A Publication of the Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society, Inc.
President: William (Buddy) Rodgers-KA4END, 19 Wintergreen Ln., Taylors, SC 29687
SPECIAL NOTICE: There will be NO BRARS meeting on September 7. The Greenville Technical College will be closed for the Labor Day holiday through that day and our room is not available. Our September meeting will be delayed until Monday Evening, September 14...Repeat...September 14. As usual the meeting will be at Greenville Technical College, Room CE- 350 with coffee, etc. at 7:00 pm and the meeting will start at 7:30 pm.
The following is a special contribution from one of our Charter
members:
A HISTORY OF THE
BLUE RIDGE AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY
BY
HUGH T. ANDERSON, W4FNS
PREPARED: JUNE 1998
The organizational meeting of
the club was held the first Sunday in September, 1939, at 2:00 PM at the old Armory
Building on East Park Avenue in Greenville, S. C. There were approximately 25 hams and
enthusiasts present at the meeting which was called to order by Clem Murray, W4CEL. During
the course of the meeting, an election of officers was held with the following being
elected: President-Horace Morris, W4KZ, Vice President- Burton S. Anderson, W4EJH,
Secretary-Treasurer-Hugh T. Anderson, W4FNS, Activities Manager (Not sure, but think it
was Clem Murray, W4CEL.) The club was organized as the Greenville Amateur Radio Club and
was later incorporated. At a later date the name of the club was changed to "Blue
Ridge Amateur Radio
Society."
Shortly after the first meeting, the newly
elected officers met at the home of the president, Horace Morris, W4KZ on North Franklin
Road at which time the constitution and by-laws were written. They were presented to the
club at the next meeting and adopted by majority vote. An original copy of the
constitution and by-laws is still in my possession. Some pertinent parts of this
document are as follows: Meetings to be held on the first and third Mondays of each
month at the old Armory Building on E. Park Ave. Officers of the club could not
succeed themselves for
a second term. An initiation fee of five dollars ($5.00) was assessed new members which
included ARRL membership with a subscription to QST. This assessment was made to make sure
our club had the necessary number of members to maintain affiliation with the ARRL. In the
event that a member became three months delinquent in his or her dues, the secretary was
to notify the member in writing that he or she was in arrears, and if the dues were not
paid by the following regular meeting they were dropped from the membership roll. A copy
of the original constitution and by-laws is in my possession and a copy will be attached
to this to further document the history of our club.
There have been many meeting places for our
club. The following is a list of most of these: Old Armory Building on East Park Ave.,
Upstairs in the Cleveland Bldg. at the corner of Main and West McBee Ave., Basement of the
old Western Union Bldg at the corner of West Washington Street and Laurens Street,
Upstairs in the tower of the old Post Office Building at the corner of South Main Street
and Broad Street. This is now the site of the EOC building. Since I was away from home for
five years during WW2, I am not sure where the meetings were held during this period of
time. After I returned home from the war, the meetings were being held at the residence of
Lewie Bates, W4IMW on Ackley Road. He had a large building behind his house that was an
ideal meeting place. The basement of the Sears Shelter Building on East Park Ave.
was the next meeting place of the club. This was more centrally located and a very good
place for the meetings. We met here for several years. At one of the meetings here, a
representative from the Voice of America attended the meeting and did a documentary
on the Club and its accomplishments in Civil Defense activities. This was broadcast on one
of the programs of the Voice of America which was beamed overseas. Our next meeting place
was held at the Christ Episcopal Church where Reverend Oran Zaebst,
W4HWZ, was rector. He was a member of our club and provided the meeting place for a number
of years. For a period of time later the meetings were held at the home of George Tate,
W4AIS on Artillery Road. His big basement accommodated the large attendance at the
meetings. At some later date the EOC at the corner of Main and Broad Street was the place
of the meetings. Several years later the EOC needed the space, consequently it was
necessary the change to another location. The Shrine Club on Beverly Road was chosen for
the meeting place. This location was used for several years until the space at the EOC was
again available. We began meeting there again for the next few years until the space was
again needed by the EOC. As a result of this, we again needed to change to another
location. Arrangements were made to meet at Greenville Tech and as of the present time we
are meeting at this location. I am sure other locations were used for our meetings, but at
the present time I do not recall any.
One of the most interesting events that the
club undertook was Field Day.
This is an annual nationwide event which simulates emergency conditions and is sponsored
by the American Radio Relay League. Our first field day exercise was held in June of 1940
on top of Paris Mountain at the location of the present AT&T microwave station. A tent
was borrowed from Mackey Mortuary and set up for the operating position of the station.
Horace Morris' call, W4KZ, was used for our first and later field day operations. Only one
CW station was operated and no phone operation was used for the first FD. We were blessed
by having plenty of good CW operators, and the station was operated continuously during
the whole exercise. The operation was very successful, and we scored in the fifth place
nationwide. In those days, "store bought" equipment
was scarce, so most of the equipment was home built. A great deal of experimenting with
equipment and antennas was done in those days, and FD provided an opportunity to test
them out. One experiment with antennas at the first FD was use of a balloon suspended
antenna which did not work out too well because of the wind blowing the balloon around
quite a
bit. After checking it out prior to the start of the event, we discarded the idea of using
it.
