...And We had A LOT Of Them!

I’ve been using quarantine time to (among other stuff) go through my old stuff so that whatever wisdom there may be in history can be recovered from what I have. I was late to the local ham community party. But I quickly discovered that there were MANY active ham clubs in the region. A request to ARRL would product a lengthy computer printout so you could contact them to see if there was a place for you in their club.  Over time I collected all sorts of local club “souvenirs” that would be hard to come by today. This article presents a sampling. 

Top to bottom, left to right: Jacket patches for North Hills ARC and the South Hills Brass Pounders and Modulators; a sticker from the 1977 Dayton Hamvention; A program from the 1935 ARRL Southwest Convention; A program from the 1981 Warren Hamfest (40 years ago!!–hard to believe); The Monitor reporting on a 1932 experimental TV station; 3 issues of The Radial (newsletter of the Brasspounders); yours truly in his shack about 1995; two issues of the Triple States Newsletter–a Wheeling Amateur group; SPARKS magnet (this pre-dates me–I am not familiar with SPARKS–can anyone enlighten me in the connent section below?); An ARRL Window decal; Newsletter of the Western PA DX Associations; and finally an old newsletter from the Steel City club.

Rather than simply look back at the past, let me conclude by saying that our region is still rich in quality ham clubs full of quality people. If you’re interested, you should look up North Hills ARC, WASH or Skyview or WACOM. These are all strong clubs with active event schedules. Don’t pass up the chance to be part of any of these great groups.