Route 66 ON THE AIR “Flies in the Air” for 2025
The Cessna 172 that Bill Hartsell will be flying for this year’s On The Air event.
Ham radio’s Route 66 On the Air 2025 will feature Route 66 “In the Air” for the first time! Oklahoma City’s Bill Hartsell, a retired Air Force pilot, will fly a Cessna airplane over the Mother Road Sept. 6 through Sept. 8 from Chicago to Santa Monica making ham radio contacts from the cockpit. His specialized callsign for the event will be W6Y, and licensed ham radio operators on the ground in the vicinity of his route will attempt contacts.
Non-hams living along the route might hear Hartsell on 146.490 MHz, which can be programmed into practically any radio scanner. He plans to also fly eastbound from Santa Monica to Oklahoma City on Sept. 9 to conclude his efforts. Schedule is subject to change due to weather, mechanical issues, and the like. Detailed information about the so-called “Aeronautical Rover” can be found here and you can track his flight real-time at ADS-B Exchange.
This is part of the 26th edition of Route 66 On the Air, which is taking place from Sept. 6 through Sept. 14, 2025. Amateur radio operators “commemorate the history of the ‘Mother Road’ connecting the east and west areas of the US,” according to the sponsor Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club on its web page here.
More than 70,000 radio contacts were made in 2024 following prescribed guidelines to formally log the effort. Radio operators will use 24 specially designated callsigns, typically associated with Route 66 cities, to make contacts with other operators around the world. Complete details regarding the event are found at the Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club page noted above.
Oklahoma-based callsigns for the event include Elk City W6J, Oklahoma City W6K, Tulsa W6L, and the aircraft W6Y. Radio operations will not run around the clock.
Tulsa Amateur Radio Club (TARC) will partner with the Rogers County Wireless Society on Sept. 6 to publicly operate at the Claremore Expo Center, 400 Veterans Parkway. Mark Adams, TARC president, said the club will also deploy its Communications Trailer in Chandler Park, 6500 West 21st Street, on September 13 to publicly support Route 66 On the Air. Check the TARC Web page https://w5ias.com/ for more information and any last-minute updates.
