A Brief History of the Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club
By Bruce Kabana WB7SRC
Since I am a charter member of the club, I felt that I needed to share some of the history of the club.
When the Honeywell Corporation dissolved the plant at Thunderbird Road and Interstate 17, retired employee Ralph Barr W0DNO asked if he could take over as trustee of the club callsign KC7MKZ. After receiving permission, he and seven others in 1994 resurrected the Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club out of the ashes of the old Honeywell club.
With only eight members we meet at different people’s homes or at restaurants for meetings, and in 1995 we incorporated as the Thunderbird ARC. After our incorporation we changed our meeting place to a City of Phoenix Park at 19th Ave and the 101. After a few months we contacted Lou Grubb, and he allowed us to meet at the Lou Grubb Auto Nation dealership at Bell Road and interstate 17. When the time came, we transferred to the Thunderbird School of International Management, which we called our home until the school was sold to ASU and we were asked to leave. Our next home was the NAU Phoenix campus at Greenway and Interstate 17, until COVID, which put all clubs in limbo for a couple of years. ASU sold the Thunderbird campus to the Arizona Christian University where we are now.
In 2002 the club decided to change the club call to W7TBC.
For many years the club was very busy with projects and events. Our first three hamfests were at the Glendale Community College, then we moved to the rec hall (one of the old hangers) at The Thunderbird school until they had to tear it down due to it being unsafe. We then moved our hamfest to the Northwest Community Church. After a few years there we moved it again to the Haven Church at 59th Ave and Cactus Rd., which is where we remain today.
Unfortunately, our early records have been misplaced and the only thing that I can recall correctly is the list of our presidents.
Our first president in 1994 was Ralph Barr W0DNO (SK).
1995: Ron Blessin AF7A
1996: Ralph Barr W0DNO (SK)
1997: Larry Kenan KO6SM (SK)
1998: Ralph Barr W0DNO (SK)
1999 thru 2001: Bruce Kabana WB7SRC
2002 thru 2004: Bob Lowry K7UNL
2005: Roger Buel W9NCQ (SK)
2006 thru 2008: Jack Lunsford KD7RCJ, now NT7MM (SK)
2009 thru 2011: Jim Puza KE7APB (SK)
2012 thru 2014: Walt Reinert N7GDP, now NJ8G
2015 thru 2018: Gary Duffield WK7B
2019 thru 2020: Brian McCarthy AK7F
2021 thru 2022: Charlie Loftus KG7KRN
2023: Walt Reinert NJ8G
2024 thru 2025: Brandon McWhorter KN6SEU
The Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club has now been in existences for thirty years. We have seen some good years as well as some bad, but we are still going strong.
~73~