PANOLA COUNTRYAMATEUR RADIO CLUB TO BROADCAST FROM NEAR JIM'S GRAVE  ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 28, 2006

Pat Porter reports:

Local weather permitting, my local amateur radio club will operate amateur radio station WA5PC (the "PC" is for Panola County) as a special event radio station from near the grave site of Jim on Saturday 28 October - 1300Z to 2100Z - we will be somewhere around 14.300mHz - upper side band - our callsign is WA5PC - the "PC" is for Panola County. We will be putting out only 100 watts - wish we had more power but, we don't - so, we may be sort of weak into Europe - we will have a special certificate to send to all amateur radio operators and short wave listeners (SWLs) who let us know that they did hear us on the air that day. I hope some of your friends and club members can hear us so we can send them a certificate. We will be about 60 meters to the east of Jim's grave. I may go out there this afternoon and put up the antenna. It looks like it is going to be a pretty day here in north-east Texas.

My two sisters went to high school with Jim - they "ran around" togather - he was in our house many times - but, I was just a baby and do not remember him. Years later - after high school, my sisters did not at first realize that "Jim" Reeves was the "Travis" Reeves with whom they attended high school - he went by "Travis" as a youth. Often, if it was starting to get dark, and Jim had worked late after school, my father (who was a night watchman here in Carthage) would open the jury room in the courthouse and let Jim sleep there for the night.
 

Mike Welch, who is a friend of mine took this picture of Jim's birthplace about 1980. The house has been torn down now.

Thank you - Pat Porter - Carthage, Texas - my personal callsign is WD5FDO

 Pat sent us a report and a few pictures  about the event:

We did not do too well at Jim Reeves grave site today. The  20 meters (14mHz)  long range band was really bad today over here.   I suppose the band itself was ok - but - there was two or three contest on   the air - we couldn't find a clear frequency at all!!!!!!    We are going to work on a beam antenna – then  we can aim all our power right at Europe - maybe that will be better.   We made many contacts on 40 meters (just here in the states) - talked with 3 hams who had met Jim and wanted the certificate. Next year we are going to build a 20 meter(14mHz) beam antenna so we can aim our radio signal directly at Europe.  We'll take it out to Jim's grave site and try again.

From left to right:  Betty Cottonwhite - W5PUP,  Ron Cottonwhite - AC5VN,  Grady Kyle - WA5ROI  & Pat Porter -WD5FDO.