Club History

The Madison County Amateur Radio Club, Inc. was started in the late 1940's as the Anderson Radio Amateurs Club. The name was changed and the club incorporated in 1952.

The club has always been closely associated with the Madison County Civil Defense/Emergency Management Agency. Regular Club meetings were held at the Emergency Operations Center; first at Linwood, then the temporary EOC on Mounds Road, and currently the EOC/Central Dispatch Center on the north side of downtown Anderson. The CD/EMA Directors were licensed amateurs and all were active in the MCARC:

In the early years of Civil Defense the primary focus was upon communication and warning and amateur radio and the club provided that capability. With the exception of one “commercial radio” in the EOC and Mobile EOC all were amateur radios/antennas.

In the 1960's and 1970's the club conducted yearly “code and theory” classes for Novice, Technician and General licenses. These weekly evening sessions started with code practice led by club members skilled in CW, then theory classes led by one or more members. Novice license tests were administered locally, but other testing required a trip to an FCC site (Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne, Chicago). It wasn't until 1982 that Volunteer Examiner testing became possible.
Note:In 2005 the code requirement for all licenses was eliminated.

Although most of the amateur equipment was initially funded by CD/EMA, over the years the club purchased their own equipment, especially for “Field Day” activations. In the 1960's and 1970's Field Day was a big event usually resulting in 4 to 6 stations setting up in the field, often with power provided by the Mobile Communications Unit. Tents, tables and the MCU provided operating positions, and tables full of food kept the often 15 to 20 operators fed. Temporary dipoles, verticals and beam antennas were erected to get the signals out. Operations continued thru the night with many contacts made.

For several years in the 1970's the club held “Hamfests” at the EOC. Although not big events, they did draw locals and adjacent county hams for swapping and good fellowship.

In 1978 a lightning strike on the tower at the EOC resulted in a fire that gutted the communications portion of the EOC. After a rebuild a separate club room for the MCARC was made available and was used until the EOC was moved to the Mounds Road site, then to Delaware St. With the station at the Linwood EOC meetings were broadcast over UHF “ATV” to local amateurs who were unable to attend.

In recent years club members have demonstrated amateur radio communications during various festivals in the county and at POTA events at Mounds Park. We are fortunate to live not very far at all from Mounds State Park, a great location to do POTA at.

Through the years the most active amateurs in Madison County have participated in this club. At one point the membership exceeded 100 local hams. Currently the club membership is around 50 with a typical meeting attendance of 25 plus.

Credit is due to Steve Riley, WA9CWE for the information and images. Efforts were made to maintain his wording, but minor editorial changes were made. The original version he published for use can be found here.