A New Feature by Bob W1RH!
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A friend of mine, who lives in El Dorado County and knows I’m a ham, had seen some QSL cards at a friend’s house and asked if he could give them to me. The envelope had five or six cards in it, all old but not a lot that interested me, with one exception.
The rather non-descript card, above, was printed by the same printer, and uses the same style, as one of my first QSL cards for my original call-sign, WB6EUQ. That, however, is not what caught my attention.
What made me notice this card was the callsign, itself. The card is dated, 1947, and has a “KP6” prefix, which at the time was assigned to Palmyra Island, now usually referred to as Palmyra Atoll, in the North Pacific Ocean, near the equator. The “KP” prefix is now assigned only to the Caribbean US Insular Areas, which include Navassa Islands (KP1), Virgin Islands (KP2), Puerto Rico (KP3 and KP4), and Desecheo Island (KP5).
In 1947, however, the “KP6” prefix was assigned to Palmyra Island, which is now in what is considered the Hawaii and Pacific Insular Areas. Palmyra and Jarvis Island are now assigned the prefix “KH5”. Kingman Reef is also assigned the Prefix, KH5, but with the “5” followed by a “K”.
What this all means today is if you decide you’re going to build your dream home on Palmyra Atoll, you can get assigned a KH5 call. There’s just one problem, however: Palmyra Atoll, administered by the Department of the Interior, has been a National Wildlife Refuge since 2001, so there’s no chance you or anyone else can get assigned a KH5 call-sign. It is possible to operate on Palmyra, once you get through a mile of red tape. If you do, it will either by with your call with “/KH5” after it or with a 1×1 special event call-sign, such as K5P. There is simply no way to get assigned a KH5 call-sign.
Here’s what Wikipedia and the CIA World Fact Book has to say about how Palmyra is governed:
Palmyra Island is an incorporated territory of the United States (the only such territory in existence since 1959), meaning that it is subject to all provisions of the U.S. Constitution and is permanently under American sovereignty. However, since Palmyra is also an unorganized territory, there is no Act of Congress specifying how Palmyra should be governed. Palmyra is also uninhabited, as far as permanent residents are concerned. Palmyra Atoll is part privately owned (The Cooper Family still owns two of the five smaller “Home Islands” and the Nature Conservancy purchased the majority of the atoll for conservation and research, acting as a key manager alongside the government.) and part federally owned; the Office of Insular Affairs of the US Department of the Interior continues to administer nine excluded areas comprising certain tidal and submerged lands within the 12 nm territorial sea or within the lagoon
Bill Fells, the licensee of KP6AB, was obviously in the Navy or a Navy contractor, since Palmyra Atoll was under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy from 1934 until 1947. At the time, those in the Navy, or contracted by the Navy, did qualify for a mailing address on Palmyra Atoll, which is why Bill got his KP6AB license. Somehow, Bill’s QSL card made its way to El Dorado County. If anyone knew Bill, please let me know.
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