W1AF, Prewar Short-wave Radio Station, Plans Reopening Tonight

Revival of the activities of amateur radio station W1AF will get under way at the Geographical Institute tonight at 7 o'clock, when William K. Coburn Jr., assistant in Geographical Exploration, will meet with radio amateurs and members, past and present, of his Geography 37 class.

Started in 1941 as a radio club outgrowth of Geography 37's course in field communications, W1AF, operating under a Federal Communication Commission license, carried on general amateur traffic, and worked with field expeditions until the war caused termination of its functions.

Plans for the resumption of these field expeditions, which before the war were organized as a cooperative venture by the University and Bowdoin College, are as yet amorphous; but Coburn announced last night that arrangements had been started for renewing the joint student occupation of Kent's Island in the Ray of Fundy next summer.

Members of W1AF, at the University's 1947 summer session, would then maintain contact with Kent's Island, obtaining such information as weather reports and results of field trips. W1AF would also handle traffic with the SS Bowdoin on its yearly trip to Greenland and the Arctic.

Organized by Dr. A. Hamilton Rice, Director of the Geographical Institute, W1AF will, at first, be limited to 10 to 15 students of Geography 37; but Coburn said that other members may be elected by special vote after the short-wave station swings into full operation.

Rice introduced a comparatively new theory in exploration when he organized a course in field communication here in 1930, shortly after he had become the first explorer to use either serial photography of short-wave field communications in five expeditions to locate the headwaters of the Amason River.