The Board
President: Dan Hildebrand W7ILR
Vice President: Ray Ulrich N9RJU
Treasurer: Effie Sweeney W7EFE
Secretary: Karen Hunter KK7KDA
Director: Bob Ramborger K7JNV
Use QRZ for officer emails.
Contact us at rasconline@gmail.com or
by mail at PO Box 814, Mount Vernon, WA 98273
OUR BEGINING
The radio Amateurs of Skagit County was formed in the aftermath of the flood of 1975.
Many of the Skagit County Hams had talked about forming a new club for years, but nothing
much had come of it. Some attempts were made, however the new clubs failed in a short period
of time. The flood and the inability of the Radio Amateurs to make any concerted effort to help
in the emergency was the catalyst that got enough Amateurs together to form the Radio Amateurs
of Skagit County.
The credit for getting the ball rolling toward a new ham club in Skagit County must go to
Edward J. Wirtz Jr., W7JGM. It was Ed, who in November of 1975, organized the original push
by getting Roger Monroe, K7NTW, Paul Cook, WA7WZQ, Doug Matthies, WA7MSQ (now
KE7AV), Gary Pierson, WA7GVM (now WW7Q), and Pat Smith, WA7GMX together to obtain
the names of Skagit County Amateurs and mail invitations to them to help form some sort of
Amateur Radio Society. Other Amateurs who quickly became involved were Ted Gray, W7IXF,
Roger Haner, WN7BDQ (now WB7BDQ), Mike Young, WN7BMW (now WB7BMW), and
Loren Pelkey, WA2NRJ/7 (now WB7OCA).
At the first small meeting in December 1975, thirteen Hams showed up to discuss how to
advertise that we were organizing. Ed, W7JGM and Doug, KE7AV handled the advertising so
well that it made the front page and headlines of the Skagit Valley Herald. The result was that
when we met in January 1976, thirty-six Hams showed up and decided to form a club. Ted,
W7IXF was elected President, Roger, K7NTW Vice-President, and Pat, WA7GMX Secretary-
Treasurer. With that out of the way, the next thing was to decide what to call ourselves. Many
suggestions were entered but none of them was quite right. However, the one by Paul,
WA7WZQ, ie, Radio Club of Skagit County came the closest to what we wanted but many
members didn’t like the word “club” in the name.
Paul suggested changing the work “club” to Amateurs”. The group had a little coffee,
discussed it, came back to order and unanimously approved it. And with the vote counted, Ted,
W7IXF announced “We are so formed”. The Radio Amateurs of Skagit County was born.