Mark your calendars for September 6-14, 2025, for Route 66 On The Air.
Once again, we’ll celebrate the legend and lore of Route 66, “The Mother Road”.
‘Route 66 On The Air’ (R66OTA) is organized and sponsored by the Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club of San Bernardino, California (http://w6jbt.org/?page_id=15).
In Oklahoma, amateur radio clubs in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Elk City will be participating. Oklahoma City has always been well represented in R66OTA.
Oklahoma City will again use the special event call sign W6K; Steve Duskin, NE5SD is the trustee for the call sign. Use of W6K must be authorized by the trustee through the R66OTA Registration Page. All W6K operations should be conducted in the Oklahoma City Metro area and in the spirit of the event, as close to Route 66 as practical.
Operations from Oklahoma City area landmarks associated with Route 66 are encouraged, i.e. Cowboy Hall of Fame, the ’round barn’ and “Pop’s” in Arcadia, Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma State Capitol, the Route 66 Bridges west of Bethany, etc.
This year, we will have a unique rover as part of Route 66 On The Air.an ‘aeronautical rover’. Bill Hartsel, N3WSH will fly Route 66 making contacts on 146.49MHz simplex. Bill has been assigned “W6Y” as his “Route 66 ‘In’ The Air”
call. His flight plan and schedule is posted on the Citrus Belt ARC website (https://w6jbt.org/?page_id=318629).
R66OTA begins at 0000Z/6 September and continues to 2359Z/14 September.
Radio operators may use phone, CW or digital. Radio operators may also consider operating mobile on “The Mother Road”.
For suggested operating frequencies, go to https://w6jbt.org/?page_id=25. These frequencies are suggested. They give folks hunting R66OTA stations a general idea where to begin their search.
For R66OTA contacts in the Oklahoma City area, the 146.82MHz and 147.135MHz repeaters have been designated ‘R66OTA repeaters’. Stations may reserve ‘2m FM’
operating slots and use W6K on these repeaters. Please operate on a ‘non-interference’ basis, i.e. avoid established 2m nets.
Information on signing up as a ‘Route 66 On The Air’ station and reserving operating times will be released in a week or so.