The Annual 13 Colonies Special Event: July 1-7, 2025

Icom IC-756 Pro Transceiver DialMany thanks to SWLing Post contributor Saul Broudy (W3WHK), who writes:

13 Colonies Special Event 1-7 July 2025

For years I have been one of the operators for WM3PEN, the ham station in this event representing the city of Philadelphia, where the USA officially declared its independence from Great Britain on 4 July 1776.  I thought the SWL world might have an interest in logging the 16 stations participating in July’s 13 Colonies event described below, and sending for a certificate and/or QSL cards.
73,
Saul

In just a few weeks, one of the most popular summer operating events kicks off – The 13 Colonies special event. Now in its 17th year, the event has grown from special event stations making approximately 12,000 contacts to last year making 292,496 contacts around the world.

The event runs from 1 July 9:00am EDT – 7 July midnight EDT (1 July 1300 UTC – 8 July 0400 UTC).

This year, event organizers are recognizing the 13 Colonies event founder Ken Villone, KU2US.

The event consists of one station operating in each of the 13 original colonies (K2A – K2M) and three bonus stations (WM3PEN – Philadelphia, GB13COL – England, TM13COL – France) each representing their city, state, or country’s role in America’s colonial period.

Ham radio operators and SWLs alike can participate in the event(all modes). Complete information about the callsign for each colony station and the bonus stations can be found on the event website 13colonies.us, and they can follow us on Facebook – 13 Colonies Special Event Community. Stations need only make one contact or report with one of the participating stations or they can go for a clean sweep and listen for all 13 Colonies stations and the 3 bonus stations. Each station offers a special QSL card for the event as well as a different certificate each year. Operators can keep an eye out for the various stations by watching many of the DX spotting sites such as DXSummit.fi.

One thought on “The Annual 13 Colonies Special Event: July 1-7, 2025

  1. MERRILL BROWN

    I was working the 13 colonies event and on Sunday afternoon while the bands were very qrn/qsb and looked like things were slowing down so I saw an opportunity on phone so started calling cq . I found out quickly there was more fun to be had on ssb.I got my Inrad W1 headset ready and pointed the Hex beam to S/W Bingo I poked the bee hive and my pc log was quickly filling up with calls from all over. It was so frantic and i”m not a phone operator and started to sweat even under 68 degrees from the A/C. It got so bad everything was meshed together so I quickly thought ” Hey its not the usual thing to do but i need to get some control of this pileup. I went from 1 to 0 call area but what really had me fall out of my chair was when a guy says his call and then says aeronautical mobile. I was like did I hear that right and quickly went back. I didn’t write his call sign just frantically put it in my log. I thought I got lucky as I did go back into my log for that day and found K5PEFon qrz with him standing by his small plane but after exchanging emails he told me was not flying that day. Anyways you just never know who needs a contact from 13 colonies. I can’t wait until next year. Maybe an Extraterrestrial. Hi Hi it seems that”s where we are heading… ET PHONE WM3PEN
    WK2G Merrill

    Reply

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