K1T - 70th Anniversary of the First Electronic Heathkit begins July 23

Only a week away! "K1T ... spells KiT as in Heathkit"

Begins: 00:00 July 23, 2017 UTC
Ends: 23:59:59 August 5th, 2017 UTC

The K1T Heathkit 70th "First Electronic Heathkit" Commemoration Special Event Station has been over two years in the making - acquiring and restoring a "Dream Heathkit Station", traveling to Benton Harbor, Michigan to see where it all began, and visiting and restoring the grave of Howard E. Anthony, second owner of the Heath Co., and the man who conceived of the company we all now remember as Heathkit. The very first electronic Heathkit was advertised in July 1947, the 5" Oscilloscope (later dubbed the O-1)

Full details can be found at the QRZ.com web page for K1T - complete with an easy-to-follow timeline of events in the development of the greatest electronic kit company that ever existed, along with lots of pictures. You can also see photos of Howard Anthony's grave, and the restoration and commemorative plaque that was affixed to the stone last March, in the presence of his only known descendants.

This K1T event begins on July 23 for yet another historical reason - on July 23, 1954, Howard E. Anthony died in a tragic plane crash, just as the company founder did many years before. So to memorialize his untimely death at the young age of only 42, I decided to begin my event on that day in his honor and remembrance.

Operations will be on the standard "contest bands" (WARC bands didn't exist in the prime Heathkit years), on the modes of SSB and CW - see the K1T page for on-the-fly schedule updates. This is a "one man" operation, so will not be 24/7 but I will try to post my schedule on a daily (and hourly, as it applies) basis on the QRZ page.

100% of operations will be using Heathkit rigs as follows:

SB-301/SB-401 Primary CW position
SB-101 SSB Station (CW as well) - Thanks so much to Bryan, @WA7PRC for the donation of the amazing CW Fox-Tango uber-tight-skirt 400-Hz CW filter, and the bracket for the SB-640 external LMO, and for all the great dialog and insight along the way... !! Because of the SB-101 versatility with the LMO, FT-CW filter, and great performance with the Heil Pro-7, this SB-101 will remain in the W7UUU station for a long time to come
Special Thanks to Bob Heil, @K9EID, for all his cheerful and prompt assistance along the way to help me adapt the Proset-7 boom mic with Pro-7 Dynamic capsule and TX-1 transformer to my SB-101 - with amazing results! Bob is such a super guy to work with... thanks, man!
DX-60b 40m AM (Thanks again to @WA7PRC Bryan for being my first-ever 40m AM contact last winter, and the first ever this DX-60b could have had, due to the wiring error I fixed!)
DX-20 Secondary CW position - Uber thanks to Steve, @W7BIB for his generous donation of this transmitter to the "Novice Corner" (paired with a Drake 2A for the K1T event). Steve went out of his way to make this happen - thanks so much for all you did! (Long story )
"Twoer" on 2m AM (locals)
HW-2036A on 2m FM Simplex (locals)

Most keying devices are Heathkit, SSB mic is a Heil Proset-7 modified for SB-101 during fast-paced operations, defaulting to the Heathkit HDP-121a during less intense periods.

Two Original Heathkits were build by me for this event: HD-1418 CW/SSB Active Audio Filter (works GREAT!) and HD-8999 Ultrapro Keyboard Keyer (also works great!)

Please feel free to search QRZ.com for lots of details of the many aspects of K1T - I've posted a great many topics about rig restorations, frustrations, travels, experiences, meeting former "Hams at Heath", etc. etc. - much more than can be summarized here. It's all on QRZ in the forums - simply search for "K1T" and then "Posted by member W7UUU" and you'll have plenty to read. Many of the various Heathkit restorations, and many of the frustrations and triumphs of this long process are documented here at QRZ and I encourage anyone interested to do a little searching - maybe you can learn some of the things I learned along the way.

QSL Details: Please again see the QRZ.com K1T page for the most current QSL details. Be sure that you read the instructions - and that your contact falls in the correct time frame!! (I've received lots of premature card requests for this event that as of today has not yet begun!)

Thanks to: @W5BIB, @N2EY , @AF6LJ, @WA7PRC, @K9STH, @N7ANN, @N6QIC, @SM0AOM, @KC8VWM, @W7NO, @W8MZ and a great many others whom, over the last two years, helped me put this together in small ways and major... the forums at QRZ can be a wealth of help, insight, and information if you just ask (in the right way )

And in memoriam of Howard E. Anthony, to Jonathan Anthony, very distant relative, and his distant cousin Mark Thomas, reporter Ted Yoakum of the Dowagiac News for the very nice press write-up of this event in the local paper, and all the many others too numerous to outline for their contributions, encouragement, and historical additions to help tell this story. What an amazing journey this has been.

I hope to put lots of fellow Heathkit fans in my log during the two weeks of this event.

Thanks for reading - and check back to the QRZ.com page for K1T for ongoing updates of the operating schedule. Check DX Summit and other spotting sites for spots. I will "self spot" at the beginning of each band/mode.

Very 73 to all - it's been a long crazy two years putting all this together. See you in the logbook!

Dave
W7UUU/K1T