About the BYU Amateur Radio Club

Mission and Purpose

The BYU Amateur Radio Club supports students in learning radio skills and using those skills to serve the community. The purpose and mission of the club is to pursue the following goals.

1. Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to BYU campus and the community at large as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency and public service communications.
2. Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
3. Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.
4. Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
5. Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance the international goodwill.

History

The club met for the first time on February 16, 1950, with the aim, "...to further the study in radio communications both in the construction and operation of the transmitting and receiving equipment. To engage in communication with similar groups in other institutions and with faculty members on leave." The club received its first FCC license with the call sign W7OHR and built its radio station in a former chemistry laboratory in the Education Building.

By the end of 1954, the club had fifty active members. By 1962, the club was teaching radio and Morse Code classes to students, provided communications service for annual campus events, and offered to send messages long distance from students to their families (although these services have since fallen out of use). Since then, club has continued to serve the BYU community, and has even helped communicate with areas affected by natural disasters over the years, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico City, California, and Idaho.

Today, the BYU Amateur Radio Club continues to support the hobby and skills of radio communication and provides communication service for some University events. Popular weekly activities include building antennas and components, equipment demonstrations, transmitter hunts, training, and participating in radio contests.