Joe Rodgers, past President of SMU's W5YF Amateur Radio Club
tunes in Harvard University's W1AF Special Events Station on 15 meters

Using the SMU Radio Club's ICOM 781 high frequency (shortwave) transceiver
Joe Rodgers contacts W1AF on both the 10 and 15 meter Amateur Radio Bands

Recently, the Southern Methodist University Amateur Radio Station W5YF has begun projects to preserve and celebrate our Club's long history of over 70 years of service in the S.M.U. and Dallas community.

Among our projects are plans to videotape past club officers and members (such as our current trustee Luther Pully). We have already posted pages with 1960's Shack Photos and Historical QSL Contact Cards. These pages provide a peek into the past achievements of the SMU Amateur Radio Club and our W5YF Amateur Radio Station.

Southern Methodist University's Amateur Radio Club isn't the only one rediscovering its history and celebrating its past achievements. The Harvard University Amateur Radio Club's history can be traced back to an experimental radio engineering group in 1909 - making them arguably the oldest continuously active radio club in the world.

The 1910-1920s period saw many radio stations get on the air, with amateur radio operators competing with military wireless and commercial ship to shore stations for the same frequencies. As things got organized, amateur radio stations got callsigns like 1AF and 1YU (for the Harvard and Yale University Stations respectively) if they were in region #1 (New England). Texas stations are in region #5, so callsigns such as W5YF are assigned in this area. The W or K prefix was added to identify stations in the U.S.A. from Canadian and other foreign stations. Commercial stations in the U.S.A. such as WNBC television (New York City) and KEGL FM radio (Dallas) usually start with W or K as well, but lack numbers in their callsigns. Nowadays, there are millions of radio stations worldwide, each with its own distinctive callsign.

The Harvard Amateur Radio Club station W1AF dates back from the same time frame as the Southern Methodist University W5YF club station - the late 1910s and early 1920s. Only a handful of U.S. radio clubs date from this period, with the Dallas Amateur Radio Club being one of the few local examples. As a past president of not only W5YF but also W1YU, the Yale University Amateur Radio Club, I have had the unique privilege of being president of two of the oldest amateur radio clubs in the world! My interest in the history of radio clubs began over 20 years ago, in the stacks of the Sterling Library at Yale. There I found a complete set of QST magazine, providing a veritable history of amateur radio. Since the main W1AW amateur radio station of the American Radio Relay League is located near Yale in Newington, Connecticut, I also had the chance to visit the museum of amateur radio's history there as well as work the W1AW station. If you have an interest in the history of amateur radio, you really have to visit the W1AW station and museum!

In light of their long history, the Harvard Amateur Radio Club station W1AF sponsored a special events station operation on the weekend of October 2nd and 3rd, 1999. A special events station may have a special callsign issued by the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S.A. Or a station may opt to use its regular callsign but provide an alternate recognition for stations that work it during its special events timeframe. In the case of the Harvard Club's special event, a special QSL or contact card will be exchanged with those who worked the station during the special event period.

The Southern Methodist University club station plans to participate in an once in a millenium special events station on this New Year's Eve - December 31st, 1999 through January 1st, 2000. The special event callsign for this station is K2M - K for the USA, 2M for 2x1000 (M=1,000) or the year 2000 - celebrating the new millenium. The station will be setup and operated in concert with the Dallas Amateur Radio Club and other local groups.

Special events stations such as K2M and W1AF provide some interest and excitement to club station operators and those stations lucky enough to work them. Frequently, so many stations are trying to contact or "work" the special events station that the result is a "pileup". Similar to the football equivalent, everybody is on top of everybody else on the same frequency. While pileups can be challenging, they are also fun. It is nice to be the one getting all the calls and attention.

The W1AF special events station is a good example of how University amateur radio clubs and club stations are rediscovering and celebrating their history. Thanks to efforts by current and former club presidents and members such as Tony Klinkert, Joe Rodgers, Robert Monaghan, and Luther Pully, we are reconstructing and fleshing out our own club's long and distinguished history. Since most Southern Methodist University clubs have come and gone over the course of a few years or decades, it is quite probable that the S.M.U. Amateur Radio Club is one of the oldest continuously active organizations on our campus.

And that, we think, is worth celebrating and documenting!

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