Amateur Radio Club at the UW

Club History

In 1915, two students in the Electrical Engineering School, E. C. Miller and F. M. Ryan, launched the first experimental radio station at the University of Washington. These students erected an aerial antenna, basically a long wire, between a mast on the original Engineering Building, to the top of the University’s water tower. At this time one of the founders, Ryan, suggested the idea of an intercollegiate news service that would relay athletic play-by-plays between participating colleges as they happened, beating the news by traditional telegraph.¹

The station at the University of Washington first operated under the call sign 7XZ, with the X indicating it was an experimental or educational station.² From 1915-1916 the station was active, receiving transmissions from stations as far away as Germany.

In 1917 the station, like all amateur stations in the US, was dismantled due to the war effort. The station’s equipment was loaned to the nearby Naval Training Station Radio School to aid in training radio operators for wartime. In 1919, after the war ended, the station was reconstructed, this time with a much larger tower.

In 1920, the first Radio Club at the UW was officially formed, and a constitution ratified.³ William Watson was elected club president, and A. C. Wright Secretary. At the time of its formation, several other schools on the West Coast had radio clubs, including Washington State, Montana, California, Oregon State and Stanford.

In 1921, the UW Radio Club made it’s first contacts as part of the Pacific Intercollegiate Press Association. A message from the University of California reading “We are ready to communicate.”⁴ The UW club was operating it’s own transmissions by 1922.

In 1926, the UW Club adopted the call sign 7YD⁵, which became W7YD in 1928 with the addition of the ‘W’ prefix that became standard for amateur stations at that time. The Amateur Radio Club at the University of Washington still holds the call sign W7YD.