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Prolog
Robert M. Morris, W2LV was one of the founding members of the North Jersey DX Association. Bob was a pioneer in radio and was present at the North American end of the third two-way transatlantic contact. Bob Morris was an antenna design engineer for a company known as Radio Corporation of America or RCA. Bob's boss was General David Sarnoff, a Russian immigrant who founded RCA and who contributed much to the development of radio and to the stories and scandals that seemed to be associated with radio at the time. It is not our intention to tell the story of radio. That has been well documented by professionals. Our readers might like to see a video called "Empire of the Air," in which Bob Morris is interviewed and the saga of radio is related in a wonderfully complete documentary. Suffice to say that Robert Morris, W2LV was never one to blow his own horn. The fact is that one of Bob's greatest achievements was the design and installation of the first television transmitting tower perched on top of the Empire State Building in New York City.
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Forward (written by Robert M. Morris, W2LV, SK)
Radio amateurs involved in DX are an interesting breed. Good DX operators are usually intelligent, energetic, and interesting but not necessarily good-looking. A good DXer has to have patience, perseverence, and fortitude, and with experience becomes skillful in psychology of operation. By careful observation he can know in advance what a remote operator is going to think and do. He can thus make a call at the right instant and frequency to make a desired DX contact.All radio amateurs have an inclination toward DXing. After all, the purpose of radio is to overcome distance - the more the better. But many lack the perseverence, not to mention patience and fortitude of a DXer and so turn to rag-chewing on 2 meter FM. Marconi had the instincts of a DXer. He borrowed the technology of Hertz which spanned the width of a classroom, connected grounds and longer antennas to the equipment and extended the range to 100 meters and then to about a kilometer. In England, in 1896, with improved equipment, he first demonstrated communication over 2.5 Km and then the following year, over 20 Km between ships. Further progressive increases in distance were achieved until in December 1901, he spanned the Atlantic with his famous letter "S." Of course, he had no QRM, only static to contend with; the QRM came later.
The following is an account, spanning 25 years, of a group of very active and dedicated DXers. They constitute a substantial part of the East Coast "Aluminum Curtain," and are organized not only for sociability at meetings but to function as a part of the ARRL QSL Bureau System for the distribution of QSL cards. The North Jersey DX Association is a stable and viable organization with every expectation of many more years of beneficial association for its membership, and service to the DX fraternity.
Organization
At the November 1, 1957 meeting, a draft of the constitution was presented and revised. Details of the Bureau operation were discussed. It was agreed that the Association would meet in homes of members and would have a limited membership of 30. There were 23 members present at this meeting. At the following meeting, held December 6, 1957 at the home of Earl Lucas, W2JT, the revised constitution was adopted.At the meeting held January 3, 1958, officers were elected under the new constitution. The first permanent officers were in fact those who had served as temporary officers, Ben Stevenson, W2BXA, President; Urban LeJeune, W2DEC, Vice President; and Howard Wolfe, W2AGW, Secretary - Treasurer. This is considered to mark the conclusion of the charter period of membership. (A listing of charter members will appear elsewhere in this Web Site) [ed.] It might be noted that at this meeting letters were read applauding the efforts of the Association in forwarding long delayed QSL cards and expressing thanks for the excellent results thus far.
Incorporation
Quite early in the life of the NJDXA, it was decided that the club should be incorporated. Accordingly, application was made to Morris County for incorporation as a non-profit organization. On July 10, 1958, the North Jersey DX Association received a certificate of incorporation "under the provisions of title 155 of the Revised Statutes of the State of New Jersey. The period of existence of the corporation is unlimited."The document is signed by Ben Stevenson, Howard Wolfe, Urban LeJeune and Thomas W. Winternitz and is recorded in Book L-1 of Certificates of Incorporation for Morris County on Page 202.
