Grand Valley State University Amateur Radio Club
W8ZHS
The Grand Valley State University Amateur Radio Club, W8GVU (originally KC8AYZ)
began as a student organization, when I attended there to get my teaching certificate.
Looking back, it's amazing how much we did in just three years. (Too bad it was dismantled
after I left.) You can see lots of pictures in the album.
Click here to: View the Album
We have an update: GVSU has started a new ham club! Visit
W8GVU
for more information.
Here's Kong, KC8KQT, setting the satellite antennas back, after the National Science
Olympiad event in 1998. We reinstalled these antennas, and the 160m loop (feed point
in the distant corner) 'permanently', after the new roof went on in 1999. But they
were trashed after we graduated.
Our station was two floors below. Kong and I found an abandoned chase to the roof
and were able to run all coax, concealed, to the shack.
You can see the Monster quad on the other building. It took 400' of coax to reach
it, via the underground tunnels. It took Kong and me till 5:00 AM one night to figure
it out and pull the coax and rotator cables there. All were concealed.
This is Kong in the VHF/Digital/ATV end of our shack. Things had really come together
for us by
this time, (1998).
Here is Dave N8UTH, in the HF end of our shack. You can see the legal-limit amplifier
and high power tuner.
This is the way things were when we maintained contact with the provost's sail boat
as he crossed the Atlantic in 1998. Click here to view his
Letter of Thanks
In March, prior to the National Science Olympiad, we were still overcoming red tape
delays regarding our HF antenna installation. The tower we bought had to be returned
because Student Life director Bob Stoll, after long delays, refused us permission
to install it.
A small group of us met with President Lubbers and got his ok on
the antenna, to be installed now on an abandoned tower on the building next door.
Without talking to anyone else
about it, we spent a Saturday assembling and installing the antenna and rotator.
Ed KB8TWH and I were very relieved at getting the antenna in place. Neither of us
had done anything like this before. Here, we are playing "King of the Tower". It
looks like Ed has won.
This was quite a surprise for staff and students, that following Monday morning.
More sudden than the onrush of spring, a Monster, 5 band, 4 element cubical quad
overshadows the computer lab and IT department. Many expressed fear that it might
fall on them.
As fortune would have it, the terific 100+ mph windstorms of 1998 occurred immediately
after our installation. That huge antenna rode the storms like a big ship, allaying
these fears. (Whew!)
Others said the antenna was 'ugly'. Bob Stoll was threatening to remove our antenna.
Dr. Strickland wrote us a letter that really saved the day. For a look at his letter,
click here
Of course, the whole thing was trashed after I graduated. Bob wins.
This is before we had our own shack or even radios. KC8EWX is installing my
R-5 antenna for a special
event aboard the Water Resource Institute's W.G. Jackson,
in 1996.
Amazing to me at the time, we did not need to explain or promote ham radio to WRI
Director Ron Ward, (as with Bob Stoll and the Student Senate). Founders D.J.
Angus and R.B. Annis were both hams!
We were welcome aboard the research vessel as it performed a regular mission on
Lake Michigan on October 19, 1996. The event was published in QST.
Here are Yutanna KC8EWX, Tim KD8LW, Doug KC8VZZ, and Marcie KC8WAA. We are in the
pointy end of the boat, just at the water line.
A statistical fluke: everybody but Tim and me got sick as hell.
During our National Science Olympiad Special Event. we operated HF from the D.J.
Angus,
and patched DX calls to the Allendale campus via 2m repeater links. That way, DX
stations could QSO with us as marine mobile and as portable stations at the same
time.
Pictured is Dave KB8KZM.
During the 1998 National Science Olympiad Special Event, we loaded the Cook Carillon
Tower as a 40 meter vertical antenna. We also set the satellite antennas on the
ground for demonstration purposes.
This event was published in December 1998 QST magazine.
Click here
to see the article.
Dave KB8KZM, Dave N8UJH, Steve N8QOM, and Tim KD8LW work the National Science Olympiad
Special Event, 1998.