History

Member SOTA Activation

In 2025, a few W5AC members activate SOTA summit W5T/ST-012 near Bandera, Texas.

Read more on our news page →

ARRL Affiliation, 100 Years

June 10, 2024 - ARRL Affiliation for 100 years.

Move to the Current Shack

In Fall of 2023, the club moved to a new shack in Wisenbaker Engineering Building room 169. While there are no antennas on that building, the club has a remote station on the Oceanography and Meteorology Building.

More about W5AC's shack →

ARRL Collegiate Amateur Radio Program Chess Tournament

In 2023, W5AC participated in a chess tournament hosted by ARRL's CARP, consisting of a round robin and a single elimination stage. With the help of the Texas A&M Chess Team, we won every game until the championship game, which we lost to St. Louis University.

Leaving Hensel Park

In 2022, the shack at Hensel Park was condemned and our tower collapsed, forcing us to move out for good. After moving out of the shack, the club primarily operated portable for contests and events.

W5AC Wins Fall 2016 School Club Roundup

W5AC takes first place in the college and university category as well as overall in School Club Roundup with 586,278 points.

See more contest results →

Move to Hensel Park

In 2014, W5AC moves to the new shack by Hensel Park. The first HF contact made from the shack was on August 22, 2014, by Dave Gent W5QZ.

Repeater Moves to Rudder Tower and O&M

In the summer of 1994, the repeater moved from a temporary location at our shack in the MSC back to Rudder Tower.

Then, in February 2005, the repeater was moved to the 14th floor of the O&M (Oceanography and Meteorology) building on campus.

NASA Select TV Audio

W5AC rebroadcasted NASA Select TV Audio to 147.54 MHz during shuttle missions.

JOIDES Resolution Drill Ship

Besides awards and emergency communication (EmComm) service listed below, W5AC also assisted the TAMU Ocean Drilling Program's JOIDES Resolution Drill Ship communicate back home to Aggieland while at sea.

MSC Radio Committee

During this time, W5AC has been located above the bowling alley and in a guest room of the MSC hotel, among other rooms. In Fall of 1983, we moved from room 152 on the first floor to the west side of the building (next to offices of the Texas A&M Board of Regents) on the third floor.

We renamed our unique student organization to the current name, the "Texas A&M University Amateur Radio Club".

Bonfire Radio Support

W5AC played a crucial part in the yearly construction of Bonfire in the decades before cellphones were practical. Cut sites that were 70 miles from A&M could only contact main campus via HF amateur radio. Even ambulances might be outside the range of line-of-sight radios at "cut", and ham radio would be the fastest way to get medical attention to anyone injured there.

Beginning in 1978, W5AC would host a special event - "CQ Bonfire" - during the burning of Bonfire, which attracted many former students.

Read more about W5AC's role with Bonfire →

ARRL Affiliation, 50 Years

June 10, 1974 - ARRL Affiliation for 50 years.

Long-Distance Telegrams

On May 2, 1974, W5AC transmitted a 65-foot long telegram to that university in Austin, via Radio Teletype (RTTY). The telegram was signed by "a large cross-section of students", and took 8 W5AC members 4 hours to transmit.

Extremely long telegrams were a frequent activity of W5AC around that time, often sent to the Fish Drill Team when they were at the national drill competition in Washington, D.C. The Model 19 machine would run radio teletype (RTTY) on the 20 meter band for hours, breaking every 10 minutes to send identification.

Similar telegrams made their way to Aggies playing basketball in Austin in the late 1970's, covered with the names of students on campus wishing them well - another demonstration of "Aggie Spirit".

Radio Chess Match

On March 23, 1973, Texas A&M and the University of Texas (or as we like to call our rivals, "t.u.") competed in a game of chess. The chess clubs of each school communicated their moves via amateur radio (3.950 MHz SSB and also two meter AM locally on the Austin end). Apparently the Aggies won this match. Below are images of the QSL card, which cost eight cents at the time. Thanks to N5XU and Dave WA5ZRB for use of the images, originally captioned with the following:

"Tnx QSO es setting up chess match on your end - gig 'em!"

First FM Repeater

W5AC's first FM repeater on 146.82 MHz was built around 1971 by Bob Switzer W5IUP. It was tested in the apartment of W5XTT (then WB5BCT) and his XYL, KD5OGM. The transmitter was connected to a coat hanger hung from the roof of the 1 story apartment, with a Ringo about 35 feet up for the receive antenna.

After testing, the transmit antenna was placed on the elevator of Kyle Field, while the receive antenna was on the MSC bell tower some distance away (no need for duplexers). They were linked with a private phone line that cost only $24 per year - a clever application of TAMU phone policy by W5AC members at the time.

Starting in late 1973, the repeater was located at the KAMU-TV Channel 15 tower (A&M's PBS broadcast station) just north of campus. Due to various interference problems, the repeater was apparently moved in late 1978 to Rudder Tower (from club records).

Temporary Relocation to Bizzell and Goodwin Hall

We moved temporarily to Bizzell Hall in the early 1970's during remodeling of the MSC, at which time we installed our antennas on the Goodwin Hall tower that then held TAMU's weather radar.

Memorial Student Center

The Memorial Student Center (MSC) opens in 1951 and around 1954 W5AC relocates from Bolton Hall. Later, the club was known as the "MSC Radio Committee"

World War 2

On December 7, 1941, the FCC discontinues the amateur radio service and W1AW notifies all stations to suspend operations.

ARRL Affiliated

June 10, 1924: W5AC becomes an ARRL Affiliate.

Bolton Hall

The club's name during the early days was some variation of "Texas A&M College Radio Club." Early records show that we made our transmissions from Bolton Hall, the Electrical Engineering building at the time.

1926 Logbook

We contacted 9 different countries in 1926 alone, not to mention thousands of additional U.S. contacts.

Spark Gap Record

In January of 1922, 5XB made a radio contact with Washington State using spark gap transmission, possibly setting a world record for that mode. By 1926, spark transmission was prohibited for use by hams, superceded by CW transmission.

Read more about the spark gap record →

First Football Broadcast

Texas A&M electrical engineering students participated in the first play-by-play broadcast of a football game between Texas A&M and Texas on Thursday, November 24, 1921. Using equipment in the Electrical Engineering Department, they transmitted plays by pre-arranged code via telegraph key.

The "First Radio Broadcast of Football Game", was made possible by William A. "Doc" Tolson and others, and it is his picture which has become famous in association with that broadcast. After October 7, 1922, public broadcasts at the college were made from the callsign WTAW, which is still in use commercially (off campus) today. Amateur radio continued at 5XB, which changed its callsign to become W5AC today. While some say the call letters WTAW were chosen to spell "Watch The Aggies Win", the letters TAW are also the reverse of "Doc" Tolson's initials!

Read more about the historic football broadcast →

Founding of 5AC

In 1912, the Amateur Radio Club at A.M.C. (Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, now Texas A&M University) is founded and licensed by the Department of Commerce. This makes W5AC the oldest club in the fifth district, the oldest university radio club, as well as one of the oldest student organizations on campus.