K4Y - The Battle of Yorktown Special Event 10/18 → 10/20

Join the K4Y - Battle of Yorktown Special Event
The 2025 Chasing Cornwallis Challenge Grand Finale
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Amateur Radio Operators & Friends of History,

You are invited to take part in the 2025 Grand Finale of the Chasing Cornwallis Challenge—the K4Y Special Event commemorating the Battle of Yorktown.

Yorktown was not just the last battle.

It was the breaking of empires and the birth of nations.

You know the legend — Washington victorious, Cornwallis defeated.

But do you know why Cornwallis refused to show for the surrender ceremony?

Why the British sword was handed to General O’Hara, then to American’s forgotten hero Benjamin Lincoln?

Or why the path to Yorktown was blazed, not by regulars, but by militias and foreign fleets — and how its shockwaves still define the fate of 195 sovereign nations today?

Visit k4y.history.radio to read "The Backstory" of the Surrender at Yorktown and when the event is 'live," we make it easy to find a real-time listed Activations on the website homepage and linked to the K4Y QRZ Biography Page.

October 18-20, 2025 marks your chance to become part of living history participating in this final event where several thousand Amateurs are expected to earn their eligibility for the coveted Chasing Cornwallis Challenge Certificate of Achievement shown below, a symbol of dedication to both Amateur Radio and American history.

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Call for Net Control Stations:
A few spots remain available for Volunteer Net Control Stations during this historic event.

Your leadership will help us “Signal the American Spirit” as we unite stations nationwide and around the globe.

Join Us – Operate – Volunteer – Remember:

• Step up and be part of the finale worthy of Yorktown’s place in world history.
  
• Discover the real story behind the battle that birthed America and changed the fate of nations.

Let’s rally together – “Signal the American Spirit” and make history on the airwaves!

And mark your calendars for the 2026 Chasing Cornwallis Challenge per below:

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Yours in history,
NCS Team K4Y
Marc Bowen – W4OVT
marc@history.radio

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Will this be in technician portion of 10 meters?

 

Look for us operating JOTA from scout camp on Saturday. Would love to expose our scouts to more, real history!

 

Hi Andy - keep checking the k4y.history.radio homepage real-time Activation Table for a band/mode details and location of the K4Y Volunteer NCS. We have conducted activations in the past within the Technician 10m band plan but, as I expect you are well aware, 10m propagation is hard to predict and when open, often is more active for DX whereas our Volunteers are all Stateside - although would love to have some of our Great Britain and French friends join the NCS Team, even yourself - consider joining Team K4Y where you can activation on 10m for fellow Techs to participate.

I will post a copy of the NCS Guide shortly to show you, and others, how technology makes NCS Volunteering easy, and fun...all within an Amateur Radio Special Event website unlike any other - I know, I tried to harvest some ideas, finding none, like my Pappy used to say "son, if you want something done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself."

Hi Panama City Mark - always great to hear from you - thanks for all that you do for Scouting - send me a text with band/mode and either I or an enlisted Team K4Y will turn our focus to get you and your assembled Scouts either logged or acknowledged as third-party traffic!

 

Thanks Marc!
I just recently put my 10 meter dipole up, so I would really like to participate if it's possible.
I've been waiting a long time to participate in one of your special event stations.

 

Andy et al - click this link to view the Team K4Y NCS Guide summarized below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LDmUak3v7ePkmBT1kLofIqJ-dJKIlrqH/view?usp=sharing

• Volunteer Page ==> Mission Control
• Net Control Operations
• Logging and Submission
• Role in History
• Support and Communication
• Website and Event Philosophy

 

I could be a station for this event need more info, Brad Carder, W4SBX, bradcarder8@gmail.com.

 

I hope I can catch some of this event!

P.S. Could you stop using AI?

 

Thank you so much for the obvious work and time spent on making this event happen.
My ancestral grandfather was adjunctant to Washington during most of these battles. He is buried near Enfield, IL in the Old Johnson Cemetery with a 1905 monument placed there by the DAR and fully cited. But, without these activities, it seems to me history can slip by us.
With great appreciation,
Donn, KA0SOH

 

Hello! I’m Bill, K8BTU, a Team K4Y volunteer operator. I’ll be operating 100% CW on the 40-, 20-, 15-, and 10-meter bands, with possible activity on 80 meters. For those looking to make contact, I’ll be operating within the General-class CW portions of each band, and in the Novice segments where available. Join us as we commemorate the Battle of Yorktown, a pivotal moment in American history. I look forward to working you on CW — de K8BTU, Team K4Y.

 

Stations have operated in that porting in the past, I will make an effort to be in that portion. Keep an eye here and the dx cluster. Good Luck. Tony C -de KA3BPN - K4Y - volunteer..

 

I am looking forward to giving the last full measure for this event! I will be operating CW (including tech/novice sections qrs, SSB (including 10 meter tech section) and FT-8 when possible. Good luck and enjoy the chase! Huzza! Tony C - de KA3BPN

 

Thanks. I'll be watching for your activation!

 

Can't wait for everyone to chase Cornwallis again! I look forward to putting you all in my log!

 

That is an awesome connection to history you have there Donn. So many people have undiscovered ancestral connections to America's founding heroes. Helping people make those connections was years ago one of my hobbies, mostly relying on the Mormon Family Search database but the canonical source were/are family Bibles.

I do not know of a single one of more than two dozen Genealogists who are still in business - today's generation is more about the front windshield with declining interest in the rearview mirror - reminds me of an old movie Gumball Rally - the Italian driver - "What's behind me...is not important" to which I summon my best Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday (almost wrote Doc Hollywood - different movie!) in Tombstone "I beg to differ, sir."

What was of special interest in my research was the often intense battles of a different sort - the fight to earn a pension...not difficult if the combatant was enlisted in the Continental Army, but if a Patriot or even more difficult, Frontier Militia, chances were slim to none a pension was awarded...and a majority who were granted a pension never lived long enough to see a penny.

Think about joining the Team for next year's Chasing Cornwallis Challenge - you would make an excellent NCS given your obvious passion for history - HUZZA!!!