The generator was wound by George Cunningham,
W4HGB. While being taken to the field day site by Lynn Hunting, W4CSP, the generator fell
out of the A model Ford that took a "U" turn curve too fast. It rolled down the
side of the mountain, and was damaged to the extent that it had to be repaired.
Fortunately, George did a fast job of repairing it and had it ready in time for the start
of the contest. An old A model Ford engine was used to operate the generator and a 55
gallon drum was used for the radiator. Water had to be brought from quite a distance away
using buckets.
This was quite an effort to keep the drum filled with water. Pictures are available
in the club files.
Another location that was used for FD was
Buckhead on Paris Mountain. This was also a very good operating site. During this FD
operation an embarrassing situation occurred. The park gate was locked each night at
10:00PM, and one of the club members decided to go home after the gate was locked. Instead
of going to the superintendent’s house to have the gate opened for him, he rammed the
gate tearing it down in order to get out. Mr. Eddie Miller was the superintendent of the
park and a friend of mine. As president of the club, I went to see him and apologized with
an offer to pay for the damages. However, he would not accept any compensation and was
very unhappy
about this situation. Needless to say, we did not use the park for any further club
activities.
The site of the fire tower near the WNTV
transmitter was used later for another field day operation. Another location on the Greer
side of the mountain was also used. For a period of time later our field day activities
were held in Cleveland Park at the site of the old skating rink. Jack Mulkey, a club
member had a place on Saluda River off Farr's Bridge Road which was used for a few years
for our FD activities. This was a good location for the outings and a good time was
enjoyed by all. The first operation from this site was not without problems, however. The
generator which one of our members brought for our use was found to be a DC generator and
not an AC one. Quick action in making provisions to borrow an AC generator from Southern
Bell resulted in
getting on the air in time for the start of the contest and preventing a
"disaster" as
far as participating in the field day activities.
We later used the site of the Red Cross at 940
Grove Road for a few field day operations. Tubbs Mountain near Traveller’s Rest was
also used for several years. This was also a very good operating site.
Buddy Rodgers, KA4END, made arrangements for
our field day activities to
be held at Donaldson. This site was used for many years with very good operating
conditions. The food that he prepared was excellent and everyone had a good time at these
festivities.
The club has also had a long standing record of
hamfests. Our first was held on Paris Mountain at the present site of the AT&T
microwave station. This was held about 1951 with a large attendance. Other locations for
the hamfests were Cleveland Park at the site of the old skating rink, Memorial Auditorium,
the old fairgrounds in Greenville,and for the past several years the fairgrounds in
Anderson, S. C.
In the early days of our club, YL hams and SWLs
were scarce. However, we did have some YL members prior to World War 2. The first to join
was Bonnie Jackson, W4GEX, who joined the club in 1940. The next to join was Ann Fox,
W4HTT and Virginia Tollison, K4AIB. Virginia contributed a great deal in the
activities of the club. Dot Bedford, K4AOH, was also a member soon after WW2 and
contributed much to the club.
In March of 1950, the club began publishing a
monthly newspaper which was named "Break In." It was a very fine publication and
the subscription was only one dollar ($1.00) per year for twelve issues. The postage for
mailing was two cents, so there was little profit from the subscription price, but
advertisements and a large circulation kept it going. The publication was ten pages and
with the passing of time, the circulation covered several states. The editor of the
"Break In" was Bob Smeltzer, W4NZR who did an excellent job as did the
others who were involved in the
publication. The technical editors were Glenn Hallmark, W4AUT, a professor at
Clemson
College and Charles W4FFO, also a professor at Clemson. Asst. technical editor was
Wade Holland, W4AZT. Business manager was Garland Osteen, W4KEC. Asst. business
manager was Virginia Tollison. Asst. editor was Earl Brannon, W4HCZ. The publication was
slightly larger than nine inches by twelve inches. A copy of the first issue will be given
to the club secretary for filing along with a copy of this history and some early
photographs of club activities.
( Editor’s note: Hugh Anderson , W4FNS, a Charter
Member of BRARS, prepared this portion of our BRARS Inc. history earlier this summer. He
provided me a copy of his document as well as a copy of the referenced 1950 newsletter,
“BREAK-In”. We will include some of the items from that early newsletter in
future issues of “The Live Wire”. The history, photographs, and 1950 newsletter
will be on file with the club secretary and available for any member to view. We all owe
special thanks to Hugh T. Anderson, W4FNS, for all that he has done for the club and for
his special
work on our history. We hope that he will make additional contributions to our club and
our history in the future. I know that if any of our readers have additional information
about our club history, Hugh will be glad to hear from you.)
Editor: Carlisle Rogers WA4ULE 56 Oak Crest Ct. Greenville SC 29605
Minutes of the 8/3/98 Club Meeting
John E. Chism, ND4N
Secretary, BRARS Inc.
NOTE: Les Shattuck, K4NK, the current 3-year director has resigned from the Board of Directors, leaving a vacancy to be filled. If you are interested in filling the remainder of the term (2+ years) or know of someone that might be, please call president Buddy Rogers, KA4END, or any member of the Board with your name or suggestions.
Any comments, suggestions, articles, etc. regarding the newsletter
should be sent to livewire@brars.org
The Livewire Editor is Dr. Carl Rogers, WA4ULE and this
webpage is maintained by Jonathan Nalley, KE4ZVU
Send your comments or inquiries to: brars@brars.org
©1998 Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society, Inc.