JOT
7
N OVEM.BER , 1937
... W9EEE CALLING CO. • • Th a t's th e fa mili a r ca ll that stud ents of M . S. M. hea r quite frequ entl y when pa ssing by th e No rth east corne r of J ac kli ng Gymn as ium. And that phrase may be hea rd at a ny time in the af tern oo n, a t midni ght or in th e wee hours of the morning, beca use th a t select group of radi o bugs does not believe in keep ing regul a r hours. Then, too, most shortwave fans , known to th e profession as " hams" rea li ze th at man y foreign ha ms a re on th e air in th e ea rl y hours of th e morning. And for th e dye d-in-th e-wool ham th e ca ll letters CQ, CQ, CQ, w hi ch mea ns that any ham li stenin g III IS invited to a nswe r, has a strange fas cination. Previou s to th e yea r 1934 th e School of M ines had no radi o stati on of a permanent nature. There had been short wave station s on the campus but the equ ipment was ow ned by th e students and when th e stud ent left he took the equipment with him. Thus the lack of a sta tion owned by the sc hool where the stud ents in E lec trical Engineering could gain a little knowledge of the intricate workings of receiving sets and transmitters.
In th e spring of '34 th e E. E. depa rtm en t purchase d th e necessa ry equipm ent for th e in stallati on of a modern a ma teur short wave station. Thi s equ ipm ent was inst alled in th a t summ er by Dougla s M a rtin, Jr. , E.E. '33, a nd has bee n perform ing successfull y since that t ime. M a rtin obtained hi s M.S . in '35 and is wo rking in Tul sa, Okla . Since th e da te of in stall ation th e sta tion has bee n opera ted und er th e ca ll lette rs, W 9D UM, W 9PCT, a nd W 9EEE . T he sta tion has co ntacted st ation s in all co ntin ents of the "vorld, working (CW) code, a nd ha s contacted ~ Il th e co ntin ents in th e wo rld , except Asia, wo rking phone. Contacts have bee n m ade with eve ry st a te in the United St ates. The ca lls W 9DUM and W 9 PCT were iss ued to students, but thi s was und esirable as th e ca lls would change from year to year. With such a condition existin g it was impossible for the station and M . S. M. to establish a repu ta tion. Thi s fall the sta tion was li censed to the M. S. M . Rad io Club under th e letters W9EEE. The Radio C lu b is an organization of M . S. M . stud ents who are interested in the devel opment of rad io, both ama teur and commercial. The officers are : J. S. LeGrand , pres ident; W. D . White, v ice-president, and R. '0/. Matthews, sec retary-treasurer. The faculty adv iso r is Prof. G. O. R a nes.
Upp eT P hoto-JE SSE W9EEE's Mi/?e.
LEGRAN D
at
L owe·r P hoto-Ro y MATTHEWS and C. R. COR NU TT, E .E . Sen-ion
caLLing CQ .
The se rvices of th e station have bee n so mew hat va ri ed. Most of th e co nta cts th a t have bee n m ade have bee n of th e conv enti ona l amateur nature. T hey have been pure exc ha nge of ideas, in form ati on, and reports. H oweve r, m a ny pl easura ble hours of round tab le di sc ussion have bee n enj oyed. Along with th e co nve nt ional wo rk th e st a tion has been a benefit to man y stud ents in getti ng messages to t heir pa rents, rela tives or fri end s. Th e va lu e of th e st a ti on inti mes of emergenc y was see n last winter durin g th e Oh io Ri ve r flood. F lood messages were ha ndl ed a t th a t tim e. A few wee ks ago the st a ti on was utili zed to bring back to th e Min er fa ns the pl ay-by-pl ay desc ripti on of th e Miner-Warrensburg a nd t he MinerOk lahoma City foot ball ga mes. The transmitter is loca ted in th e powe r pl a nt a nd is controlled remotely by cab les underground. The tran smitter consists of a 47 crysta l osci ll ator; parallel 46's buffer ( or doubler ) ; 203A fin al amplifier, with a normal input of approximately 200 watts. The modulators consist of a pa ir of 83 0B's in class B. Antennas consist of a 20 meter single wire fed H ertz (smokest ack to Roll a Building) a nd a 160 ha lf-wave doublet (s mokestac k to Torward H a ll ), fed with concentric tr ansmi ssion lines. Crys t al fr equ enci es of 1953,3906, 1415 6, 142 11 and 14244 are avai lab le. The transmitter is a Collins 30FXB . The receiver is an RME 9D. The speech equipment consists of a cryst al microp hone, 57, 56, 56, into a 500 ohm line to th e transmitter. D oubl et receivi ng a ntenn as a re used. The receiving equipment is located 111 t he "shac k" in J ack ling Gym. W 9EEE work s 160, 80, 40 and 20 meters (with hopes of wo rkin g 10 meters soo n ) phone a nd Cwo Operato rs a re : W 9PCT (chief operator), W 9AAH, W 9KIJ, W 9KIV, W 9RVP , W 9VYI, a nd W 9YZD. W2GSW, W 9KOJ, W 9NJM, and W 9VNO will be given operating pri vil eges up on obtaining a Cl ass A li ce nse.
If you' re a ham and have nothin g to do so me ni ght give us a cal l. WALTER ] AMES TWEED W A LT E R ] AMIES TWEED died Octo ber 15th, 1937 a.t Houston, Misso u"i. He was g radua te d from the Mi sso uri Schoo l of Min es in 1904. Fo r many years pTior to hi s deat h he ,,"as Di s1rict Manage r of the Ozark . Ce ntral Telepho ne S)"stem. He was foumerly M inin g E ng in eer for the I adi so n Coa l Corporation of St. Lo uis. One so n survi ces .