2UN had operated previously).

The 4U1UN United Nations Headquarters Station was dismantled in 2010 due to extensive renovation of the Secretariat Building. Security concerns and logistics have since stood in the way of its returning to the air. All antennas have been removed from the roof, and equipment has been packed away.

Options reported to be under consideration have included controlling the station remotely, putting the station on the ground floor (and running some 400 to 500 feet of feed line to the top of the building), or moving the station to another sovereign UN building.

4U1UN said that all contacts on or after January 1, 2004, with 4U1UN have been uploaded to the ARRL Logbook of the World (LoTW). — Thanks to The Daily DX for some information