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W6YRA
 
 
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Brief History and Highlights of W6YRA Activities
 
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1947: Club station established by the UCLA Engineering Society.
1950's: Equipment used: Central Electronics 20A SSB exciter. National HRO50 receiver, Mosley tribander beam (see Picture 00 on the Pictures page). Awarded WAS in January 1953 and DXCC in March, 1955. Sey (W6CCP) was a very active club member.
1960-64: R.C. Mackey served as Faculty Advisor. The U.S. Air Force recalled the surplus radio gear donated to the Club earlier.
1968: Equipment used: National HRO500 receiver and NXC-5 transceiver.
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1970: Marty Woll (N6VI, formerly WB6VZI) became Club President and held the post until 1972. George Tauxe (W6FJT) was the Faculty Advisor. Funds from UCLA Recreational Affairs were obtained to purchase a new Drake 4-line. Member Clint Bauer (WB6WIT) and Marty managed to obtain an auto-tune HB3-1000Z HF amplifier from Henry Radio. A 20' tower with 4-element triband quad and a 2-element 40m beam plus dipoles on 80 and 160m were installed. The shack had bad echoes from the concrete walls that became a hallmark of our SSB signals. A 2-weekend "DXpedition" to Nevada was arranged for the ARRL DX Contest. Gene Rock (K7OQQ) was the host for our visit. The new Drake 4-line did not last long. It was stolen the same year! Other active members were Ron Ellis (now KH6DV) and Astronomy Professor John Irwin (K6SE). Awarded DXCC (150 countries).
1972: Purchased a used Drake T-4XB Xmtr. Traded in the National NCX-5 transceiver for a Drake R-4A Receiver to match the T-4XB. The Club was very active in contests. Marty (N6VI) participated in the WPX contest (single op.) and obtained a score of 877,965 points. The antenna rotator gave us fits. The UCLA basketball team was winning continuously in Pauley Pavilion. Mini-skirts and bell-bottoms were seen in our shack, though not on the same person at the same time.
1973: Ken Seidner (WA6DPQ) began his 3-year term as Club President. The Club continued to be very active. Used HB3-1000Z amplifier to good effect. Participated (and won) the College Bowl Contest.
1974: Lots of activity. Participated in FD. Many phone patches being run to South America by club members from that continent. Lots of contesting. W6YRA big signal on 160 and on OSCAR 6 (?). Procured better rotator. Began OSCAR satellite operations using Heath transverter on 2 m and 10 meter quad for downlink. Homebrew orbit calculators and slide rules in use.
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1975: Rebuilt quad using teflon wire after many failures of original copperweld. Had to tune it up carefully. Big signal resulted. Built SB220 amp after 3-1000Z reclaimed by graduating owner. Some club members worked at Henry Radio (close to campus), so we got a discount! Club active in Mardi Gras - rebuilt the REAL, GENUINE, ORIGINAL Star Trek helm and made it work, lights and all (hard to believe, but true) as part of ESUC booth.

Traded in the Drake R4-A and T4X-B for a Kenwood TS-900 + VFO-900 with a Shure-444 Mike.
1976: Big signals, lots of stations worked. Received TVI QSL from US Congressman, who was contacted by old lady in Century City whose TV picked us up on 6-m AM. She noted that she normally received only sound on Ch 2, no picture, indicating she was truly tuned close to our operating frequency. Message from Congressman resulted in shutting down 6-m AM activity, for some reason.

Ken Seidner (WA6DPQ) and Rocco Lardiere (NK6N) participated in WPX Contest, and attained first place in the 6-th district.
1977: Ken Seidner (WA6DPQ) and Rocco Lardiere (N6KN) graduated---only to find themselves working together on real space vehicles at McDonnell Douglas a few years later. McDonnell Douglas Huntington Beach picked up a slightly used 40-m beam when it departs W6YRA in 1983.
1978: George Tauxe (W6FJT) retired after serving as Trustee and Faculty Advisor of W6YRA since 1969. Paul Wang (KU6T) took over the job in November,1978. During this year, we had 58 active members. Jeff Hillman (AI6K) served as the Club President, Jack Burke (KA6ARN) as Vice President, and Leslie Kuhn (WD6BAY) as Secretary and Treasurer. Leslie did an outstanding job in redecorating the shack, and in designing the QSL cards which are still in use today (see Home page). The Club members donated money to put in a new rug and furniture for the shack. The Kenwood TS-900S was the work-horse rig of the Club. An ICOM IC221 was used for 2M.

Rocco (N6KN), Art Tanaka (WA6TKO), Jeff (AI6K), Leslie (WD6BAY), and Daniel Cafaro participated in the WPX SSB contest, and attained first place in the 6-th district (multi-single) with a score of 890,442 points.
1979: Traded in our old faithful TS900S + VFO-900 for a brand new Kenwood TS180S. That was a mistake. Within a year, the rig's final transistors were burnt out. It cost us over $100 to replace them. It appeared that radios with transistor finals were to too fragile for our club station. Tube finals seldom suffered instant death!

