The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast June 29, 1990

     There are hundreds of amateur radio clubs around the country.  Most all active radio amateurs are members of several.  There are some fine clubs in the Jersey Shore area such as the Ocean-Monmouth Amateur Radio Club (OMARC), the Jersey Shore Amateur Radio Society (JSARS) of Toms River, the Neptune Amateur Radio Club, the Monmouth County Repeater Association (MCRA or "-045"), the Raritan Bay Amateur Radio Association and the Garden State Amateur Radio Association (greater Red Bank/Middletown area).
     At the end of World War II, there were two clubs - the Jersey Shore Amateur Radio Association and the Monmouth County Amateur Radio Association.  A friendly rivalry existed between them on all kinds of amateur radio contests and field day activities (yearly radio operations competition conducted nationwide).  However, they wanted to sponsor a large convention.
     The clubs joined hands, worked together, and in 1947 held the first post-war amateur radio convention for three days in the Asbury Park Convention Hall and the grand Berkeley Carteret Hotel.  The mail floor and surrounding rooms of the convention hall were full of dealer's equipment and special displays of new developments in radio electronics.  Other rooms in the hall and Berkeley Carteret had several technical sessions and forums going on simultaneously.  There were ladies' programs, such as fashion shows, dance exhibitions and tours to local areas.
     Awards were presented to several radio amateurs.  Prizes were given to the amateur who developed the most advanced mobile radio set.  Another was given to the winner of the hidden transmitter hunt that was hidden five miles away.
     They hired one of the Big Bands, Billy Butterfield and his Orchestra, and danced the night away in the grand ballroom.
     Two FCC commissioners, George Sterling and E. K. Jutt, were at the banquet with American Radio Relay League President George Bailey and General Lanahan.  These men addressed the convention and spoke about the vast technical resource that radio amateurs provide to our nation and of the many contributions made by them in the development of radio communications.  The convention closed with an optimistic outlook for the future.
     Three years later, the two radio clubs held another convention in the same place.  In the meantime, they had so much fun working together they joined forces and on May 10, 1950, they became the Garden State Amateur Radio Association with the club call letters "W2GSA," for "Garden State Amateurs," and to honor the memory of Bob Morris, W2GSA of Point Pleasant, a naval aviator who lost his life in World War II.

June 29, 1990

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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