Perspire and Persevere  ! 

 (last update - June 27, 2009)

 NEWS   Congratulations to Ruth WB4QZG  '71E - Ruth and her daughter Lori recently participated in the USA Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF)  Contest  in Boston and both won their class in 2 meters and 80 meters.  Super!  They are looking forward to the upcoming World Championship competition in Croatia.  Click the links for pictures with Lori and Ruth.

 NEWS   Congratulations to Ron ex-K2KMA  '63A/E, now KF5BGO - After 40 years as an ex-ham, Ron has been bitten by the bug again and recently passed his Tech and General exams.  Next step is Extra.  Terrific news!  Ron was President of NYU ARC in 1962-63 and now lives in the Dallas area.

 NEWS   W2NYU at NYU Medical Center - The holder of W2NYU passed away in March 2009,  and his  family offered to transfer the call to the NYU ARC.  On May 27, the callsign W2NYU was granted "in memoriam" to us by the FCC.  We are looking into establishing a club branch at the NYU Medical Center in Manhattan.    For info on the late Arnold Rand W2NYU, click here .  He had a very interesting life  -- played poker with Elvis.
 

 NEWS   Ham Radio at Washington Square in the 1920s - We recently discovered the existence of an early NYU Radio Club at Washington Square from 1924-1930,  Visit the Museum page for more on this interesting story.
 

 NEWS   NYU-POLY Merger Completed  -  After 35 long years, NYU has a College of Engineering again.  The affiliation between New York University and Polytechnic University (Brooklyn) has been completed.  Poly is now  the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. 

  Greetings to all "Dirty Street Cleaners" and friends,

The first New York University Amateur Radio Club went  on the air some time in 1924 at the Washington Square campus in downtown Manhattan, New  York City.  The earliest evidence of the club's existence is found in the listing of 2CCL in the 1924 US Government Callbook.  (The W prefix did not come into use until 1928.) The club remained in existence for six years, until 1930, when the license expired and was not renewed.  We don't know why the club disbanded and we don't know if there ever existed another ham radio club at the Washington Square campus.  We are still investigating this era of club history.

Two years later, in the Spring of 1932, the  second New York University Amateur Radio Club was founded by engineering students at the University Heights (Bronx) campus, in New York City.  The pre-war call sign was W2DSA.  (Believe it or not, Prof Phillip Greenstein, '27E. was the faculty advisor from Day One, as well as the designer of the club's homebrew transmitter.)   The club thrived, although it moved around on campus several times, and was pictured in every Heights Yearbook until 1940.  Like other amateur radio stations, the club went dark during World War II and the Heights campus became a training camp for the military.   

In the post-war 1940s,  the NYU Amateur Radio Club at the Heights was reconstituted by several returning veterans.  W2DSC became the new call sign, as W2DSA was not available (for reasons unknown). The club was very active in the '50s, '60s, and early '70s, beginning with borrowed military gear and ending up with state of the art commercially-built equipment.  The club also participated in a variety of nets and competitions.  In 1973, when NYU sold the University Heights campus and was forced to leave the Bronx , the radio club completed the original circle and moved back downtown to Washington Square, where operating space was very scarce.  Not much is known about the club after that time, or if there even was a working club.  We are still investigating.

In 1995, the club's FCC license expired, along with the last known trustee, Herbert Schwartz K2LVU.  Several of us alumni from the Class of '71 thought that the rich history of the NYU Radio Club should be preserved. We undertook the tortuous route of reclaiming our callsign under the FCC's early vanity program.  In August 2000 the callsign W2DSC was restored to the fourth incarnation of the NYU Amateur Radio Club.

We would like to hear from new or old alumni and current NYU students or faculty hams. Perhaps someday a physical station can be re-installed at Washington Square (or maybe Brooklyn, or maybe the Med Center).  For now, we will do our best to keep alive a "virtual" NYU ARC.
 

The NYU Amateur Radio Club Museum 

We have collected various items from the history of the Radio Club, scanned into picture files, and displayed them here for you to enjoy.  There is also a time line of the station gear, and notes from old time alumni.  We hope to add many more items as  time goes on.  If you have anything that might be of interest, please send it along.   Be sure to read the Radio Club page in the 1935 Violet Yearbook.  To enter the museum, just Click the picture at left.   Admission is Free ! 

    Announcing   -  Three new features have been added to the museum.  Click a picture to go there directly.

Heights Campus Today -  Take a quick visual tour of the former NYU Heights campus, photographed by Dan K2UL on August 19, 2007.  It's not as bad as you might think.
 

QSL Card Gallery   -  Members of W2DSC have been active on the air using the club callsign.  This page contains some interesting QSL examples received from contests and DXing. 
 

