Harvard Wireless Club > Alumni/ae Forum

Mike Manafo, GSE '88, '98 in an HWC bulletin to all members on April 14, 1999:

omorrow (April 15) is more than just tax day. On April 15, 1989, four HWC hams made the first-ever W1AF contacts from 6 Linden Street. Contact #1 was on 20 SSB with WB2KVC in North Carolina. The rig belonged to the HWC President at that time and the wire antenna was a jury-rigged homebrew affair about 4 feet off the roof and fed with some questionable RG-58U. We were surrounded by boxes of damp and moldy HWC paraphernalia that had been rescued from the basement of Lowell Lecture Hall several days prior. As there were no electrical outlets in the room, we ran an extension cord to the light socket in the ceiling. After NT1Y made that first contact, we all took turns at the mic and made 6 more contacts. We had great fun! And better yet, W1AF finally had a home.

"In HWC lore, we often talk about W1AF at 52 Dunster and then at 6 Linden without considering that for nearly two years prior to April 1989, W1AF was operated out of the Dunster House dorm room of Lisa Rees (NT1Y). Lisa had a long wire strung out the window and a HW-101. And that was W1AF. Meetings were held in her room and afterward we usually got on the air to make some contacts. As we found out some time later (in going through the boxes rescued from Lowell Hall) we were operating illegally as the W1AF license had actually lapsed sometime in 1988! Thank goodness we snuck in via the FCC grace period for renewal of W1AF. A couple more months and we would have lost it for good!"