36 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN Discovered during current renovations of the Clayton UC, the call signs have revived memories of the Lehigh University Amateur Radio Society, which was mentioned in The Brown and White as early as 1920 and in the Epitome yearbook through the 1990s. Daryl George ’69 ’78G was among those whose call sign— WA3EMX—was etched into the wall. George, who now lives in Wyoming, doesn’t remember leaving his call sign, but believes club members used the fifth-floor room for storage. There also were antennas on the roof that could be accessed from the room. They could be rotated to achieve higher frequencies capable of contacting people in Europe and other parts of the world, he said. “You’ve probably heard about radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere …,” he said. “That was part of the fun of the hobby, trying to figure out what frequency you want to operate on for where you wanted to talk to.” K1UTV, a call sign belonging to Neil Wells ’69, was also among those etched into the wall. Wells, who now lives in Massachusetts, was an avid amateur radio hobbyist since getting his license in his early teens. When he came to Lehigh in 1965, Wells said in an email, he immediately sought out the Amateur Radio Society, known as the “ham shack,” in the basement level of the Clayton UC, across from the campus radio station, WLVR. “Those antennas on the roof were maintained by men more courageous than me,” Wells wrote. The club was located in several places across campus over the years, including Packard Lab and Drown Hall. It was moved to the basement of the Clayton UC after the building’s first major renovation in 1957. Several of the call signs in the fifth-floor room were identified as belonging to students who were at Lehigh in the 1960s and ’70s. The room also contains etchings presumed to be of past Lehigh professors and former presidents. Some of the alumni who participated in the club continue to operate ham radios and said they wish to see the club reestablished on campus. “Mostly the hobby is one of, ‘Let’s see who we can talk to.’ There are infinite connections between here and there with nothing in between except the ionosphere,” said Gary Wilson ’72, who lives in New Jersey and uses the call sign K2GW. Although Wilson was not in the Amateur Radio Society when he was at Lehigh, he earned his ham license a year after graduating. He finally had the time to learn Morse code, a requirement for a license back then. Wilson is now part of the Delaware Valley Radio Association, and for the past 20 years has continued to renew Lehigh’s call sign— W3AEQ—with the Federal Communications Commission, hoping Lehigh students may one day use it again. “There’s a magic to ham radio,” said Wilson, who was recently talking over the radio waves to someone in the Southeast Asian country of Laos. Shawn Donley ’71 joined the club during his first year at Lehigh, in 1967. At that time, his call sign was WA3CHX, though it was not left on the wall. “I was already an amateur radio operator. I was tinkering with electronics when I got into the hobby,” said Donley, who now lives in Maryland. “I was fascinated by the fact you can throw a piece of wire and a transmitter out there and talk to someone else in the world.” The club didn’t have set meetings. Anyone could show up and hang out whenever they wanted to, he said. One of his favorite memories is of an SCR-584 radar van from World War II the club acquired and kept on university property in Saucon Valley. It was modified to track satellites and could be aimed at weather satellites to record weather data. How Does Ham Radio Work? Amateur radio operators must pass an exam for the FCC license to operate on radio frequencies known as “amateur bands,” according to the American Radio Relay League. The FCC created licensing requirements to fill the need for a pool of experts who could provide backup communication during emergencies. MMysterious letters and numbers etched into the wall of a sealed-off, fifth-floor room in the Clayton University Center at Packer Hall are ham radio call signs and likely remnants of Lehigh’s former Amateur Radio Society—a club started 100 years ago that allowed students to talk with fellow radio enthusiasts all over the world. TAYLOR STAKES / CHRISTA NEU
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