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How It All Started

           It was 27 years after Guglielmo Marconi successfully sent the letter “C” in Morse Code across the Atlantic Ocean.  It was also one year before the stock market crash of 1929.  In between those two historic events, several  Turlock  radio amateurs   began  meeting in the spring of 1928,  with the intentions of forming a radio club. The club was first named, Turlock Radio Research Club.  It was later changed to the present name, Turlock Amateur Radio Club (TARC)

            The club’s first formal  meeting was held on February 4, 1929. The club officers were elected and a committee was appointed to draw up the club’s constitution. It was decided that the following 21 members would be considered the Charter Members. The names without call signs may not have been licensed at the time.

Ed Dervishian      W6CXL  Ruolph Lindquist    W6SM  Leonard Ferguson Homer Alquist Weller Johnson     W6AZR Don Johnson  W6AGV  Edwin Paulson       WA6EQC

Stan Wymar   W6ADB Lester Johnson  W6DIY Wesley Nelson  W6FBQ Edward Cornel  W6GFB John Pitman      W6HHD Archie Henderson Leonard Ferguson

Morris K. Nelson W6FBQ Harold Wallen Clifford Plummer Frank Grey Chester Elliot Howard Hale W6SC Fred Stagg

           Lester Johnson became the President, C.E. Plummer the vice-president, W. Nelson the Secretary, and L. Ferguson the Treasurer.

 Two-way radio activity was still newsworthy stuff in those days.  General use of two-way radio by the average citizen did not occur until 30 years later.   VHF and UHF was still experimental.  Police departments were beginning to install one way calling stations.  Public broadcasting was beginning to expand around the country.  A.C. radio receivers were beginning to come into the market. Aircraft communications was mainly in Morse Code. There were radio amateurs successfully communicating with Byrd’s  Antarctic expedition, in Morse Code also.

Rudy Lindquist, W6SM best described the birth of the club, in his story in the  May, 1978’s ARC-OVER’s 50^th Year Anniversary Issue thusly: “The Turlock Amateur Radio Club had it’s beginnings in the spring of 1928.  Modesto already had a club and Turlock hams were welcome, but since Model T Fords were still our chief mode of transportation, it was felt that a local club was needed.  Although I was out of high school, most of the local hams were in their teens and were still in school. Les Johnson, W6DIY, a high school senior, was actively pushing to get a ham club started.  He called a number of us together to meet at his home, and the Turlock  Amateur Radio Club was born.”

At first, some of the meetings were held in the Turlock Western Union office.  Lindquist worked there.  They had a work bench set up in the back room for building radio equipment as there was none in the market-place. After several months of meeting there and building equipment, it was brought to a halt by a letter   from the Western Union headquarters.  The letter directed the manager to remove all the radio equipment and discontinue all activities in the Turlock office, not relating  to the company’s operation.

In October of 1928 Lindquist and Johnson went to Oakland to attend the Pacific Division Convention of the ARRL.  While there they met many well know hams of the day, to include Al Babcock, W6ZD, who was an ARRL director.  As a result they both came back  fired up, to made a bigger and better radio club. They wanted to involve their members and other potential hams into experimenting and building radio receivers. With that goal in mind, Johnson contacted the Turlock High School and got the shop instructor, John Pittman and some of his students interested in his radio projects.

 A.H. Nelson, the father of two club members offered to build a garage type building to be used as a clubhouse  on a lot in the vicinity of High and Farr streets, if the club would finish the interior.   It was agreed. The first meeting in the unfinished building was held on February 4, 1929.  Committees were made up to complete the interior of the club house. The club later moved out of the building.  

The club then moved to an upstairs room above the Fox Movie Theater. One night the house was packed to see a new color movie.  The theater had the latest projecting machinery.  It was the pride of the community. Suddenly, during the movie, “dits” and “dahs” were heard over the sound track.  Two hams in the movie knew what it was, and rushed out and upstairs to the club room and stopped the Morse Code operator. During the next few weeks various methods were tried to cure the interference – nothing helped. They  had to move out.

