W5YG - Rice University Ham Radio Club

History

The Rice University Amateur Radio Club, Licensed by the FCC as W5YG, has been operating for more than 100 years on the Rice campus, first in the engineering buildings and more recently in Herman Brown Hall.  The present Trustee is Professor Patricia Reiff W5TAR.  Previous trustees include Paul Engel K6OKA and Ed Feustel AI1R. The first transmitter was paid for in 1920 by Howard Hughes and used the call 5YI as mentioned in the Rice History Corner! The registration was shown as assigned July 1, 1920 per Radio Service Bulletin #39. By 2022 the Radio Station had the callsign WRAA and the Club 5YG, as registered March 1, 1922 per Radio Service Bulletin #59 (later W5YG): See the second History Corner article. Thanks to Rick Hall K5GZR for the links to the FCC Radio Service Bulletins. The Rice Club is listed in the group of universities with ham radio clubs, and participates in the ARRL "School Club Roundup" almost every year.

Equipment

The club station presently uses a Kenwood TS-2000 transceiver for HF work, with crossed Inverted-V dipole antennas (one 10m, one 20m) on the roof of Herman Brown Hall. It is computer-controlled to allow FT-8, VARAC, PSK31 and other digital modes. The image shows an FT-8 contact in progress, and also our DMR HT. We QRZ for logging.


In addition, we have a steerable VHF/UHF Yagi antenna connected to a Icom 9700 with full control for satellite contacts, again with computer control. We can use voice, FT-4, SSTV and other modes via satellite, as well as talk through local repeaters.

Licensing

Over 60 students have received Ham licenses in the past 20 years under the tutelage of Dr. Reiff, both in the "Physics of Ham Radio" class (previously PHYS 401, now PHYS 501), and also in classes taught at summer camps at HMNS.   The class is offered every other year (currently offered fall 2024).

The class is open to interested undergraduates with permission of the instructor.

The below photo are the new licensees (one new General, 5 new Technicians) from 2024 with the Volunteer Examiners from the NARS club who administered the tests. From left: Luke Ritter KI5ZHW, new General; Dr. Pat, trustee W5TAR; Luis Nunez KJ5IRX, Brandy Lang WE9L (VE); Cristal Johnson KJ5IRW, Cedric Williams KJ5ISS, Dale Schmirler KN5DS (VE), Anthony Zhang KJ5IRD, Paul Owen N5NXS(VE), Sheree Horton (VE), and Ed Messman KT5EM (VE).

To join the club and to get on the mailing list, contact Prof Reiff (reiff@rice.edu)