Welcome to the web pages of
T.A.R.C, (Turlock Amateur Radio Club) we hope that you will get some enjoyment browsing
through our pages. Any thoughts or comments on these pages or our club should be sent to Carl Wheeler (club Web Master and ) or Grady Williams (club Trustee and Arc-Over Editor) or
snail mail to T.A.R.C. at P O Box 2821 Turlock, Ca 95381.
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 Stan Wymar W6ADB
Morris K. Nelson W6FBQ
Ruolph Lindquist
W6SM Lester
Johnson W6DIY
Harold Wallen
Leonard Ferguson
Wesley Nelson W6FBQ Clifford Plummer
Homer Alquist
Edward Cornel W6GFB Frank Grey
Weller Johnson W6AZR John Pitman W6HHD Chester Elliot
Don Johnson
W6AGV Archie Henderson
Howard Hale W6SC
Edwin Paulson
WA6EQC Leonard Ferguson
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 50th 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 26th,
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. The future looks bright for them. For
additional information check our web site. www.w6bxn.org
By Don Thomas, W6LRG
