[QCWA] Callsign history question

[Pete]

Wow, Bill! You said a mouthful!

That was the "Golden Age" of Amateur Radio.

The Novice License was in full glory, and it seemed every H.S. & University had an active Amateur Club Station. Many Junior High Schools had Clubs, too!

In Brooklyn was:

•W2YNK, Institute Amateur Radio Society at 300 Pearl St.

•W2YTU, Midwood H.S. ARC at Bedford Ave & Glenwood Rd.

•W2ZLK, Bishop Laughlin Memorial H.S. Radio Club at 357 Clermont Ave.

•W2BVH, Thomas Jefferson H.S. Radio Club at Pennsylvania & Dumont Ave's.

•W2BXK, Brooklyn Polytech R.C. at 85 Livingston St.

By the way, Phil Goldstein's callsign was W2FIL and he lived at 1162 8th St.

Carole Perry told me you received that ancient document I discovered in a very old Callbook and mailed to you some months back. I thought you were the fellow mentioned favorably in it, but she said I was mistaken.

I have always been a big fan of your Brooklyn series in World Radio, and I'm really pleased to learn you are still documenting those stories. I grew up on the Staten Island side of the Verrazano Bridge, but I don't hold that against you! We had our own E.J. Korvettes like you did in Bay Ridge.

Talk to you soon.
Pete "The Greek"
     ------------------------------------------
     de NL7XM  ••Callsign Historian••

 <newsline at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Lew,
> 
> Back in the 1950's there was a ham station at Lafayette HS (Im a 1959 
> graduate) in the room of a teacher named Phil Goldstein.  It looked 
> like old WW2 gear and one would have needed a fork-lift to move the 
> Hallicrafters transmitter.  The receiver was a then vintage HRO with a box of plugin coils.  Sadly, Phil never put it on the air for his students -- though he operated during lunch hour.  There was no club at Lafayette and I cannot remember Phil's call.
> 
> When I started NYC Community College of Applied Arts & Sciences - 
> when it was still down at the old Brooklyn Pickle Works building on 
> Pearl Street -- we had a radio club that had been dormant for a 
> decade.  I cannot recall its callsign, but the gear was a B&W 5100 
> transmitter and a National NC-109 receiver that I believe we conned 
> Arrow into donating.  Oh yes, the obligatory D-104 mic and J-38 hand 
> key.  We put up 40 and 20 meter dipoles and the half dozen of us had 
> a ball on 40, 20 and 15.  We regularly contacted W2CXN which was only 
> a mile or so away.  I believe we once also held a lunch gathering with the folks from that club.
> 
> In June 2009 we held our 50th reunion of the Lafayette Class of 1959 at NYCCC location in Manhattan Beach.  I had hoped to find a ham station at the campus but was told by the maintenance folks that all they had was a Computer Club and a CB Radio Club.  I was too busy to follow up any further.
> 
> RE:  Erasmus:  The same for Lafayette.  Bloomberg in his not so 
> infinite wisdom converted it into 4 mini high schools which later 
> became 6 -- and next year may be 7.
> 
> You have brought up some great memories that I must include in my new book.  (Geeks:  Parallel Lines Crossing) hopefully due out the middle of next year.  Producing a new video for ARRL and co-writing a stage play kind of got in the way of my completing it.
> 
> 73
> de
> Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF
> (ex WA2HVK - Bensonhurst Brooklyn)
> 
> PS:  Want me to mention on ARNewsline that you are looking for info on W2CXN?  We have listeners world-wide and you never know who might have an old QSL or maybe was a club member.  Let me know if that 
> would help and what would be a good public contact e-mail for folks to contact you..
> 
> At 11:37 AM 12/20/2011, you wrote:
>> Thank you for the multiple responses.  It is apparent that October 1, 1928 was the date.
>> Thanks to Pete NL7XM for a copy of one of the original letters from the
>> Department of Commerce.
>> 
>> I am writing about the history of W2CXN (ex 2CXN) at Brooklyn Technical High School, along with some proposals to move the club forward.  I am also working with the folks at Stuyvesant High School to get their club moving again.  Both of these clubs have benefited from the generous support of alumni.  Unfortunately, my alma mater, Erasmus Hall, remains in name only.
>> It has been broken up into multiple small schools with little resemblance to its former status.
>> 
>> 73, Lew
>> N2RQ, ex WA2FBX, WV2FBX
>> 
>> n2rq at arrl.net
>> Administrator for the School Club Roundup. scr at limarc.org
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <n2rq at optonline.net>
>> Subject: [QCWA] Callsign history question
>> 
>>> When did national callsign designations with prefix letters begin?
>>> 
>>> For example, 2ANU (~1909) became W2ANU, for the club station at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, NY.  2CLE (~1909) became W2CLE, for the club station at Stuyvesant High School in NYC.
>>> 
>>> When did the practice of issuing new callsigns with W begin?
>>> 
>>> Thanks.
>>> 
>>> 73, Lew
>>> N2RQ at arrl.net
>>> 
>>