N5C camp site near Jack’s Peak
Celebrating the 1947 UFO Crash at
Corona, New Mexico
By Charlie Christmann, K5CEC
It has been sixty years since an Unidentified Flying Object crashed in the desert of New
Mexico near the city of Corona. Was it a weather balloon, or something not of this earth?
The legends are still enticing to many UFO fans around the world to speculate about its
origins.
To commemorate the 60
th
anniversary , three amateur radio operators from the
Albuquerque area, Jay Miller (WA5WHN), Gary Bonebrake (W5BI), and Charlie
Christmann (K5CEC), set out for a location adjacent to the crash site to operate the
Special Event Station “N5C”, celebrating the Crash at Corona. N5C operated for two
days, Saturday, July 7
th
, and Sunday, July 8
th
.
The location chosen for the special event station was on National Forest Service land, 16
miles south southeast of the town of Corona, at the foot of Jack’s Peak. The gash caused
by the crash and subsequent search for debris could be easily seen from our vantage
point. The site is somewhat remote – no cell phone service, no power, no running water,
and no “facilities”. Because of this, the radio
equipment was operated using only batteries
and a small solar panel for power.
It was late Friday afternoon when the three
of us arrived at Jack’s Peak (we’ll just
forget about the blown tire incident). The
weather was hot and muggy, conducive to
the formation of thunderstorms. We worked
fast to lash a HF vertical antenna to a nearby
tree and throw a dual band dipole up
between two Ponderosa Pines. Camp was
just barely set up and the antennas erected
before the lightning began to flash close by and heavy rain set in. We hunkered down in
Gary’s camper to wait out the storm, hoping
the bolts of lightning would spare the
antennas and the rain would not wash away
our tents. Fortunately, the storm passed
without causing any damage.
The first order of business Friday evening
was to setup the Winlink station for email
access. Ga