The Breeze Shooters History

The Breeze Shooter organization came into being in a very informal way in the early 1950's. Much as other Amateur Radio organizations, it began as a very casual "net" and evolved into the activity we see today.

The prime impetus came from a need to solve an interference problem created by a new, but powerful service -- TELEVISION. This problem was most apparent on the Ten Meter band and effective use of the band and development of solutions for the problem were necessary to avoid FCC action which might have been detrimental to the spectrum allocations.

After a period of informal growth it was recognized that some defined organization could increase this group's effectiveness and insure it's continuity. The name was selected to indicate the organization's major activity -- "occupation" of the Ten Meter band. The "Net" as we know it today (at 9:00 PM on 28.480 MHz) was an outcropping of this activity, no doubt designed as a show of strength in numbers at a time of maximum Television viewing activity on Channel Three (the focal point of what became known as TVI). The time slot in what we today call "Prime Time" was probably Studio Wrestling or an equally important piece of early television programming.

Concurrent with this was the formation of the organization by entering into and filing Articles of Incorporation defining our purpose and goals -- the promotion of activity on the Ten Meter band through fellowship with other Amateur Radio operators and providing the availability of the group as a Public Service organization.

The TVI problem was "solved" by getting manufactures of television receivers and the FCC to at least recognize that the receivers were produced with no provision for minimizing interference and that the problem could be solved with the incorporation of adequate filtering, either as original equipment, or with out-board filters.

Public Service work as we know it today was in it's infancy and was not, at that time, needed in Western Pennsylvania so we went in another direction: meetings, technical discussions, social gatherings and ultimately HamFesting. In 1955 we held the first annual Breeze Shooter's HamFest, an activity that no one, at that time, foresaw as the forerunner of an annual event the magnitude of today's HAM FEST.

Another activity originated by the Breeze Shooters, the Annual Ground Wave Contest, a unique, four hour, Saturday evening endeavor designed more for relaxation and fellowship than for "making points". This is a mid-winter activity that has become a "must" for local Ten Meter enthusiasts.

SOME INTERESTING BREEZE SHOOTER HISTORY AND TRIVIA

The first 29 numbered BreezeShooters, 76-001 through 76-029, were then current BreezeShooters who were "assigned" the numbers as a way to celebrate the nations bicentennial. The decision to select 29 was based on the fact that the net (in those days) met on 29.000 MHz, and these 29 were very active at the time, providing other hams the opportunity to work the ten contacts to get their number.

You may note that a Breeze Shooter member from 1952 was Lillian Klingensmith, W3YIT. Also, the holder of certificate 79-129 is also W3YIT, William Klingensmith. In the days when Amateur operators could hold secondary callsigns, Bill had obtained his wife's callsign to honor her after her death. Bill held a 1x2 callsign, W3JT. After the FCC made major changes to the way it issued callsigns in March, 1978 (I know that date well, because I obtained K3GP on 1/17/78, just before then, and would not have been able to request it after March 1978) , they announced that secondary callsigns would not be renewed, and in those days, the licenses were only issued for 5 year periods. Hams could, at the expiration of a secondary callsign, elect to make the secondary call their primary call, and TO THE BEST OF MY RECOLLECTION (I could be wrong - I have been at least twice in my life) Bill elected to keep his wife's call and surrender his own 1x2 callsign. Frankly, I can hardly think of a better way to pay tribute to your late spouse!

K3VYO, Charlie Renner (76-009): The first Breeze Shooter meeting I ever attended was at Herb Heller's (Then W3OFI, now K3DE) house. It was there that I first got to meet Charlie, K3VYO. Charlie was a remarkable individual - he had an infectious laugh, and was always cheerful and pleasant on the air. Charlie was blind. At that meeting, I personally witnessed Charlie properly identify 9 out of 10 different brands of beer... he had a VERY discriminating palate. Charlie and Roy Repp, W3TZW would often drive to the highest point near their homes, which just happened to be in a cemetery, to check into the Breeze Shooters net (In those days on 29.000 MHz). When situated in that location, Charlie and Roy always identified as "Mobile 3 from Marble Boro Country". Charlie is gone now, and boy could we use a lot more hams like him...

