“Long ago and far, far away” in May of 1979, I was an Electrical Engineering student majoring in microwave systems at Howard University’s School of engineering and I attempted to restart the Howard Amateur Radio Club.
According to my old papers, my interest was ignited by finding one of HARC’s old radios in a pile of “junk” that I had heard, through one of my professors (Walter Oliver?), was being removed from an office on the top floor of the engineering building. (As I recall, there was a door to the roof adjacent to the office’s door–making it the perfect place for a hamshack.) The radio was a venerable Heathkit SB-101 transceiver.
I did a lot of ground work to kick the club off. I applied for ARRL affiliation, connected with local clubs, sought permission for starting a club from Howard’s administration, and reached out to OMIK/ARC the African-American amateur radio club. And because there were only two hams on campus that I knew of (myself included), I put a classified ad for general class licensees to help start an Novice class at Howard in the May 1979 issue of QST (pp. 71), ARRL’s magazine. For HARC to be sustainable, I knew that I had to ‘generate’ more new hams.
Going through my old notes, I remember being overwhelmed by the encouragement from local hams who were willing to “Elmer” (help) a fledgling HARC. I also remember that because of my studies, and lack of enough local interest, I couldn’t continue with efforts to bring the club back into existence.
Of course, I haven’t really ever given up completely on HARC! Occasionally, I daydream about dipoles stretched across the roof of Louis K. Downing Hall, and I have fantasies about Howard students contesting (when they should be studying) or keeping fellow HU students and faculty connected with their families throughout the world when other forms of communications fail during the coming intense #climatecrisis precipitated storms.
Every now and then, I have fantasies of spinning the dial on my ICOM IC-718 in my home shack and hearing “CQ CQ DE W3HUR”–if that callsign is not already taken–in CW (Morse code) and “working” my fellow Bisons on ham radio.