A preliminary Constitution and By-Laws were drafted. KR7Y was appointed as President, and W7YS was appointed as Sec/Treas. There were no other Officers. KR7Y proposed Erik Sjolund, SM0AGD, Juegen Svenssonk, SM3CXS, and Louis Beaudet, K6TMB, as Honorary Members. All approved. The original copy of the By-Laws were signed by Charter Members Hugh Phillips, Art Phillips, Miles Shepherd, Bill Gordon, Bill Schuchman and Robert Wertz.
As a new club, we had a lot of energy – we wanted to restrict membership to only those local hams who were active DXers and Contesters. The By-Laws were written to the effect that membership was by invitation only. We wanted participators, not spectators, at our meetings. At the April 1985 meeting WA7NXL was congratulated for winning the Best Fist Award from ARRL for the Straight Key Night for 1985. We ran a "tight ship" – for example, one of our members moved to have the WAC Award accepted for full membership (DXCC was required). The motion was soundly defeated. W7YS was complimented for his inquiry into a local contractor using 2M handhelds for business purposes, resulting in the FCC shutting him down. He was also responsible for getting another local Boat Dealer to quit using the 2M repeater for his business operations. We also gave exams on a regular basis. We began to have calls from some local hams who wanted to join the Club. In May 1985 we invited Frank Berberich, KD7XO, Carl Rieck KD7UN, Mike Sharp, NG7S, and Art Palmer, KD7PS, to the next meeting. All became members. In Sept., we invited Chuck Upton, KB7XN, and Riener Ubel, WB7UCA to the meeting. We became an ARRL Affiliated Club.
Our Club began to grow, and we had a Newsletter named the DXTRA by KR7Y. The editor was KD7XO. Our President announced that we was relocating to Reno. The Club members gave Hugh a nice Plaque for his service. W7YS became the President and KD7XO held the jobs as Sec/Tres and Editor. Craig Anderson, N7GLT, became a new member. The next meeting was held at the home of N7GLT. His wife produced a home made "Jewish Apple Cake" that was so popular that we adopted it as the "Club Cake".
In 1986 we were at the bottom of the Sunspot Cycle. In Sept. a new ham surfaced: Jan Moeller K6FM. Jan was a native of Sweden and was the author of the Swedish Amateur Radio Handbook and a very competent Dxer with a lot of countries confirmed. He was also FO0JM. Member KD7UN gave us a tour of the local radio station KCLS where he was a disk jockey under the name of Carl Lamar. W7YS and NN7A attended the National Convention at San Diego where Art was inducted into the ROWF (Bill was already a member).
In 1987 W7YS was reelected to a 2-year term as Asst Dir SW Div. KR7Y returned to Flagstaff and put up another beam at his house in Koch Field. Our good friend Miles Shepherd, W7GYX who had taken a job as Chief Engineer at the Navajo Radio Station in Window Rock became a sudden SK. NF7E had a bad case of RFI – his neighbor reports his voice is coming out of her Crock Pot! One of our new members is Lew Wilhelm, W7TB. Lew was decorated with the Order of the Red Star by the Russians during WW2 for his work flying fighter planes to Russia from Alaska. In July, W7YS was named Editor of the DXTRA and continued for many years.
Later members of the Club were Bill Sinton, KI7LS, Bill Webster, W7EYG, Marvin Baur, KA7TDH, Tim Dirkin, K6TIM, John High, W7DFW, Charlie Tyrrell KC7DQV, and WX7E.
Our Club participated in many events. Among these was the Special Event of the Bicentennial of the US Constitution. All Club Members were authorized to use the call W2000YS during the week of Feb 13-19th, 1988. Perhaps our biggest activity is the Route 66 Special Event, which gave birth at a club meeting at the home of KI7LS. As I remember it, we were having a brainstorm session for an activity, and the Route 66 Project was proposed by member Jerry Ellison, W7ST. We never thought it would grow into such a popular event.
We have been an active Club. Several members of the club have been on DXpeditions over the years to places like Sweden, Russia, Belize, Alaska, BVI, FO0, Marshall Islands, Mexico, South Cook, and others. We have participated in all of the Major Contests and many minor ones. Unfortunately, many members have moved to other areas around the country and some have become Silent Keys. As these members have been lost, we are fortunate that we have had others come forward to take their place.