In the In-Case-You-Didn't-Know Department: The Artwork for the current Breeze Shooters Membership Certificate, and the Award Certificate used for groundwave contest winners was done by artist Bob Johnston, W3SFA (76-014). The callsigns on the certificates are those of the Breeze Shooter's founding fathers, and also those active at the time the certificates were prepared (1976). Somewhere on one of them you will find my old call, WA3QER. The Amateur Operator on the Membership Certificate is a caricature of Jim Inverarity, K3TOQ, 76-011. For years and years Jim and Fred Schrieber, K3FIW (76-024), plus many others, would hold forth each night on 28.697 MHz (Frequency was chosen years ago because it was the only crystal frequency somebody had). Typically, they would gather at 9 PM (or on Monday nights, following the Breeze Shooter net), and continue until 11PM, when everyone would sign off and go to watch the news. Over the years, they operated hundreds and hundreds of hours on ten meters - during sunspot peaks, people would drop in from everywhere - during sunspot minimums, it was strictly a 'Burgh thing.... But you could count on finding someone almost every night from 9 to 11 PM on 28.697 MHz...

Jeff Trbovich, then WN3VGK (9/27/73) was the first novice Breeze Shooter (at a time when novices had ONLY CW privileges on 10). I administered Jeff's novice test - he was a teenager at the time, very enthusiastic about ham radio. Alas, I can find NO licensed amateur in the FCC database with the last name Trbovich. Either he lost interest in the hobby, or worse yet, is no longer with us...

From Gary Weslager, K3GW

In the early organization of Amateur Radio Licensing for Western Pennsylvania, we were under control of the Buffalo Office of the Federal Communications Commission. First licenses for W. PA were "W8" callsigns, as were the callsigns for Western New York. For example, my father was assigned "W8NVS" in 1935 and was the "first time through" the alphabet. At this time, two separate and distinct licenses would be issued, each being good for only two years. One was an Operator License and the other was a Station License. If you didn't have, or couldn't prove you had the transmitting and receiving equipment or location, you only received an Operator License (with no callsign). If you could prove availability of actual equipment, you received a Station License with callsign. To renew you had to have available your log books to prove actual operation time, and you had to affirm a minimum of operating time to have your license renewed. I also believe you had to be prepared to send and receive code at the required speed at anytime to continue your privlidges. Note that this operational statement was in effect through the 1960's, and this specific point was why a number of licenses were not renewed.

After WWII, the Western New York and Western Pennsylvania areas were reorganized into the "W3" licensing structure but still under the control of the Buffalo Field Office. As the "W8" issuance of callsigns was alphabetically ahead of the "W3" issued calls, many calls conflicted, so new callsigns were issued to the "W8" operators, as needed. For example, if you had an early "W8aaa" call and the same was already in use as a "W3aaa," you were issued a new call significantly "up the alphabet," maybe "W3nnn." My father received "W3NVS" without any suffix change because the N's were not yet issued in the 3rd call area.

FCC inspectors were common and monitoring by the FCC was ever present. "Pink Tickets" were common, with ac on your signal and out of band operation representing some of the most common violations. My dad, W3NVS, received a notice one time for out of band operation. It was caused by a crystal harmonic producing a signal outside of the legal band frequencies because of having the bandswitch of the transmitter on the wrong band. A detailed explanation, as well as remedial actions in writing, were required to be provided to the FCC in response to the citation.

During the late 50's, each station was to dynamically monitor a commercial broadcast station. This was part of the CD (Civil Defense) requirements. We did it with a neon bulb connected to the speaker terminals (speaker disconnected). This method was considered acceptable. The bulb would be modulated by the audio and would flicker. If there was a national alert, all commercial stations would be ordered off the air, thus producing no visual flicker. By this monitoring, the amateur would be required also to shut down. This requirement eventually "went away." Those old enough can remember the CD frequencies stamped on all radios at the time - at 640 AM and 1240 AM. These were marked with a triangle and "CD" stamped within it. Individuals were to tune to these frequencies in case of an nuclear/missle attack on the local area. Also, those old enough will remember the NIKE Missle Sites which surrounded the Pittsburgh Area.

