VOLUME 11, NO. 1     MAY 1997

Fun facts to know and broadcast

The first college amateur radio station in the U.S. to transmit over the air was WPI's own W1YK (whiskey one yankee kilo) Founded in 1909 as the Wireless Association and licensed in 1913, W1YK was one of 13 stations to hear the first trans-Atlantic signal (from Paul Godley in Scotland), according to Bob Taylor (call sign: NA1Q), supervisor of technicians for the Mechanical Engineering Department and a Radio Club trustee. Records show that the first college club founded was at Harvard University; clubs at MIT and WPI followed within a few months. W1YK is located in Salisbury Labs.

Over the years club members have used the station for transmitting notices of emergency weather conditions and other emergency messages to affected areas around the world. For the past 10 years the station has been part of the communications network for the Boston Marathon.

WPI now boasts two amateur radio licenses. In November, amateur operators Taylor and Steve Derosier (call sign: N10NB), a lab machinist in ME, formed the WPI Engineers Radio Club and were issued the call sign W1WPI by the Federal Communications Commission. The new station can be found in Higgins Labs.

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