The Columbia University amateur radio club is one of the oldest organizations

of its type in the world. Founded in about 1906, it is almost os old as electrical

engineering itself. Throughout the club's history it has been involved in experimentation

at the very forefront of technological advances. Even today projects in satellite and

digital commmunication techniques are planned.

The club has a complete line of equipment to cover the amateur bands of 8O thru

10 meter wavelength. There are two stations in the shack on the 14th floor of the Mudd

building; a Drake R4B, T4XB, and Heath SB220 cover 80 thru 10 on both phone and cw, with

various bugs and keyers for the CW enthusiast; and a recent bequest from the estate of the

late C. Runyon, an associate of E. Armstrong's, adds the facilities of a Collins 75A4,

Viking II transmitter, and Eldico kilowatt linear, which is being set up as an auxilliary

station for CW.  There is a vast quatity of junk for the do-it-youself type who may be

interested in homebrew. On loan at the present is an ST-6 teletype demodulator, and model

15 printer, which for the while at least offers teletype facilities. Planned for the

coming year is a possible Oscar converter to allow use of the Oscar 6 & 7 amateur relay

satellites.  On the roof of the building are   80 meter and 40 meter inverted V's, and a

new 30' tower to hold a 6 element beam for 20, 15 and 10 meters is being assembled.

          To the  student who is unsure of a major field, and to the potential electrical

engineering strident who has had little hard exposure to the field, the radio club offers

an opportunity to gain insight and valuable experience in this field before committing

himself to a particular program of study. In the first years of study involvement in an

activity such an this helps keep a clear perspective regarding what it's all about in the

maze of seemingly unrelated equations and formulae, and in the later years the familiarity

with equipment and circuitry makes the difference between "Oh, that's why it works like that"

and "What the hell's the prof talking about?". For those who are interested, but have a limited

technical background, the club is offering an ongoing series of license classes, aimed towards

obtaining an amateur operator's license, and will be introduced by a series of lectures*

intendned to provide background in the latest indigital electronics. There is no charge for

membership or the classes.

   *and construction labs.               Signed: Fearless Leader          WB2DZL