W5LE

Gene Lewis
Mounds, OK

EX: N5CE, DA2GL, KH6HDB (HAWAII & KURE ISLAND), K5LTH

I was in the Navy from 1967 to 1971 and spent 3 of those 4 years at the Navy Submarine Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I was an operator at KH6SP. My own callsign in Hawaii was KH6HDB. During this same time, myself and friend/ham buddy Don Chilcote, KH6GKV (now VE6NN) staged a Kure Island DXpedition in November of 1969, signing KH6NR/KH6. I was in the Coast Guard from 1973 to 1977, I spent 1 year on Kure Island signing KH6HDB. From there I went to Germany and operated as DA2GL. I also applied for and got a club callsign for the Coast Guard Loran Station of DA2CG, but it was never used. After the military, I spent nearly 20 years in the broadcast industry. I then worked for AT&T as a Communications Technician for 5 1/2 years, but fell victim to one of their many downsizings. I returned to working in the television broadcast industry. I was an Assistant Chief Engineer of Corporate Broadcasting for Clear Channel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, I recently got rehired by AT&T and am back in Atlanta, Georgia. I am a member of the Oklahoma DX Association, the Southeast DX Club, and the Southeast Contest Club. My passions are DX chasing and CW. And, FINALLY, thanks to the BS7H Scarborough Reef DX-pedition, I made it on to the DXCC Honor Roll! I'm extremely happy about that. My non-ham passion is travel. I have already achieved a self-set goal of visiting all 50 states and I have also been in 8 of the Canadian provinces/ territories. I hope to finish off the rest of those within the next few years. I would love hearing from anyone who has any familiarity with KH6SP, or Kure Island, or Sylt, Germany, or, for that matter, anyone who might have a question or just want to say hi. 73 & DX & Happy hamming! See you in the pileups! Gene