Jeff (AI6K), Bob Maxwell (WB6LHO), Leslie (WD6BAY), Ken (WA6DPQ),and Rocco (N6KN) participated in the WPX SSB Contest, and attained first place in the 6-th district (4-th place in the U.S.) with a score of 2,115,608 points!
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1980: With the financial assistance of the UCLA Office of Instruction, we were awarded some money to install a satellite station for OSCAR.
1982: Disaster struck! All the radio gear of the Club station was stolen, except the Heathkit SB220 linear and the antenna. W6YRA was silenced for almost two years.
1983: During the Santa Ana condition, the wind caused the brake in the beam rotator to break. Consequently, all the cables from the 4-element quad broke. With the help of Rocco (N6KN) and Ken (WA6DPQ) who rebuilt the quad in the 1970's, we took down the quad and the 2-el. 40-meter beam, and replaced them with a new Telrex tribander. The beam weighed over 60 lbs. It was a major operation. Hats off to Rocco and Ken!
1984: Thanks to the Summer Olympic Games which was held on campus. Bob Henry, the director of the UCLA Recreation Association, decided to give us money to reactivate the station so we could participate in the international communication activities during the Olympic Games. We bought a brand new Kenwood TS830S with the help of Al Friedman (K6YRA) who was the manager of HRO in Van Nuys, and a former Club member. W6YRA was back on the air two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games! During the games, we were on the air everyday relaying messages for the athletes, and reporting the results of competitions to various parts of the world, particularly the People's Republic of China. We were in radio contact everyday with Chinese amateur radio stations BY1PK, BY4AA, BY5RA, and BY8AA. They told us that our reports of the results of the sport events were much faster than those of the Chinese Press.
1985: Pat Kudo (N6GTU) became our Club President. He designed and built a 440 repeater, and obtained a frequency-pair for W6YRA. The repeater had a phone patch and a 2-meter remote. Instantly, almost all the Club members became hooked in using the repeater. There were no cell-phones at that time. So the Club repeater was very active.
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1990: Gerald Dong (N6ZLH) served as Club President. During this year, our former Club President (1980-82) Wayne Yoshida (KH6WZ) joined us to participate in the CQWW contest. Wayne was the Sales Manager for Kenwood. He brought a TL922A linear for the contest and donated it to the shack after the contest. Many tnx! Wayne. We finally retired the good old Heathkit SB220 after many years of faithful service (see Picture #08).
1992: Our Club become a part of the UCLA Emergency Communications Network. Thirty UCLA hams participated in the network. Rob Howard (WK6Y) was instrumental in making our connection with this network. We had many drills throughout the year.
1993: Disaster struck again! The San Fernando Valley earthquake left our shack in shambles. All the book cabinets and chairs were broken. Old QST's, CQ, and 73 magazines were all over the floor. All the legs of the good old wooden operating table were broken. The Club activities came to an instant halt.
1994: Luis Pacheco (AB6KM) became our Club President. With his persistence and effort, he managed to obtain a new ICOM RP4020 440 repeater for our shack (through a complaint to a contractor who damaged our equipment, and ruined our shack's rug and floor with their tar-covered shoes, a long story!). This repeater is still in use today.
1995: Dave Ditlow (KC6LDO) became our Club President, who actively sought funding and renovation for our station from the Engineering School and the UCLA Emergency Communication Operations. With Dave's friendly persuasion, Assistant Dean Lydia Kowalski agreed to help us in renovating the shack.
1997: The shack had a new face lift. A new tiled floor was installed, and walls repainted. Thanks to Assistant Dean Lydia Kowalski and Jim Stewart. Dave (KC6LDO) and Dave Timoshik (WA6AYI) designed the new operating table which was assembled inside the shack in one afternoon. The Telrex beam was replaced by a new Force 12 beam (donated by the UCLA Emergency Communication Operations). Dave (WA6AYI) installed a stainless steel rotator shaft (weighs over a hundred pounds!) inside the tower single-handed.
1998-99: Dave (WA6AYI) became our Club President after Dave (KC6LDO, now K6LDO) left UCLA. Jim Shryne (AC6YV) serves as our Secretary and Treasurer, and his XYL Rachael (KE6SDB) as QSL manager. With the help of Dave Hutter (KE6TZX), the old satellite antennas came back to life. We purchased a dual-band FT-5100 tranceiver. Dave (WA6AYI) worked Hawaii via OSCAR almost every day. We also became active in PSK31. Numerous QSO's were made via this new mode. Following our club tradition, members continue to participate in all the major contests, especially the CQWW and ARRL 160M CW and SSB contests.
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2000-present: Dave (K6LDO) generously loaned his FT1000MP to our Club. Through the efforts of Dave (WA6AYI) and Dave (KE6TZX), PC's were acquired from the UCLA Medical Center, and a phone line was put in to allow us to get on the Internet. With the help of John Yee, this web page was set up.
Epilogue:

Thanks to the dedication and effort of numerous Club members and friends through both good and hard times, the signals from W6YRA are still alive today. Special thanks to Rocco (N6KN) and Marty (N6VI) for their contributions. To former Club members, may the pleasant memories of your experience at W6YRA be always with you.