Again, Mr. A.H. Nelson came to the rescue and built another garage type building on a lot next to the other one. Two power poles were installed for antennas. The club stayed there for a period of  time.  They met there twice a month. By November 1929, Mr. Nelson had developed the property on High Street and sold it all, including the club house. During the summer of 1929 the club applied for and received the club call sign of W6BXN.

                       Turlock Daily Journal News Item. July 30, 1929

 “DISTANT STATIONS COMMUNICATE WITH TURLOCK OPERATOR“

“On the evening of Friday, July 26^th, two distant radio stations were “worked” by Rudolph Lindquist, local youth, on a short wave radio set installed at the Turlock Radio Club shack on High Street.  The stations were ZL3AB of Christchurch, New Zealand, and K7AOP at Petersburg, Alaska.  According to Lindquist, both stations came in very strong and reported that the local signals were also loud and clear.”

The  club members kept at it throughout the 1930’s, improving their equipment, enjoying their hobby, working more long range stations and gathering more members for their club.

Just before 1940, Howard Hale, W6fym, talked his  mother into allowing  the club to  use  a small one room building she owned, on an unnamed street near Davis and West Main. “The room had a few chairs and a bench for the club officers,” recalls Ivan Lowe, W6SKH, a club member since before the war. He also remembers that the club had a c.w. radio in the buiding that had been made by the club members. The club members convinced the county to name the street; “Radio Street,” in reference to their club activities.   Radio Street is still there.

In December of 1940, when Gil Gularte, W6SQR, was the secretary-treasurer, $4.00 paid for a year’s membership to the club, the  ARRL, and the QST magazine. Ten years earlier the club dues only were $.50 cents a year.

Ivan Lowe, W6SKH, who still lives in Turlock, was the secretary-treasurer when World War Two started at Pearl Harbor. He had received his license a year earlier. A  day later the FCC issued Order No. 87, which put the ham radio operators in this country and in it’s possessions off the air for the duration of the war.

 After the ham radio operators came back in 1945 and 46, all kinds of military  surplus equipment and parts  began to hit the surplus market. The “Golden Age” of Amateur Radio had begun.  Several new ham radio kit manufactures started up and provided parts and instructions to assemble ham radio equipment.  The war-time radio manufacturers went back into the amateur radio market.

            The TARC members kept up with the technical advances and went into single side band in the mid 1960’s for the long range contacts, and experimented with frequency modulated (FM) equipment for line of sight communications.  In December of 1978 the club decided to  purchase a duplexer.  Grady, K6IXA and others  installed it. The simple repeating of the vhf and uhf signals was not all of the story. The repeater also has an auto-patch.  Ten meters is in there too, somewhere. A year or two ago the ILRP technology was added.  It enables hams to contact various parts of the world, on   portable low power “handi-talki radios.” It works through the club repeater, through the internet, and out to another repeater somewhere, and then into someone’s radio.

             The TARC members have been participating in public events since radio technology has allowed it.  They have set up communications for parades, bicycle, boat and people races, airplane fly-ins  and emergencies.  They have been participating in the yearly Field Day emergency preparedness event, as long as the present  members can recall.

Another service the club has provided for its members and other radio amateurs in the area is the yearly auction.   It’s primary purpose is to provide a way to help the families of radio amateur “silent keys” in the disposal of their radio equipment.  That auction has for years been the “Grady” show.”  Grady, K6IXA, a member for over 25 years, puts on an outstanding, humorous show, and even sells equipment in the process.

Current members are still contacting other ham radio operators around the world, just like the charter members were doing in the 1930’s.  However, now they have added contacts with  space stations, and are doing  things with their radios not dreamed of 75 years ago. The Turlock Amateur Radio Club members are looking into the future with anticipation, for new and exciting technology they can apply to their hobby.  

By Don Thomas, W6LRG

 

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