In Memoriam  -  In searching for former Club members, we sometimes find them too late.  This page is in memory of alumni and friends who are no longer with us.
 

 New W2DSC QSL Cards

For the first time in 50+ years, W2DSC has a new QSL design.  Bob WB2NVR worked on the design and did all the leg work.  The front of the card has the Call and the NYU seal printed over a picture of MacCracken Hall.  The back  has a lengthy description of NYU, past and present, and a blank space to affix computer-generated signal report labels.   Click the picture at left for full size images.  We will be happy to send a sample card to any club member who would like one. 

Since we are a virtual club, with no permanent station, any club member may use the W2DSC callsign from his/her own station.  If you would like to use the call in a particular contest or operating event, just let us know, so we can handle the QSL chores as needed.  And also to stay legit with the FCC.   Bob WB2NVR has volunteered to be QSL Manager.
 

Membership is open to anyone with an interest in amateur radio and a connection to NYU, past or present.  There are NO dues.

How to Contact Us   

     E-mail:   w2dsc @ arrl. net     OR   nyuarc @ att. net  

     Postal:   NYU Radio Club
                    c/o Daniel Ostroy
                    8 Golden Crest Court
                    Hamilton NJ  08691-3313

     QSL Mgr:   WB2NVR, Bob Schaps

Executive Committee  (4)

K1NY - Gerry Skloot, President,  '71E, '74GBA, ex-WB2FJX

K2UL - Dan Ostroy, Secretary/Trustee,  '71E, ex-WB2TUL

K2EK - Bill Gioia,  Vice President,  '71E, ex-WB2DZZ

WB2NVR -  Bob Schaps,  Vice President,  '71E, '74GBA

Members  (42)

W2KGV - Ladd Sajor  (1934-35) Silent Key 2/10/09 W3NCC - Richard Roxas (1934-37), ex-W2BOP no call  -  Elihu Cohen '47E W6NYW, W2NKM - Walter Bonazza '48E no call  -  Dino Paschetto '48E no call  -  Arnold Shulman '48E no call  -  Milton Rosen '48E N1RA  -  Bob Avrutik  '49E, ex-W2NVO W2GKS - Herb Sinofsky  (1949-50) ex-W2UGN - Al Eckert '50E W3GQB - Sid Schwartz  '52E, ex-W2HDZ W2VLX - Dave Freedman '52E ex-W2ZDE - Steve Leibholz '52A ex-W2VQA - Stan Dickstein '53E W3DEF - Stephen Aug  '56A, ex-K2EOF ex-K2KOK - Paul Schnitzler  '57E, '59E WA6TLA - Elliott Lawrence, '60E, '61E, ex-K2KIA N6TJ - Jim Neiger '62E, ex-W7WJB and others K2IRS - Stan Teich, '63A, '64A, '99Law N6NO - Merv MacMedan '63E, ex-W2JOA KF5BGO - Ron Litt '63E, '63A, ex-K2KMA N2DT - Dan Handelsman '64A, ex- WA2BCG

N1SC - Stuart Cohen '65E, ex- K2IOC KG6QFD - Martin Hellman '66E, ex-WB2AHX WA2UNC - Paul Moskowitz '66E, '68A, '71A K2UU - Gary "Woody" Woodhouse '67Ed, '70Ed NS6A - Rick Lehrbaum '68E, ex-WA2APT N4FA - Martin Horowitz '68E, '70E ex-WN2WZD - Don DiGalbo '69E WB2YDC - Paul Hunter '71E WB4QZG - Ruth Bromer '71E AA2KD / 4X1FN - Yuval Zeira (1964-71) K8XM - Garry Lysiak '73E, ex-WB2DHN K2IE - Bob Norton '74W KN4NM - Dan Swerdlow '75E, ex-WA2BNS W2GW - John Reiser  (1978-82)W W4JMJ - Joan Jones '88W KD7TJJ - Guy Dickinson  '08Steinhardt WB2SSB - Joe Sanger, '77Med, NYUMC Faculty NB2N - Mitch Chesler, '83GSAS, '86Med, NYUMC Faculty AE3A - Colin Phoon, NYUMC Faculty KC2OQB - Michael Argilla, NYUMC Faculty N2NOV - Charles Hargrove,  member

Individual Club Members' E-mail Addresses  -       
 (This is a JPG picture file and should be immune to address-harvesting spam robots)

  NYU ARC Club News Archive

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   Past newsletters:   June 2008 ;   Sept 2007 ;   Oct 2006 ;   Sept 2005 ;   Aug 2005 Exec

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NYU ARC is not officially or legally affiliated with New York University Incorporated. 
Material published here does not reflect the views of New York University Incorporated.
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