13 Colonies Event Founder Passing the Reins After 16 Years
/The 13 Colonies 2025, a popular summer operating event, will take place less than a month from now, on 1st July 9:00 AM to 7th July midnight EDT (1 July – 1300 UTC – 8th July – 0400 UTC).
This year, the event will honour founder Ken Villone, KU2US, who is passing the torch to Tony Jones, N4ATJ. Villone has led the event for 16 years by working with state and bonus station coordinators and has grown from making approximately 12,000 contacts in 2009 to making 292,496 contacts around the world in 2024.
This year, one station will be operating in each of the 13 original British colonies, K2A–K2M, along with three bonus stations — WM3PEN, Philadelphia; GB13COL, England; and TM13COL, France — each representing their city, state, or country’s role in America’s colonial period.
Villone said event actually started in 2008, right after he finished participating in the ARRL Sweepstakes.
“I remembered how fun it was, but I could not figure out why there were not more of these types of special events on the air,” said Villone. “So I decided to try my luck and create one, for one year only, to see what happens and to have some fun. I knew we had to offer a special QSL card and/or certificate, plus have on hand a printer and supplies. The hard part was deciding what the event would commemorate and when to do this. I needed a theme that all could relate to, and the event would have to be the type with multiple event stations involved, like the ARRL Sweeps.
Then it hit me...13 colony states, during the 4th of July week and offer a certificate with the theme for the year. I made sure the theme was different each year with a different certificate design, to make it interesting and to also make the cert collectable. The theme would highlight some event or thing connected to the American Revolution.
The inaugural event was held from July 1st to 4th, 2009, 4 days, with no advertising except on QRZ. I had a hard time getting 13 different ops, one from each colony state, but it worked out. All in all it was a success!”
Amateur radio operators and SWLs can participate in the event. Complete information about the call for each colony station and the bonus stations can be found on the event website or on Facebook at 13 Colonies Special Event Community.
