[K4RY] AUARC: Historic AUARC QSL card

[John Klingelhoeffer]

Hi Kyle;


I'm sure AUARC could do something very similar for a new card.  I don't know why the one I scanned was printed in red and blue versus orange and blue, unless the students at that time (and I don't remember) wanted red, white and blue.  


In addition to the 5YA and 5XA callsigns (one was the original and one was reassigned when amateur and commercial stations were 'split up'), there are other callsigns that I found during my research.  I know of at least one used in the late 1940's that is in my notes.  I'll have to look.  The K prefix 1x2 callsigns did not become available until around the very late 1960's, and K4RY had been secured by 1970.  It was in use when I hit campus in September of 1971.  To my knowledge, no other station has ever held K4RY as a callsign.  


The "Auburn Union" is now Foy Hall located between Ross Labs and Cater Hall.  It was the 'new' student union when I went to Auburn (ancient history, eh?).   The student organizations had mailboxes at Foy Union, so that is the address on the card for that time.


The AUARC K4RY station at that time was in the 'old' Broun Hall (not to be confused with the current ECE building or 'Katie' Broun Hall, the dorm).  The 'old' Broun Hall building is no longer there.  It was razed in the early 1980's and Harbert Center was put in its place on Magnolia Avenue next to Biggin Hall.  


The stone columns that were in front of the old Broun Hall stand out in front of the new ROTC building, Nichols Center.  The old Broun Hall had been the main ROTC building for many years, including my years in Army ROTC.  The old Broun Hall was an architectural disaster.  Three sections of the building were designed by three different people.  This meant the 3 or 4 floors were on different levels in the 3 sections, so there were steps in the hallway.  One could also only go from section 1 to 2 and 3 via a second story hallway.  The top floor was condemned all the time I went to school there, but I do remember sneaking in once when we went to the roof to do antenna work.  


The roof had a tribander, a 2 meter beam and dipoles for 40 and 80 meters from my recollection.  The only access was via a fire escape staircase on the back of the building (since the top floor was condemned), so you had to climb the staircase, and then climb over the railing and step across about an 18" gap (all the way to the ground!) to the roof, which I remember being slippery slate.  I only did that once.  My fingerprints are probably still on that railing in some junk yard from gripping it so tightly.  


73


John...
WB4LNM




-----Original Message-----
From: Kyle Owen <kylevowen at gmail.com>
To: John Klingelhoeffer <wb4lnm at aol.com>
Cc: <k4ry at eng.auburn.edu> <K4RY at eng.auburn.edu>
Sent: Thu, Mar 28, 2013 10:09 pm
Subject: Re: AUARC: Historic AUARC QSL card


This is great! I wish we could get this card again. The K4RY font is quite awesome, and it really just fits my style, I suppose. :)


The 5YA and 5XA were both previous call signs, right? Also, what is "Auburn Union"? 


I think we should definitely pursue making this a big deal in the fall. We should (I hope) have more people joining us then, and we should really be able to get some noise out. 


73,


Kyle




On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 11:28 AM, John Klingelhoeffer <wb4lnm at aol.com> wrote:

Attached is a scan of an unused K4RY QSL card from immediately after AUARC obtained the K4RY callsign, circa 1970-71.  I think I have posted this before, but since it came up in Club conversation week before last, I thought I'd scan it and post it again.


Note the 'since 1913' date, which means the Club has been in existence 100 years so far.  Perhaps not much we can do to celebrate before the end of the semester, but maybe something can be done in the early fall semester, since it will still be 2013.  I had thought we could have tied this into the current "Year of Wireless Engineering" emphasis in the School of Engineering, but I've seen little of that advertised, so it is perhaps moot. 


Hopefully, the mail reflector will let the attachment through.
  
73


John...






 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/pipermail/k4ry/attachments/20130329/6098acc6/attachment.htm