"Bootlegging" was a very common activity with high school aged students in the 30's. It was the Citizen Band of it's day, with operations on both 160 meters, 5 meters and 2 1/2 meters. My dad told me that in Carrick where he grew up they used to watch for telephones, which at that time used carbon microphone elements, and "acquire" them for their transmitters. They also used to "borrow" the tubes out of the family AM radio between coming home from school and when the father of the house came home from work. Everything was extremely expensive during the depression, especially for a teen male!

An FCC examiner would come to Pittsburgh twice a year from the Buffalo Field Office for testing, I think in April and November. You had to have your application into the FCC to take your test months in advance and await notification of where and when to take the test. When taking the General Class Exam in November of 1957 (I was 13 years old and held the Novice call WN3KYN, which was good for only one year), the morning session was devoted to the code receiving test. It consisted of five minutes of 5-letter code groups of letters and numbers - no understandable words! You had to copy at least one-minute solid (100%) out of the 5 minutes sent. They used a wire or tape recorder which had really bad audio, so it was a recommendation (by someone that had previously failed) to sit as close to this machine as possible. Around the perimeter of the room were other applicants taking various commercial radio exams, such as the Radiotelephone First Class License, which was required to work in a radio station. These poor folks had books and slide rules and they were obviously in as much stress as those of us who were taking the amateur exam! After the code test, the FCC examiner dismissed us (for lunch) and we were told to return at a specified hour. Of interest, I had lunch with a Jim Tommasin who received license W3LAX and ultimately dropped it, only to become licensed many years later as KA3UVU and currently licensed as WO3Z. When returning at the appointed time, we were made to wait in the hallway outside of the test room where we received the ultimate humiliation. Our names were read and if we passed the code test (which I did on the first try!), we were invited into the room. If not, we were told in no uncertain terms to try again. Upon entering the test room we were given a sealed envelope with our test inside, and told not to open it until told to do so. We now had to take the code sending test. Each applicant was called to the front of the room and under the watchful ears of the examiner, send 13 or more words per minute on a old military style manual key. I remember some applicants bringing their own key, which was permissible. The text to be sent was from the outside of the unopened test envelope. I don't remember anyone failing the sending test, but I do remember some comments to some of the applicants as to them "needing some practice." I think that the situation caused many to stiffen-up. Only after this experience were we all advised to open our envelope and to proceed with the test. The General License test then included 45 multiple choice questions and required that five schematics be drawn from memory. These included such things as single tube oscillators (Colpits, Hartley, etc.), full-wave and half-wave power supplies, low pass filters, RC networks, etc. I took my test on November 18, 1957 and received my General License as W3KYN on January 4, 1958. I held this call for 40 years and changed to the vanity call of K3GW.

Out of interest, callsigns then were issued with an "N" to signify Novice Class. They when upgrading to General, which at that time had full band privileges, the "N" was removed. My novice call of WN3KYN became W3KYN on receiving the new license. The classes above General were not being offered at that time. Many of us would print QSL cards without the N and type or write it in until we upgraded! Also, many licensees would tape over the N until they got new cards after upgrading. The call I received was actually a reissued one, having been issued to a guy in Philadelphia in 1940. I never did any research on him. The end of the alphabet from the first time through was being issued in the early 50's, then the FCC started reissuing unused calls. Only "W" calls were being issued then unless there was some special reason not to. For some reason the FCC got up to and through the "W3K's" and part of the "W3L's" and they started issuing "KN3" and "K3" calls. I believe they only went through the "K's" one time then immediately issuing the "WA3's" the "WB3's" and then the "N3's." Of course, the whole callsign structure, license class and location identifiers are reorganized.

John R. (Jack) Sproat, W4JS

By some quirk, I recently received a notice of the 43rd BreezeShooters' hamfest.
Coincidentally, I had been wondering about when that hamfest might be held when the notice arrived. By way of introduction, let me take you back a few years:     

HOME - ABOUT US - INFORMATION - CONTESTS - NETS - TECHNICAL

MEMBERS - CONTACT US - HISTORY - FOR SALE - LINKS