This is a work in progress. Last revised 06/17/05. If you would like to help with this history, please contact Alan Crosswell, N2YGK, alan@columbia.edu.

History of W2AEE, the Columbia University Amateur Radio Club

Early days. 1906-1920s

Very few good records have been found for this period. Most information is based on second-hand accounts. The Columbia University Experimental Wireless Station was said to have been founded around 1906, in the basement of Chandler Hall (or possibly Havemeyer, the adjacent building) and to have been assigned the callsign of XM in the second supervisory district by the Department of Commerce. Other records (or folks' recollection of records) state that the station became 2XM in 1913 and became W2AEE in 1933, around the time that the FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934.

Found in the Columbiana files:

X IMP BOTHERS WIRELESS. The Sun. 1/30/1914.

In November 1920 QST in Calls Heard on page 55, station 2PP, Newark, NJ(?) reports hearing 2XM.

Around 1924, the station moved from the basement of Havemeyer (Chandler?) to the Engineering (now Mathematics) (a/k/a Armstrong) Attic.

1930s-1940s

A contribution from Les Balter, W2HRT: I graduated 41E. In 1938 or 9 I was chief op. I hold W2HRT since 1934. The club at that time was more taken with FM promotion and demonstration than ham radio. I spent time at thew Alpine tower W2XMN. I recall a specific demo trip the club made to Brookly polytech. W2 XMN went on the air for us and we carried our one and only FM receiver in a 6 ft. rack to Brooklyn to demo the advantages of FM. In 1939-40 Bill Hutchins 40E gotthe club to organize a campus radio station. At the time it was totally illegal. FCC regs permitted 5 (?) microvolts per meter radiation from a carrier wire. We put CURC (call letters used) "on the air" as a carrier current station using the power wires as conductor. We operated at about 620 kc AM . The lower the frequency, the greater distance allowed. The club assembled the console and am transmitter from scratch. I personally remember hand wiring rotary switches to make the operating console. Also remeber technical problem of coupling around power distribution transformers to get the signal to Barnard, which we did.

The 1940s and 50s

An antenna history covering the 1950's in detail and containing some details back to 1906 was recently unearthed in the shack files and is the basis of much of the information above.

And, as we all should know, Major Edwin Howard Armstrong(1890-1954), inventor of the regenerative receiver, superheterodyne circuit, and FM radio, did much of his pioneering work in radio at Columbia as an undergraduate (entering in 1909), graduate student, and professor of electrical engineering. For an excellent biography, see Lawrence Lessing's Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard Armstrong. Also, the PBS series, Empire of the Air features Armstrong. See also, Edwin Armstrong: Pioneer of the Airwaves by Yannis Tsividis and the E. H. Armstrong web site.

Radio station W2XMN was built by Armstrong in Alpine, NJ in 1939 and operated for 16 years demonstrating high fidelity FM radio. You can clearly see the Alpine radio tower today sitting atop the Palisades opposite Yonkers, where Armstrong lived as a child and performed his first radio experiments. On a related note, WKCR FM, Columbia University, was one of the earliest FM broadcast radio stations.[* get someone from WKCR to fill this in!*]

Fuat, N2YGN, found an ARRL Charter of Affiliation dated July 10, 1953....

In 1954-5, Vincent O'Keeffe, W1IDL, was involved with the club and sent us this letter recently.

In 1956-57, Yves "Al" Feder, W1EOX (ex-K2CUI), was Vice President of the club and later trustee. Yves has provided a lot of information about that time.

The 1960s

During this time, the club moved from the old Engineering school building, now Mathematics Hall to the new building, Seeley W. Mudd Hall, where it is currently located. Given that, most files found in the shack date back to the late fifties and early sixties.

CU Radio Club Contructs Steel Tower on Mudd Hall. The Columbia Daily Spectator. 11/1/1963.
DUNNING CELEBRATES RADIO CLUB EXPANSION. Pulse v2 n11. 12/12/1963 Or, click here for the text of the article.

The background of a strange letter in the files from the FCC was recently explained by Wayne Mueller, W1QC:

"You should have in the files a letter from the FCC citing illegal transmissions back in the late 60's or early seventies. The club was actually used during the student uprisings for some sort of "activist" communications."

The 1970s

Here's a publicity flyer from 1976-77.
And here's an offer to take National Traffic System radiogram traffic, undated, but probably from the same time period.
Here's a description of the station signed by Fearless Leader WB2DZL, also undated. A callbook search tells us that WB2DZL is now KB1AP, Alexander R. Spitzer. Alex, if you're out there, give us a shout!

