Club Information

The following letters relate some PARC club history:
Hello,

My name is Peter Lunenfeld, I’m 37 years old and live in --------, Ca. with my wife and two young children.
Recently, I became interested in Amateur Radio and started studying for my Technician’s license. While chatting tonight with my mother, Susannah, I brought up my new interest in ham radio in casual conversation. She said that my grandfather (who died in 1957, 12 years before I was born), loved amateur radio and spent every minute not devoted to his medical practice playing with his radios in his attic. My mother remembered spending many nights with her father up in his radio shack twisting dials, listening to static and occasionally snatching a voice out of the noise. As she reminisced about those times with my grandfather, she said that she even remembered his call sign! It was W5WV.
On a whim we decided to punch up W5WV into Google just to see what came up. And there was your club, the Plainview Amateur Radio Club of Plainview, TX. My mother said she instantly got goose bumps. Plainview, TX is the place of her birth, where her she grew up, and where her father, Dr. Everett Dye played with his radios.
Seems like too much of a coincidence that his call sign would end up as the call letters of the Plainview radio club!
As you can imagine, this is an interesting connection to my grandfather, a man I never met. If anyone in the club can give me any information about the origin of the call sign, or if anyone in the club remembers anything about my grandfather I’d love to hear about it. Any and all stories are welcome.
Thank you very much,
Pete Lunenfeld
pete@lunenfeld.com

Is there anyone who can help Mr. Lunenfeld? And also fill us in on the origins of our club's callsign? Stories from the early days of our club would be most appreciated. Anything you can relate about the days before most of us 'newbies' got here, like early days of the club's meetings, where they were held, how many active members there were, building the first 2 meter repeater here in Plainview, finding a site for it, etc. etc. We'd really like to hear from you! I can remember when I moved to Plainview in 1992, we were beginning to have transmitter hunts and participate in Field Day. One of the old-timers, Bob Farmer, held a license, but I dont know what his call sign was, and I cant find it in the old databases. Mr Lunenfeld has got the ball rolling here, and he's clear over in SIX land...lets see what we can come up with!
This came in from AE5B:
Dug through my "packrat" room and found the following information from old callbooks. 1957 Radio Amateur Callbook W5WV Everette L. Dye, Jr., 411 Beech Street, Plainview, Texas 1958 Radio Amateur Callbook W5WV Plainview Amateur Radio Club, Inc., 1212 Quincy, Plainview, Texas
Looks like Dr. Dye became a silent key in the late 50's and the club applied for his call. Another possibility is that Dr. Dye moved from 5 land and had to relinquish his call. In those days, you had to apply for a new call if you permanently moved to a new district. A search through local newspaper records might furnish an answer.
Apparently the first trustee of W5WV lived or had an office at 1212 Quincy. ARRL records show the Plainview ARC became an ARRL Affiliated Club on July 10, 1953. Hope this helps, John AE5B (the packrat)

Thanks John...well it looks like our club goes back at least 53 years...I wonder what our callsign was back then, or if we even had one....
Found these snippets in the local "Back in Time" section of the Plainview Daily Herald:

April 7, 1946: D.P. Everett, J.R. Wayland and Dr. Everett Dye were elected to the school board Saturday. They succeed J.L. Hunter who was board president, Mrs. Ben Smith and Sam Curry, who did not seek re-election.
June 24, 1946: All children in Plainview schools who will enroll for the first time this fall are eligible for physical exams at a vacation clinic Wednesday morning, says Dr. Everett Dye Jr.
Dr. Everett Dye Jr. expressed his personal opposition to socialized medicine in the United States when he spoke to the Lions Club on Wednesday. He recently was discharged from the Army.
This in from KA5TIZ, who used to live in Floydada (just east of Plainview):

I am just writing a few memories for the club. My memories start in 1984 and I had some contact into the mid 90's. When I got to know the club Bob Farmer W5YNL, Berni Makewiz NB5K, Fred Gilbert W5PIP, and Bob Edwards W5ZTG, were very active in club leadership. I wish I could remember more of the names and calls from those years. W5YNL conducted the cw class that got me to my first license in 1984. When I upgraded to the next level W5ZTG signed as one of the VE's. Charles Fleming WD5BLX from Kress was an active member and got me involved in the first place. Marlin Andrus AG5V also signed as VE on my second testing. In the eighties the older members were a source of enthusiasm and encouragement for a number of us who were very interested in the hobby.
I noticed the question about your club call W5WV on the message board and I remember Bob Farmer telling me about it. I wish I could remember more. I remember him telling me that W5WV had been the call of a silent key and that the club really wanted the call as a club call. They had fond memories of the original holder of the call and they also thought that the call was a great club call. They then did the paper work to try to get it for the club and as I remember Bob told me that it took quite a little doing. I do remember the smile on his face and the joy in his voice as he told me about the call as he was very proud the club was able to have W5WV as the club call.
I am sure that Bob was trustee for the repeater during that time. He had so many stories to share as we would visit in his radio shack /office. He had old amplifiers he had not used for years, boxes full of radio gear, QSL cards on the ceiling an walls, and at least a couple of radios on the desk that were working just about any time of the day.
Fred Gilbert had a neat shack with most everything in its place. He was always helpful and encouraging to an interested visitor. One of my vivid memories of Fred is the day I went by to visit and he had just learned his 2 meter antenna was on the ground and the coax had simply broken where it had been connected to the tower. He could not believe that he had been using if for some time like that and was still able to talk on the repeater.
Berni was an amazing guy who always had a project going and usually a number at any time. He also enjoyed talking about projects and was very helpful to me as I struggled with some of my boxes that I was building. I am so thankful for those who were so encouraging to me and others who were leading the club in those years and hope that we can carry the flag in the 21 century.
KA5TIZ Gene McCarty
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Gene McCarty genemc@srcaccess.net

