" In the beginning..." by Bob Myers K2TV

During 1974, the Babylon Town Amateur Radio Emergency Corps. (Now ARES) held its Monday net on 28610 MHz SSB. The newly organized group found itself with an increasing membership from both Babylon and Islip towns.

Someone in the net suggested that since there was no amateur radio club in the Babylon-Islip area ever since the old Mohawk Radio Club disbanded several years earlier, that we form a group to meet one Monday a month from the AREC membership.

The historic first meeting was held in the summer of 1974, at the QTH of WA2JZX (now K2TV) in Copiague, NY. Unfortunately there are no written records of the meeting, so I am going by recollection. Among those attending was John WB2CHY (now K2IZ), Bernie WB2DQH (now N2GCK),  Walt W2TE, Frank WA2TQT, George WB2KAW, Bill WA2PUG, Wyn WA2CZY, Ken WA2SUB, George WB2BAU, Pat WB2CRY, and Dick W2RNT.

It was not until the beginning of 1975 that the name "Great South Bay Amateur Radio Club" was adopted. The first meetings were held at member's homes first and then at the Lindenhurst Jr. High School. Through the years we had meetings at the Lindenhurst Rainbow Senior Citizens Center, Babylon Town Hall, Islip Town Recreation Center, The Babylon Village Hall, The Babylon Town Office Annex, and now back to the Town Hall. We moved around as the club outgrew its meeting places.

Our first constitution was adopted after a great amount of deliberation by the constitution committee headed by George WB2BAU, and John WB2CHY (K2IZ). The constitution was kept as simple as possible, so that we could have the flexibility that a new club needed to grow and prosper.

The club's foundation was Public Service and since the beginning has remained an important part of club activity. From early on, we have had very good relations with the officials at Babylon Town, and we are proud of the fact that we can be of service to our community.

About a year after the club was formed we applied for and received a coordinated repeater frequency from the ARRL Repeater Coordinator. The frequency 146.085 input, 146.685 output, was the last one available in the upper 2 MHz in the Long Island Area. We also applied for our Club Call, WB2FKZ ( now W2GSB) from the FCC. The first repeater was designed and built by Bernie WB2DQH and Steven WB2ZSE. It consisted of a GE "Progress Line" machine running 8 watts into a 5/8ths wave antenna on the tower behind Town Hall.

We decided on a club logo, the compass rose with the ARRL symbol inside. Frank WA2TQT volunteered to write and edit a newsletter. The membership voted to call it "The Compass". This was a sort of a play on words as WA2TQT's last name is Kompass. It was not long before the club started amateur radio classes. Since their inception, the radio classes have introduced many new hams into our ranks. The first classes were taught by Bill Collins WA2PUG, and George Roderick WB2KAW, and were held in the Lindenhurst Senior High School, which is now the Junior High. Over the years we have had many dedicated instructors (Elmers) sharing with the newcomers " the best hobby in the world".

Our first Field Day was held in 1977 with the call W2SN/2. We decided that Field Day activities should be open to the public and the site next to Town Hall was sought so we could show everyone what Amateur Radio Public Service was about. To this day this site remains as "our spot". Another Field Day tradition has been to use a "two letter" call of a different member each year than the longer club call.

Through the years the club has had its ups and downs and at various times membership has been over 100 people. We have tried to be an "all around" radio club, welcoming all classes of licenses into our ranks. We have in our membership old timers and new comers, all classes of licenses from SWL to Extra, all types of interest including DX'ers, Traffic Handlers, Ragchewers, VHF/UHF experimenters, RTTY / Computer buffs, etc.

Our common aim is to provide an emergency communications service to our community. This is the strength of our organization. We can all share and help one another. We have a common bond, and that is, that we are all interested in Amateur (Ham) Radio and are willing to use our various talents to help the community as well as ourselves.

- 73 de Bob Myers K2TV February 4, 1998