In 1977, Columbia University President William J. McGill, through the help of CUARC President Joshua Mermelstein (1976-1977) and the club, obtained his Novice Class license. Here is a press release issued by the Office of Public Information on 4/14/77:

President McGill got some equipment for the club. Notably, the Kenwood HF rig that we still use today in the late 1990's.

Josh helped to get the club rejuvinated in the mid-seventies. Joe Schachner WB2FUL was president from 1977-79 and helped freshman Wayne Mueller get licensed in Spring 1977 as WD9EAV. Wayne, now W1QC (ex-AE9B) was president from 1979-80.

Wayne reports, "There was a member in '77 and '78 who was great at building things. He built a great RTTY TU for the old green teletype we had. I wish I could remember his name." Andrew Siegel, N2CN (ex-WA2BDV), reports that the TU was built by Joe Geller, KO2Y. Joe and Andrew, while a high school student in the Science Honors Program, built an Az-El rotator for OSCAR. The club also acquired an ICOM multimode VHF rig [is this perhaps the Kenwood multimode rig? - Ed].

The 1980s

During 1980-1983, Ray Ihly, WA2LVY, was CUARC president. In 1984, Adam Epstein, N2DHH was president.

The 1990s

Besides fairly active general radio fun, a number of items of special interest have happened during this period:

In 1993(?) a Volunteer Examiner team started running amateur radio exams on campus.
An Emergency Operations Team, affiliated with New York City ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) was formed and even activated during the December, 1994 winter storms to provide emergency communications at a Red Cross shelter.
Several CUARC members participated in the 1993 and 1994 New York City Marathon, along with about 400 other hams.
In the Spring of 1994, we had a Fox Hunt in Central Park. Mike, KK6SQ, was the fox and turned out to be hiding in the tower of the Castle.
In September 1994, we ran several special events during Orientation week, including taking over 80 NTS messages at Barnard and on College Walk and we operated an HF station on College Walk.
In February 1998, while making preparations for an Alumni antenna party spurred on by Wayne Mueller, W1QC, Alan, N2YGK, and Fuat, N2YGN, took these photos of the upper rooftop to document the condition of the current towers and feedlines:
- HF tower in good shape. Mounted antennas include Mosley CL-36 tribander and 2 M vertical. Rotator needs repair as does rotator cable which has broken insulation. CL-36 appears to be sound.
- VHF/UHF tower is rusty but otherwise OK. Mounted antennas include azimuth-eleavation rotator holding 2m Yagi and 70cm phased Yagis and 70cm vertical. The azimuth rotator mounting bolts have dissappeared and need to be replaced. Looks like one of the 70cm Yagis is missing two elements.
- G5RV is broken.
- Coax/rotator cable work box is in good shape. There are 5 coax feed lines and three rotator cables into the box. Cover came off very easily and it is clean and dry inside. All 5 feeds are connected: Mosley, 2m vertical, 70cm vertical, 2m vertical Yagi, 70cm horizontal Yagi.
Thanks Rob, KA2FZI, for the loan of the digital camera and "foto rush" services:-)

See also the current CUARC home page and, specifically, Mike's Spring '94 shack report.

The 2000s

We're still here, limping along:-)

In June 2005 the state of the shack is:
- The Mosley CL-36 HF beam has died. One half of the driven element fell off.
- The HF rotator that Wayne replaced in 1998 is still working.
- The 160-80-40 wire antennas that Wayne installed are showing a high VSWR
- The Kenwood TS-830 donated my Bill McGill in 1977 is still working although it needs some cleaning.
- The Kenwood TR-751 VHF all-mode rig looks fine.
- We also have an old ICOM UHF rig on loan from WA2USS.
- An APRS digipeater has been in continuous operation since the 2001 NYC Marathon.
- The APRS digi is using the 2m vertical.
- State of the VHF tower is poor. Needs to be taken down.
- We are working on a major refurbishment project sponsored by an alumni donor. Watch this space for news.
The VE team is still active doing monthly exams.
Philosophy Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places for E.H. Armstrong's pioneering research there.
On June 11, 2005 the 70th Anniversary of FM was recently celebrated with a special broadcast from Alpine Tower on 42.8 Mc.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are due to Hollee Haswell, Columbiana Curator; Eileen McIlvaine, Reference Librarian; Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ, ARRL; and to the past and present members of the CU Amateur Radio Club, especially: Harry Xu, AA2NO; Fuat Baran, N2YGN; Steve Popovich, WB3I; Joe Schrabal, WA2USS; Adam Epstein, N2DHH; Ray Ihly, WA2LVY, Yves (Al) Feder, W1EOX; Wayne Mueller, W1QC; Andrew Siegel, N2CN.

Return to CUARC home page.