It has been 100 years since the amateur radio at Iowa State began with its first transmission of Morse code in the year 1911, the event that led to the existence of WOI radio and ultimately changed broadcast history.

The anniversary for the ISU amateur radio (also known as ham radio) is described by Jeff Stein, an Iowa broadcasting historian, author and former lecturer at ISU Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, as a technological revolution.

“The fact that Iowa State was one of the first places to pay attention to this technology that ultimately revolutionized our lives in the 20th century is important because it shows that Iowa State has consistently been dedicated to being first in developing communication technologies,” Stein said.

For Wyatt Hagen, president of the Cyclone Amateur Radio Club, the significance of the radio history is great.

“I think it’s a big deal for the campus because it’s 100 years of the campus working toward 100 years of communication and celebrating the early achievements that Iowa State made in developing radio communication,” Hagen said.

The communication systems were quickly evolving and Iowa State was one of the pioneers in the amateur radio development.

“The next step in the evolution was to see if you could send those dots and dashes, the Morse code, through the air — wireless,” Stein said.

The idea of ham radio started as an experiment done by a physics professor, Hoffman, and the engineering department through the years 1911-1913, in hopes to send signals without any form of communication wire through two ways: one point to another single point and one point to several points

Iowa State received an amateur radio operation license from the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington in August 1912. Consequently, the call sign 9YI was generated for the ISU amateur radio.

“9YI could actually reach hundreds of miles from central Iowa and by 1913, 9YI was on a regular basis sending out weather reports by Morse code,” Stein said.

The then 9YI call sign led to the birth of WOI, hence evolving into today’s WØISU and WØYI.

A call sign is used as an identifier for every radio station while communicating messages on-air. Each and every radio station has their very own globally unique call sign.

People who were once unable to receive current information or breaking news could now do so through amateur radio.

“Through Iowa State College’s efforts with 9YI, they could tap out on a schedule the Morse code, the dots and dashes flying through the air giving information to people who might be on the rural areas on the farm and not be near a wire receiving station,” Stein said.

In November 1921, the ham radio sent music, which earned them a license to become WOI radio in 1922. WOI radio is still owned by Iowa State.

ISU amateur radio has set a solid foundation to what we know today as radio.

This foundation of amateur radio as described by Hagen is “a stepping stone to new technology”.

Stein could not agree more. “The experiment in 1911, 1912, 1913, that laid the foundation for the radio that we know today, absolutely,” Stein said.

The Cyclone Amateur Radio Club, which uses the WØISU and WØYI call signs, is an organization that provides the facility of amateur radio to the members of the club who have obtained a license to operate the amateur radio system.

It is a club for everyone. “It’s not specially an engineering club,” Hagen said.

The Cyclone Amateur Radio Club does activities such as civil services (sky warns), communication (talking to people via radio across the world), contesting, and developing new technologies.

During emergency times such as a matter of death or life, the Cyclone Amateur Radio Club is allowed to send out signals to either warn or get help from people.

Richard White, vice president of the Cyclone Amateur Radio Club, mentioned, “on true emergency, we’re allowed to go on any frequency.”

All in all, the significance of 100 years existence of amateur radio at Iowa State is high for both the club members and Jeff Stein.

Iowa State has truly been one of the pioneers of the amateur radio.

“Iowa State has consistently been in the forefront of developing communications technology, and it really started 100 years ago by sending these Morse codes signals of dots and dashes through the air,” Stein said.

“The fact that it has existed a 100 years means that amateur radio as itself must be something valuable, it didn’t just come and go, it’s been around,” Hagen said.