This is a Special Event Station commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Attu in 1943 and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge where Attu is located.  Attu is the westermost point of North America and the end of the Aleutian Islands (IOTA NA-064)

We have formed a club to help celebrate the wonderful Alaskan National Wildlife Refuges and are now using club call KL7NWR. Visit a refuge near you, but if you can't get to Alaska, talk to us on the air for the next closest thing! We hope to put you in the log. See QSL information below.  A partnership of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, Moosehorn Amateur Radio Club,  and Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges.

The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is the most remote and far flung unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System. It is a place of great distances and greater dramas. Here winds whip through the grasses of rugged, wave-pounded islands; and active volcanoes simmer, venting steam above collars of fog. It is a place of contrasts, where relics of a past war slowly rust in deserted valleys, while, nearby, great forests of kelp team with life. It is, and has long been, a place of refuge, and has seen some of the most dramatic wildlife conservation stories in our nation's history.

• There are over 27 active volcanoes on the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
• The refuges uses a 120ft research ship to visit the remote refuge each year
• The refuge consists of more than 2500 islands, rocks, and spires around the entire massive Alaskan coastline
• There are over 40 million seabirds breeding on the refuge - more than all the rest of North America combined
• Remants of WWII can be seen on dozens of islands in the Pacific theatreknown as the "Forgotten War"

Containing some of the first conservation-unit areas to be established in America, today's Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge includes lands that were formerly parts of ten previously established refuges comprising over 4 million acres. Because it is spread out along most of the 47,300 miles of Alaska's coastline, the sheer span of this refuge is difficult to grasp. Its more than 2,500 islands, islets, spires, rocks, reefs, waters and headlands extend from Forrester Island, to the north of Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands deep in the southeast tongue of the state, to the westernmost tip of the Aleutians (and of America!), and north to Cape Lisburne on the Arctic Ocean. Traveling between its farthest-flung points would be the equivalent of taking a trip from Georgia to California!

The refuge was established, in part, to make possible a program of national and international scientific research on marine ecosystems. Facilitated by the 120-foot ship, M/V Tiglax, refuge staff study seabird and wildlife populations to collaborate with others on marine ecosystem research.

No other National Wildlife Refuge in America is as large or as productive. Alaska Maritime's seashore lands provide nesting habitat for approximately 40 million seabirds, or about 95% of the USnesting seabird population. Long-term monitoring of seabirds can uncover trends in the ocean environment that are profoundly important to conserving marine ecosystems for wildlife and people. We wanted to tell the amateur radio community about this wonderful refuge during National Wildlife Refuge week.

QSL info: We have a wonderful Special Event Station QSL card . See photo in upper right header.

US - Send a QSL card with a self addressed label for your return card which we can put on our our envelope to send to you. If you want a special 8x10 certificate of your contact for your collection, let us know.

International - Send QSL card with 1 IRC or 1 greenstamp.

Interested in more about the Alaska Maritime NWR? You can like the refuge on Facebook AMNWR facebook or go to the Alaska Maritime NWRwebsite for detailed information on planning a visit.

You can watch a great movie about the Alaska Maritime NWR with this link here. It's really worth watching if you like wild places and wildlife.

73, Jeff KL2HD

Still not had enough? Check out more pictures on my KL2HD website here on QRZ.com