W1ET Dartmouth Amateur Radio Association
Historical Notes
From Jim Wheaton '53
...I operated W1ET from the fall of 1949 until 1952 when I went into the Army
during the Korean War. When I returned in 1956 to go to Thayer School, I don't
recall being involved in any ham radio activity.
When I read an article in the Alumni Magazine a number of years ago about the
towers of Wilder Hall being taken down, I wrote a letter to the author (a
physics prof whose name escapes me--Gordon something???) relating some of my
recollections. Among them: the box of old QSL cards dating back to the
1920s, including one from Fred Schnell aboard a U.S. Navy vessel in the
Pacific that proved to the Navy that short wave worked. (This conclusion is
based on a mention of his work in one of the early books on ham radio, either
"200 Meters and Down," or "Calling CQ.") The radio shack on the roof of
Wilder was an oasis of peace and quiet for the few of us who went there. In
the early evening, with the sun setting over the hills of Vermont, Jack
Dailey and I used to stand out on the roof and listen to the whirring wings
of the nighthawks diving for bugs. The Trustee at that time was Prof. Will
Rayton of the Physics Dept.
Our radio gear at the time was basically war surplus gear, but I forget
the details. This was before the days of single sideband, etc., and we did
mainly DX on 40 and 20 CW...
73 from Jim Wheaton, '53, Th '57 ex-W2UWV, ex-WA1CZH, ex-WA6TKV
1. Here is the W1ET Radio Shack as it appeared in 1952... The rig was a surplus Navy GO-9 transmitter (200
watts). The receiver was an HRO-50 that belonged to Jim Wheaton's roommate, Jack Dailey, W3NZL
(who later committed suicide...body never found...).
2. Here stands Jim Wheaton in the W1ET Radio Shack in 1952... He is a junior here. He went in the
Army (Korean War) that August, and didn't return until fall 1955 to begin Thayer School.
3. This is on the roof of Wilder Hall, showing the ten-meter beam and the bottom
part of one of the towers. The tops of the towers were 110 feet off the roof!
Jack and Jim spent many happy hours in the radio shack and on the roof, looking out over to Vermont.
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