Forty-eight years ago, the Pennsylvania-based Mt. Airy VHF Radio Club “Pack Rats” were experimenting with the latest amateur radio technology, Earth – Moon – Earth (EME), which became known simply as moonbounce.

While the radio equipment was pretty standard for the day, EME was not an easy technology. Moonbounce contacts required big antennas and kilowatt transmitters.

“There were a number of dedicated amateur operators in a dozen or so countries that had assembled stations capable of making the ultimate long-distance QSO with one goal in mind – to be the first to work all six populated continents on the globe, the Worked All Continents (WAC) award,” said club president Phil Miguelez, WA3NUF.

The Pack Rats were early experimenters of EME communications. Thanks to a donation of a 20-foot stressed dish antenna by Al Katz, K2UYH (SK), an EME station was assembled at a rural sheep barn in Revere, Pennsylvania. The station, W3CCX/3, began making EME contacts but the major obstacle to obtaining the WAC award was the lack of an EME station on 432 MHz on the South American continent.

Through a long series of coincidences, hard work by the Pack Rats to help assemble and transport to South America 20 boxes/crates, with the longest box being 6 feet or less, and a seaside cottage in Barranquilla, Colombia, six months of very intense effort ultimately paid off.

In early July 1976, six Pack Rats, Elliott Weisman, W3JJZ; Walt Bohlman, K3BPP; Tony Souza, W3HMU; Bill Olson, W3HQT (now K1DY); Dan Mitten, WA3NFV, and Bolmar Aguilar, WB3AOP / HK1AMW, headed to Barranquilla with the callsign HK1TL. In one week of operating, the HK1TL expedition made 16 contacts, but since they were the only station in South America, it was one short of the six continents needed for the WAC award in Colombia.

Meanwhile, in Revere, Pennsylvania, the W3CCX/3 station manned by Dave Mascaro, WA3JUF, completed a contact with HK1TL on July 29, 1976, achieving the goal of contacting the final continent needed to give the Mt. Airy VHF Radio Club WAC on the 70-centmeter band.

But the story doesn’t end there. The application for the WAC award was mailed and received. There was an issue with application, but no one

remembered the details or recalled what actions were taken at that time. But the club never received a certificate.

With the help of retired ARRL Chief Executive Officer Dave Sumner, K1ZZ;  ARRL Radiosport and Field Services Manager Bart Janke, W9JJ, and current Chief Executive Officer David Minster, NA2AA, “the ARRL went above and beyond to rectify the Mt. Airy VHF Radio Club lost EME WAC award application,” said Miguelez. The award was dated June 6, 1977.

Thanks to Phil Miguelez, WA3NUF, and Walt Bohlman, K3BPP, for their contributions to this story. More information can be found at the Pack Rats website https://packratvhf.com. The HK1TL story is located on the History TAB or directly at: https://packratvhf.com/index.php/history/30-pack-rat-1976-eme-expedition-hk1tl