About W7YH
The Rho Epsilon Amateur Radio Club was formally founded at Washington State University (then Washington State College) in 1911 by H.V. Carpenter, Homer Dana and Royal Sloan as the first university ham radio club in the world.
Our goal is to reestablish the club as a means for those interested in amateur radio to meet each other and share ideas. Hopefully the club will foster experimentation and facilitate an operating station for amateur radio.
What is amateur radio?
Amateur radio, or ham radio, is a hobby that utilizes radio communications equipment to communicate with other amateur radio operators for public service and recreation. This communication could be as trivial as speaking with someone across town or as intricate as using Morse code with someone more than 5000 miles away. For more information, read "What is Ham Radio?" on the ARRL's Hello-Radio website: http://www.wedothat-radio.org/hello/what-is-ham-radio.php
W7YH Rho Epsilon Amateur Radio Club
The first amateur radio group in the United States was organized at Washington state University in 1910. In 1911, this organization, the WSC Radio Club founded Rho Epsilon as a national radio fraternity and became Alpha Chapter of that group. Other schools that joined include: University of Washington, University of Idaho, University of Virginia, Illinois Institute of Technology, Montana State College, and Tri-State College. Over the century the other clubs have dissipated and the WSU fraternity became the W7YH Alpha Epsilon Amateur Radio Club. It later disappeared in the 90s but has been re-founded as the WSU Amateur Radio Club in January of 2009.
The club will pursue any amateur radio activity members desire including:
- Long distance HF communications using voice and Morse code,
- use of amateur satellites,
- public service and emergency communications,
- building antennas and other equipment,
- APRS (a tactical asset tracking and messaging system),
- DX contesting,
- Wi-Fi networks and more.
Members can enjoy the recreational part of amateur radio or learn its technical aspects. Hands-on-experience may be gained on electronics, radio frequency propagation or circuits. No prior experience or knowledge is required, and all majors are welcomed. It is also not necessary to hold a FCC amateur radio license to get on the air.