UPDATE! This came in this month (Feb07) from Don, K7CS, in Virginia:

I'm Don Sambol, first licensed in 1961 as K5KVK, and lived at 2400 Norma. Fred W5PIP was my Elmer and I loved to go out to Bob's W5YNL to visit his greenhouse and talk about radios. He had a massive amount of parts. The club trustee for W5WV during the 1960's was Louie McMurray WA5MOK. I used to go to his house off south Broadway and operate W5WV with his homebrew KW and quad at 55'. I was attending Texas Tech at the time. Other club members in those days were W5DJW, Lewis, W5TZJ (?), Elzie Gilbert near Halfway (Fred’s dad). Smoky Hewitt (?), who owned Smoky's BBQ on 5th street. Smoky had a Collins S-line. KN5KVW, Bruce Barrett; KN5LDV, Bill Watson, and I was first KN5KVK. Stanley and Steven Clark (WA5TJK and WA5TJW, I think) were also active at that time, around 1963-65. The station engineer for KVOP (AM 1400) was also a member and would build small receivers and bring them to the meetings. I remember several other fellows, but neither their names nor call signs. Plainview had an active radio club in the 1950s and 1960s and there were many hams in the other communities in the area. In those days the Ogalalla aquifer was still providing a lot of water. I learned to water ski on Tulia Lake and city park still had a spring fed creek.
I bought an old Hammarlund Superpro from Elzie. This was my first receiver, which had a separate power supply and it must have weighed over 50 pounds combined weight. I used it with a Viking Ranger after several other transmitters.
My mother, Merle Sambol, was a nurse at Plainview Hospital and knew Dr. Dye for many years. I remember her talking about him and am sure I probably met him at one time or another.
Dad knew Fred well and I spent many a Sunday sitting on Fred’s couch in his shack listening to him talk. This was years before I got my ticket. I always remembered him having a couch in his shack and I finally got my own several years ago, after almost 45 years. Fred gave me my novice test May 1961 and my Conditional test August 1961. He had a 4 element triband beam on his 60’ wood telephone pole. The pole may still be at his house on 9th street. I remember he had an SBE610 for sideband and a National HRO-5 receiver with plug-in coils for band changing. During my college days I’d occasionally visit Fred and work DX on 15 meter CW. That was my first experience with a big beam. I last saw Fred February 2004. He had Alzheimer disease and was being cared for at home by his middle son Wayne, whose call sign I cannot remember. He still had his TS-830 and amplifier, but the beam was long gone and Wayne had only 2 meter capability. I’m guessing Fred would be an SK by now. He remembered my dad (who got him his first job at Sears as the electronic repairman) but didn’t remember me. Wayne said he wouldn’t remember my being there the next morning. Fred and Marybell had a son killed in Vietnam while piloting his C-130 gunship.
The 1212 Quincy street address was a small building used by the club for its club meetings and station. It may have been a shared meeting facility for other clubs as well. It had 2 telephone poles with an 80 meter dipole strung between them. There was an old crystal controlled (3950 KHz) AM transmitter. I don’t remember the receiver, just that great big transmitter. They operated field day one time at the park on 5th street. My dad (Joe Sambol of Sears and Roebuck appliances) took me down there on Saturday night to visit Fred and others. I must have been around 14 or 15 at that time. They later met somewhere on north Broadway in what I believe was a community center. It had a large room with stage and curtains and smaller rooms for meetings. I was the club treasurer for a while. At that time the club was helping its members invest in Heathkit Sixers. A low power 6 meter crystal controlled rig about the size of a large lunchbox. The Northwest Texas Emergency net met on Sunday mornings at 3950 KHz.
I have many fond memories of being a part of the Plainview radio community in those days. It was great fun. 73 Don K7CS
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Don Sambol K7CS doncsambol@aol.com

Thanks Don!
Looks like we may have some insight into how our club came to inherit the callsign W5WV from one of its former members. I can only assume that the guys wanted the call 'W5WV' to live on, to honor their friend. And just having some call signs of these old-timers, the guys who started it all for us here in Plainview, itself is priceless. Thanks so much Gene for sharing your memories with us!
We are still looking for info pertaining to our club in its early days, so...Please keep the stories coming!

After more than TWO years of little in the way of news about our clubs beginnings, In Nov of 2009 the club received an update from Philip, K5LLS:
PARC
Hi. I am Philip Russ from Hale Center originally. My call is K5LLS and as a teenager I was a member of PARC. I knew Dr. Dye and my good friend David Denton (formerly K5IZU) was his cousin. David and I used to spend some time in Dr. Dye's shack who helped us with early questions and building a one tube cw transmitter. He was really a good guy.
The address on Quincy across from the High School was the location of the Ham Club in those days. The lot on which the ham club was located originally belonged to a friend of Bob Farmer W5YNL who disappeared. Bob was able to obtain title to the lot after the individual in question (whose name escapes me) was presumed dead. Bob put a building on the lot and let the club use it for meetings gratis for the period of time it took to clear the title.
I live in Amarillo now but still own the family farm between Hale Center and Plainview and get there fairly often. Graduated HCHS in 1960 but also attended Plainview High.
David K5IZU allowed his license to lapse years ago but I'm on him to get his license again and get on the air.
Glad to know the club is still in tact.
Philip Russ K5LLS
Thanks for the update Philip!