Harvard Wireless Club > Alumni/ae Forum

Larry Wechsler, M.D., '74, W3OD in a letter to the HWC dated November 6, 1989:

noticed your request for information regarding the Harvard Wireless Club in the most recent issue of QST. I have not thought much about the Harvard Wireless Club for many years but I was quite active in the club for awhile in college between 1970 and 1974. I was President of the club in my junior and senior years, 1973 and 1974. There was very little in the way of membership in the first year or two. We gradually built up to what I recall as approximately a dozen members, although only a few were active. I don't recall much about the equipment that was present in the club when I first started. At some point we acquired a Heath SB-line consisting of a transmitter and receiver. I believe the antennas were mostly dipoles.

There was an amateur down the street on the corner of Boyleston, with whom I became friendly. He was quite elderly and in either 1973 or 1974 he passed away. I managed to convince his son to donate his station to the Harvard Wireless Club in his memory. This consisted of a Collins S-line and an NCL-2000 linear. I suspect that equipment is long gone but special plaques were engraved and placed on all of the equipment. At about the same time we were able to raise enough money to put a tower on the roof and install two beams. We placed a very heavy ten foot mast on top of the tower. At the top of the mast was a tri-bander and at the top of the tower, in the lower part of the mast, was a two element 40 meter Cushcraft beam. This was quite unusual in those days and it was before 40 meter beams were in common usage.

With the Collins S-line, the NCL-2000 and the beams, we had a first class signal on most bands. There was considerable interest in contest operating, although none of us were very experienced. At the time we were in great competition with W1MX, both in regard to the first club college station (the debate probably goes on as to whether WlMX or WlAF was the first licensed college station) and in contest operations. W1MX had a tremendous station with multiple beams and phased arrays for 40 meters. Until our beams and linear arrived, we were never any serious competition. We finally were able to compete effectively in one sweepstakes competition. I recall it because it was the only contest I ever operated with a 40 meter beam. We had a tremendous signal on 40 meters and worked the west coast earlier than almost any east coast station on the bands. Unfortunately, some of the nighttime operators did not keep up the QSO pace and although we scored quite respectably, we did not manage to equal the score of W1MX.

The following spring a tropical storm or hurricane came through Boston with 80 mile an hour winds. The Harvard police called me because of pieces of metal hanging off the edge of the roof at the Harvard Wireless Club. I found the 40 meter beam in multiple pieces and it was, unfortunately, not salvageable. We could not afford to replace it and ended up with dipoles on 40 meters. The tri-bander, however, remained intact at the top of the mast. As you know, the environment is not ideal for a beam antenna because of the higher buildings on almost all sides of the location at the Harvard Wireless Club. However, with the linear and the Collins S-line, we always maintained a more than respectable signal.

I remember those years with great fondness. I was probably the major operator of W1AF during those two years. I spent many afternoons and evenings, particularly on weekends, chasing DX at the station.

Although I was back in Boston for medical training between 1980 and 1985, I never again became active at the Harvard Wireless Club. I wandered by a couple of times but did not find anyone in the club. I did operate from my apartment in Brookline as W3OD. At the time I was at Harvard, my call was WA3GQJ. My call was changed after the two letter calls were re-released.

I would be quite interested in what has happened to the Harvard Wireless Club in the past fifteen years. Please write or call if I can provide any additional information.