The recent Super Typhoon Yutu on the Pacific destroyed all antennas at AH0K on Tinian Island. Yutu was the second strongest storm ever to hit US soil anywhere, having wind speeds of 180mph and 230mph in gusts.
Please check out this link for the damages on Tinian:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/369482/tinian-s-mayor-says-the-island-has-been-devastated-by-super-typhoon-yutu
AH0K had very decent antennas for all HF bands; 160m dipole, 80m beams to EU and NA, 40m beams to EU and NA, 30m dipole, 3 rotating beams on 20/15/10m (one of the beams also had 12 and 17), plus some receiving antennas. They are all gone. The station profile is on QRZ.com.
The station has been active since 2012 especially in CQWW contests but also giving KH0 to many DX’ers in non-contest activations, including special call N0J for the annual Tinian Hot Pepper Festival since 2015 and in the ARRL Centennial operation as W1AW/KH0.
This year, 2018, we missed CQWW SSB and will miss CQWW CW as we lost everything outside the shack.
Tinian island, where AH0K is located, is a very challenging environment in terms of hardware. There is virtually nothing for antennas available on the island and this applies to whole Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In practice the logistics to get anything to the island is comparable to a DX-pedition on any of the Pacific islands. The CNMI is remote and not along the busy shipping routes, making logistics costs extremely high.
In the past 6 years we have brought everything as check-in baggage with us every time we go there. However, for a quick recovery this option is not viable.
We are kindly asking for monetary support to rebuild the antennas and get our great signal on the air again. Should this kind of donations not be the club policy, would it be possible to ask the members donate individually, if they find this important?
Should You decide to donate us something, please use this PayPal account: AH0K.donations — Please let us know if you prefer a bank account.
Thank you very much for your attention.
On behalf of Mariana Intrepid Contest Club AH0K,
Esa Korhonen OH7WV, AF5CW (oh7wv)
Jussi-Pekka Sampola OH6RX, W7BW (oh6rx)