Local "Special Event Station" next weekend (Updated)

From the Port Townsend Leader:

Radio station on Fort Worden's Artillery Hill is refurbished; hams have on-air celebration this weekend
The radio station atop Artillery Hill at Fort Worden State Park is the site of a special event celebrating the 100th anniversary of this communications site. The celebration takes place from 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30.

The public is invited to stop by during the park's open hours: 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday and 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Using call sign W7R, members of the local Jefferson County and Port Ludlow Amateur Radio clubs will be on the air for the full 32 hours in the original brick building, completed in 1909, which is located on the fort's Artillery Hill, surrounded by the original gun batteries.

In the early 1900s, this station, using call sign FX, was used by the U.S. Army to communicate with Alaska, supporting the Klondike Gold Rush, using a spark-gap transmitter. In the early 1930s, communication was by voice, code and Teletype, using an SCR radio set with a 300-foot wire antenna with a center tap supported by two 150-foot fir poles.

During this weekend's event, radio "hams" will be operating off-grid, on single side band, CW (Morse code), and digital PSK & RTTY modes. Radio frequencies include 14.265 and 7.255 MHz.

Volunteers from the radio clubs have been working to clean up the station, which has been victimized over the years by nature and by vandals. Alfred Chiswell of the Coast Artillery Museum at Fort Worden has provided much appreciated assistance during this project.

The public is encouraged to visit during the park's open hours. The radio station is located in Building 414, just off the road on Artillery Hill, near the old Switchboard Room. Information is also available at the Coast Artillery Museum.

Anyone who can provide additional information about this historic building is encouraged to contact the amateur radio clubs through their websites, N7PL.org or JCARC.com.

From the inclusion of technical details, I suspect the newspaper reprinted a press release from the clubs involved...

Map of the Port Townsend area. By the way, this map well shows the "Triangle of Fire" formed by the coastal defense Forts Worden, Flagler, and Casey, the Guardians of Puget Sound, and the approaches to Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia.

Oooh, military history, coastal defense artillery, AND ham radio? Plus, we could possibly even squeeze in a wine tasting or two! Sign me up!

HT eham.net, and email from "Mike" of my amateur radio club.

UPDATE: Per the Western Washington section of ARRL, for true hams out there, the operating hours are Aug 29 1500Z - Aug 30 2300Z, 2009.

Here's that bulletin, from Jim Pace, K7IK, Section Manager:

We are having a special event station with the call sign of W7R this weekend. We are celebrating the radio station building at Ft Worden State Park, which was built in 1909.

The U.S. Army operated a spark gap transmitter communicating with an Alaska Net that was established in 1903. It supported of the Klondike Gold Rush. Ft Worden was the stateside station for the net with a call sign at the time of FX. After scraping three or four coats of old paint and putting on new, then cutting years of black berry bushes, the place is looking good. We put up a dipole antenna about 125'high in the trees. With one transmitter operating on generator power, we should have a good time.

Should any one care to visit and perhaps operate, we will be located up on Battery Hill (Building 414) at Ft Worden State Park, Port Townsend, WA. Days and Hours of Operation: Aug 29 1500Z - Aug 30 2300Z, 2009 Aug 29, 8:00 AM - Aug 30 4:00 PM, 2009

Obviously, I need to add "Learn CW" to my to-do list. Utter failure at it as a Boy Scout, but they weren't really trying to teach it to us, either.