The MSOE Amateur Radio Club is the oldest club on the campus of the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Being an engineering school, the mere thought of communicating by "wireless" obviously had great fascination. In December 1901 Marconi first transmitted a signal across the Atlantic, and soon governments, commercial organizations, and amateurs used and experimented with the new possibilities. It was thought at that time, that the longest wavelengths (greater than 1000 m, that is, 300 kHz) were the only ones useful for long distance messaging. The so-called "medium waves," which are now used for AM broadcasting, were used for medium-distance and local transmissions because of their familiar characteristics. Waves shorter than 200 m (1500 kHz) were considered useless for serious use, and therefore left to the amateurs.

The development of amplitude modulation in the early part of the 20th century, with KDKA, Pittsburgh, starting broadcasts in 1920 added to the enthusiasm. Meanwhile, amateur experimenters discovered that the supposedly useless "short waves" were able to cover long distances, with the first transatlantic contacts made by amateurs in 1921. -- It must have been an exciting time, and MSOE was part of it.

In 1924 students formed the "Radio Broadcasters Club" which was active in amateur radio, as well as broadcasting. In those days broadcasting and amateur radio were considered interchangeable activities, with the necessary equipment built and operated by the same people. Recently MSOE Alumnus Don Buska, N9OO, who collects antique radio items, sent us a copy of the old QSL-card reproduced here.

Among the interesting items on this card are first of all the station call letters, which then were "9SO" - the "9" for the call area, and the "SO" likely personal choice, as was customary then. The N and the U were apparently added when amateur transmissions became intercontinental, and are said to stand for "North America" and "USA." The date of the card is June 25, 1927, and the contact confirmed by this card was presumably in Michigan or Ohio, i.e, call area 8. The card indicates that the amateur station at that time only had facility for operating on the 40- and 80-meter bands. The present call W9HHX must have been assigned soon after that, when call letters identifying stations were organized during international conferences.

The broadcasting activities of the club are identified in the upper-right corner of the card by "WSOE 245.9 meters" - which we would now normally express by its frequency, which is 1220 kHz. An article about the history of radio in Milwaukee ("Historical Messenger", published by the Milwaukee Historical Society, Dec. 1955) states that the "School of Engineering" went on the air on July 22, 1922, with the call letters WIAO, and "intermittent operation" because of frequent breakdowns. The article also shows a picture of the transmitter with operators and a singer(?). In September of that year the call letters were changed to WSOE. Early in 1928 that station was purchased by the owners of the "Wisconsin News" and the station call changed to WISN, which still exists.

A great link for club history information is http://home.comcast.net/~wa9wfa/ha00029.htm.