In 1940 QST listed the club officers as: W3FRY President, W3BES Vice President, W3CHH/Treasurer, and W3BKE/Secretary. In 1940, The FRC entry, W3BKX/3, won class 7A in Field Day, In the 9th ARRL Field Day, FRC sponsored four entries and took first place in 1A and 4A and second place in 2A and 3A. In 1941, the FRC won its fifth Sweepstakes gavel for a clean sweep before WW II suspended Amateur Radio activity.
FRC members became heavily engaged in defense projects with the start of World War II. The WERS (the War Emergency Service) Sky Watch, were observers in strategic places reporting aircraft sightings to the army information center using the “Army Flash” system. FRC supplied volunteers at the information center which was run by the First Fighter Command.
In mid 1942 W3IXN took over as secretary/treasurer. A group of FRC members took part in the National Bureau of Standards monitoring system to help predict weather. In so doing, W3FRY ran across the First Fighter Commands communication system. W3FRY was the chief radio officer on the flag ship of the Atlantic Fleet, and told the president of Bell of Pa. how ineffective their system was. Bell had an elaborate telephone exchange located in the information center in the Lincoln Liberty building at Broad and Chestnut Streets. the Bell system was tied into Radio “A”, which communicated with the First Fighter Command planes. FRC members stood watches at Radio “A” and W3FRY made disc recordings of the system and was invited to see the commander, who was so impressed that he delegated W3FRY to clean up the mess.
W3FRY chose a committee of FRC members (W3AGV, W3HFD, and W3BES), who were all cleared by G2 and given passes to all First Fighter establishments from Ft. Dix to Bolling Field near Washington, D.C. They were provided with a staff car and chauffeur, W3HFD and W2AWR were put on the air at about 3300 kHz to replace the inadequate army stations. FRC involvement with wartime communications could fill a book. In 1945, W3FRY died of a brain tumor.
As the war drew to a conclusion, W3HKY (K3MBF Dawson Ransome) wrote from India that the Chinese hams were on 20 meter phone. W3ECR started his antenna farm on 25 acres near Lancaster, and the FRC began preparing for Field Day by getting two generators. Before the war, Homelite generators were available courtesy of W3FRY’s nephew who owned the company. W3QV operating XU1YV from Manchuria worked many FRC members on 10 meter CW before returning home.
The first post-war officers were: W3BES/president, W3DVC/vice president, W3IXN/secretary/treasurer, W3KT/activities manager. In 1946 the FRC won the 7A category in Field Day. The operators were: W3BXE, W3BES, W3ENX, W3JHE, W3HXA, W3HOJ, W3JSU, W3JUC, W3DGM, W3HFD, W3HYT, W3ILK, W3AGV, W3DMQ, W3DOU, W3IXN, W3GYV, W3GQW, W3JBC, W2OXX, W2HEH, W8JSU (W2RDK), W0EHR, and W3MFM, the only LSPH (Licensed Since Pearl Harbor) member.
The ARRL QSL bureau was run by the FRC from Box 34, Philadelphia. The cards were sorted at W3FUF’s hotel. QSL sorting was a social event with dinner out before retiring to the hotel for the sorting process. The W3’s got one-day service since the cards could be dropped off the same night at the 9th Street Post Office. In 1947 the officers: W3BES/president, W2OXX/vice president, W3IXN/secretary/treasurer, W2PWP/activities manager. This demonstrates the increasing involvement of Southern New Jersey and PHONE operators in the FRC.
The FRC won the 13th SS and the 1947 ARRL DX contest with plenty of support from SNJ and Phone stations. In 1948 W3KT was named ARRL QSL Manager. The FRC hosted G6CL, the Secretary-General of the RSGB, who was a delegate at the WARC held in Atlantic City. The WARC was well attended by many notables in the DX contest field. The FRC also held an over the air joint club meeting with the Coventry ARS and many FRCers joined the RSGB. A group picture appeared in the RSGB “BULL” and we sent rashers of bacon, not yet available in Britain, to the C.A.R.S. and M.A.R.S. in England.
In 1948 the FRC initiated a DX spotting net on 53.5 MHz. The club decided to participate in the new VHS SS and won the first gavel. It was decided that FRC should get as many gavels as possible. This lead to more innovations and the winning of the second VHF SS gavel. This aroused the VHF gang who circulated their adherents with a list of FRC members, who were not to be worked. We fooled them by quitting while we were ahead. The FRC won the 14th ARRL DX test in 1948. This was the year of the BIG FLAP over the spotting net. The club claimed that the announcements were sent out as a QST from the reporting station, and that participants were not listening for the spots. Our contest operators were providing a useful service for the local DXers by spotting interesting DX stations even during contests. W3EDP hired a lawyer, and we were assured we were abiding by the rules as printed in QST. The ARRL was threatened with a lawsuit and the ARRL Contest Committee met for 72 hours and decided in our favor. However; when the results were printed, four of our scores were called not eligible for personal credit, but counted in the club total.
In 1949 W3BXE was assigned the call FP8AA and went on the first ever DXpedition. He worked only 80 meter CW much to the dismay of the Western U.S. stations. The FP8AA transmitter and Jean, W3OVV’s 10 year old daughter made the cover of QST. The FRC participated in a mock evacuation of Philadelphia with a station placed on the roof of the Red Cross Building at Broad and Vinesis streets.
A move to change the name to the Franklin Radio Club as a result of the loss of contact with the original Frankford neighborhood was turned down and tradition won out.
You can read more about the FRC on these pages:
| FRC History Introduction | |
|---|---|
| FRC History 1930's | FRC History 1940's |
| FRC History 1950's | FRC History 1960's |
| FRC History 1970's | FRC History 1980's |
| FRC History 1990's | FRC History 2000's |