Work K4A: 9/11 25th Anniversary Special Event

Twenty-five years. That’s how long it has been since the morning of September 11, 2001, and for the sixth year running, a special event station will be on the air to make sure the people lost that day are named, remembered, and heard.

The K4A special event station takes to the airwaves from September 9 through September 13, 2026, operated by the Alabama Contest Group in honor of the victims at all three sites: New York City, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.

If you have a rig and a few minutes, this one is worth chasing.

When to listen

Operating runs from 00:01 UTC on September 9 through 23:59 UTC on September 13.

For those of us here in South Jersey, that means the station comes up Tuesday evening, September 8, at 8:01 PM Eastern, and shuts down Sunday, September 13, at 7:59 PM Eastern. Five full days on the air — and the anniversary itself, Friday the 11th, falls right in the middle of the operating window.

Where to find them


Callsign	K4A
Bands	80 through 6 meters
Modes	CW, SSB, and digital (FT8 and RTTY)

That band spread means there is something workable here for nearly every license class and nearly every station. If 20 meters is long, try 40. If the bands are flat, FT8 will still pull it through. Watch the DX clusters and the spotting networks once the event opens—K4A gets spotted heavily, and with five days of operating, there is no need to catch it on the first try.

More than a contact

What sets this event apart from a typical special event station is what happens after the exchange.

The Alabama Contest Group collects the stories. Memories shared on the air, victims named by the operators who knew them — those get gathered up and published in the club’s Smoke Signals newsletter. So if you knew someone, or your department lost someone, or you simply want to say a name into the ether so it doesn’t go unsaid, that is welcome here. This is not a contest exchange. Take the extra thirty seconds.

QSL cards and the certificate

For a QSL card, send yours with an SASE to:

Bob Sarnecki, NF7D, 591 Deer Run Rd., Alabaster, AL 35007-9502

The group asks for a $3.00 (US) donation to help cover printing and postage. A special commemorative card is being issued for this year’s operation.

For the certificate, you need to work K4A on three different bands, in any combination of modes. Then request it from:

Robert Beaudoin, WA1FCN 970 Mt View Rd. Cordova, AL 35550

Three bands over five days is very achievable from Atlantic County. Grab them on 40 phone, 20 CW, and FT8 wherever the band gods allow, and you have earned it.

Want to operate?

The Alabama Contest Group takes volunteer operators for K4A. If you’d like to sit behind the callsign for a shift, Bob, WA1FCN, is the contact—a short email to [email protected] is all it takes to get started. You do not need to be an ACG member or an Alabama resident.

Why this matters to us

Amateur radio has always shown up when it counts. In the hours after the towers fell, when commercial networks were saturated and infrastructure was gone, hams staffed emergency nets, handled traffic, and provided communications at Ground Zero and the Pentagon for days. That is not a story we tell about ourselves to feel good — it is a matter of record, and it is part of why the service exists.

Working K4A is a small thing. It costs a few minutes and a little patience with the pileup. But it puts your callsign in the log of an event whose entire purpose is remembrance, and it connects your station to a line of operators who have been showing up for twenty-five years.

Get on the air September 9 through 13. Call K4A. Say a name.

Work K4A: “We Do Remember” Returns for the 25th Anniversary of 9/11