Amateur Radio

Brian D. Smith KA90lH Hum", 5 on your FHdbM:k card
I
Fostering Goodwill
and Great OX
W87PAX operations at the Pan American Games.
n early August of '87. I embarked on a
solo DXped ition to the land of the
world' s rarest prefi x. Starting on the west
side of Indianapolis. I spent a solid half-hour
navigating my 1972 Pontiac across concrete
nails thai pierced the heart of the city. At
length I wound my way to an eastside neighborhood,
onto a short side street and into a
grassy field. where I abandoned the vehicle :
the rest of my j ourney would have to be
covered on fool.
Alone and unarmed. I trudged through
grass and gravel for what seemed like min ­
utes until-there it was! Rising up in front
of me was my destination-a five-room,
wh ite building surrounded by several lofty
antennas.
Yes. it's true: For 23 days in August. this
tiny spot in the middle of W9-land .....as. literally
and figurati vely .
the home of t h e
worfd's rarest pre ­
fix-also know n as
special-event station
W87PAX.
This o pe rat ion.
..... i t h w hic h I am
proud 10 have been
associated. began as
an organized effort to
co m memora te the
Tenth Pan American
Games in India na ­
polis. But by the end
of its meteoric life . il
had . in the opinion o f
many. blossomed in­
10 Ihe most successful
spec ial-event operalion
of all lime.
That's a bold starement,
of course. But
W87PAX racked up
some p ret ty bo ld
statistics.
Operating almost
14 73AmateurRadiO
Photo A. nit,main 0l' t'rming statio" lit W87PAX. ",hh'h amassed H .632 QSDs 011 201llt'ters.
• January. 1988
" ! was in the
Magic Kingdom of
DX Disney/and. "
nonstop fro m August I to 23, the statio n
logged more than 23 .000 QSOs in 139 countries.
Our a-s-member crew placed up to nine
transmitters in simu llaneous operation, used
six modes (includ ing ATV) and conducted
QSOs on 13 frequency bands between 160
meters and 1296 MHz.
As a result, we are claiming nine all-time
records for a special-event station.
But numbers alone don't tell the .....hole
sto ry. Our totals notwithstanding. .....e never
intended 10 mount an operation based solely
on the ledger sheet.
Naturally . we savored the ever-rising QSO
count and me smorgasboard of scarce DX
that, for once in our lives. was chasing us .
BUI believe it or nOI . our bottom line was
simply to have fun.
In the process. of course. we generated
excitement in the world radio community.
attracted national and intemarional news
coverage of ham rad io and spread goodwill
from the city o f Indianapolis across the
entire world.
There were other highlights. 100. We reo
ccived and delivered about 300 messages 10
and from Pan Am personnel. We helped
arrange a thi rd-party agreement betw een
washington. DC. and the island of Aruba.
And above it all . we had the lime ofour lives
on the airwaves.
So much for summarie
s . A story of
this mag nitude is
properly to ld in sequence,
so let us turn
back the logbooks
and return to the vel)'
origin ofW87PAX. ..
The Wa)-We Were
Our tate begins a
few years ago in a
conti nent fa r. fa r
a way. It h e lps 10
know that Santiago,
C hile. origi na lly
owned the right 10
stage Ihe 1987 Pan
Am Games. a mutuspon
even! for athletes
in the Western Hemisphere.
BUI political
unrest and a lack of
funding prompted the
Chileans 10 reli nquish
the Games in 1983 .
,