One of the things that we see all too few of these days, is the School radio club.
Here in Alliance, Ohio, We were lucky to have had a radio club at one of our Junior high schools. We’ve been able to document this club from as early as 1955, through 1971. Sure, there were some lapses in there, but never for very long.
The influences of Amateur Radio, on a youngster, are incalculable. It’ll be interesting to someday see what paths these youngsters pursued, because of their contact with Amateur Radio.
Here’s one of the original W8HQC QSL cards. We are looking for a better image for this page. If you have one, please e-mail me at wg8x[at]arrl.net.
The following is from Mike Draa, KC8CU.
“I arrived at State Street Jr High in 61 as a 7th grader and there was no radio club at that time. The following year 62, our science teacher Mr. Richard Krabill decided to start one and he did.
He put out the word and a few of us joined up. There was me, Alan Fox, Jim Corey, and there might have been one other but I don’t remember his name. Mr. Krabill already had his novice ticket so he got us started. He was the club advisor. We practiced and studied and all passed our novice test.
We then erected a couple of inverted Vs on the roof of the front of the school. Mr. Krabill brought in his own equipment and we were given a small room between the to science rooms for a shack. The equipment was a Mosley CM-1 receiver and a Heathkit DX-40 transmitter. It worked out very well and we had a ball. Lots of CW contacts. We had a wood pass with the key to the shack that would get us out of study halls to go to the shack and operate.
We had a mini election and I ended up president of the club. Things continued on very well. The following year we erected a tower…50 or 60 ft Rohn 25g and put a nice tribander on top…a Mosley TA-33 if I remember correctly. Mr. Krabill then purchased a new Drake TR-3 transceiver and brought that in. That was the incentive to get our General ticket. At that time you had to take the test at an FCC office, so He drove us up to Detroit. I passed the code, but missed the theory by one or two questions. The others didn’t pass the code so they were not allowed to take the theory test.
A few months later he drove us down to Washington DC and we took the tests again. Mr. Krabill and I passed, and became Generals. I was WN8IDS as a novice and became WA8 IDS as a general. We were having a ball then working SSB on the Drake TR-3 and making contacts all over the world. That tribander helped a lot.
After ninth grade I moved on to the high school and the club and antennas remained up for a while but I noticed a year or two later they were taken down.
I graduated from AHS in 67. So John, that is about all I can remember at this time.The last I heard Mr. Krabill quit teaching and became a Doctor, and Alan Fox became an engineer and is still licensed. Jim Corey is also an engineer but is out of amateur radio. I upgraded a few years later while in the military an am still active. Between old Ray Scoville (my neighbor) and the radio club at State Street my interest in Ham radio grew and continues to be with me today. “
