19xx – 198x – Randy KH6XX
198x – 199x – Japanese owner
1992 – 1996 – Marty N6VI
[by Marty N6VI] – After Randy and Iris moved into town in the late 1980’s, the property was, as I understand, held by a Japanese absentee owner for about five years. My wife and I purchased it as our primary residence in August, 1992, when I was transferred to Oahu for work. During those five years, a lot of deferred maintenance had accumulated, so we had the upstairs deck rebuilt, reworked some of the electrical, added ceiling fans upstairs, re-carpeted, and fenced the back half of the property, among other projects. There was no 40m antenna at the time, so I built and installed a 3-element yagi for that band. We owned the place for four years and sold it to Ken Hoppe in August, 1996 when I was transferred back to the mainland.
During our time there, we hosted numerous multi-multi contest operations on both phone and CW using WH6R. I also worked several Sweepstakes and WPX contests as a single-op (N6VI / KH6 and once as N6VI / KH7) and hosted other single-op efforts.
I also used the station for some satellite work through RS-12 (15m in, 10m out). Transmitting with the 8-over-8 Telrex 15m array and listening with the 10-eement Telrex on 10, I was able to work stations all the way to the East Coast, getting into the bird while it was over eastern North America. I once copied the RS-12 CW beacon as it flew all the way to South Africa! I gave several ops their 50th state on satellite with this station.
1996 – 2000 – Ken Hoppe KH7R
[by Ken KH7R] – In August of 1996, I was able to purchase the property from Marty Woll N6VI. Twenty years had elapsed since the station was built and the towers, rotors and antennas all needed immediate attention. Marty had started the process and left me with the materials to get the project going. All guy wires were replaced, rotors replaced or repaired, towers treated for rust and antennas repaired or replaced as needed. Over the next three years the guy anchors, antenna feed lines and rotor cables were replaced and additional backup antennas were installed. With the help of the hams from the Society of Midwest Contesters, the contest station was configured with filtering to reduce interference and antenna stacking equipment was introduced. New radios, amplifiers and computers were purchased. Improvements continued until I left Hawaii in December 2000. The station was sold to Alex Benton KH6YY in 2004.
Contesting started out in 1996 under the call of WH6R after the first contest using my call at the time, KH6HH did not turn out well. KH7R became my call and was used for most ofthe contesting from 1997 on. In 1997, at the bottom of the solar cycle, the station was able to win the very first coveted CQWW World Top Combined Trophy. This was repeated again in 1998 and earned the station the title of Pacific Super Station.
The success of the station was due to the contributions of labor, contesting skills and resources of many local and mainland hams including Kimo Chun KH7U, Mike Sato KH6TO, Walter Niemczura AH6OZ, Patrick Guerin NH6UY, Dan Young WH6HP, Robert Hlivak NH6XO, Robin Liu AH6CP, Eran Agmon WH6R, Chad Kurzewski WE9V, Dan Robbins KL7Y, Jon Kimball KL2A, Paul Gentry K9PG, Mike Tessmer K9NW and others.
Click this link for more photos from Ken
2004 – current – Alex KH6YY
Alex purchased the site and renovated the station. In 20xx Alex purchased the adjoining lot to expand the site and to add a guest house with a ham radio bunkhouse extension.
