The History of W4ZD

The June 30, 1929 edition of Amateur Radio Stations of the United States (published by the Radio Service of the  US Department of Commerce) lists W4ZD, Owner: Davidson Radio Club Location: Davidson College, Davidson, N.C.

QST Magazine (March 1930) reports that, “W4ZD, station of the Davidson Radio Club, Davidson College, works on three bands consistently, and is ready to keep skeds with anyone.”  It was also reported that the club had ten members and that they were using a UX-210 [triode Hartley transmitter]. 

Amateur Radio Callsigns with a letter “W” prefix did not come into use until after the Washington Conference of 1927, where it was agreed that predetermined prefixes for radio station calls would be assigned to various countries. The U.S. was assigned prefixes K, N, and W. Therefore, it seems certain that the Davidson College Radio Club was the original W4ZD.

Interestingly… Davidson College is only an hour’s drive from my home QTH.

The earliest record I found of James Born having the call W4ZD was in 1933. “Bubber” (as he was often referred to) was a mentor to many.  He held many awards and was heavily involved in Amateur radio organizations at many levels. James was one of the 23 original charter members of the Southeastern DX Club (SEDXC). He held a life membership in the Quarter Century Wireless Society, was a member of the DX Century Club, the Confederate Signal Corps (photo), a member and President of the Georgia Cracker Radio Club, and more.

However, his most impactful involvement with ham radio organizations was no doubt as the A.R.R.L. Section Manager for Georgia beginning in 1950, followed by ten years of consecutive service as the A.R.R.L Southeast Division Manager (1954-1963). In his last year at the helm of the S.E. Division he attended the A.R.R.L. Executive board meeting in Miami, FL, and received the symbolic “key to the city of Miami.”

James Born was a radio operator, as well as the chief radio technician, for the Atlanta Police Department. The Born family was an Amateur Radio family (link #1, Link #2). James’ wife, Helen Carrol Born, was K4GCT (SK). She held office in her local YL club, the Georgia Peaches.  Both James and Helen were also involved in the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS). Daughter Judith was K4GCF, Sylvia was K4KKU, and son Ernest Jacob was KN4KKT/K4KKT (SK). Other offspring are not listed here.  (By the way, Ernest Born served in the US Air Force and Vietnam. He retired as a Captain with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department.)

In 1946, James assisted with passing welfare traffic related to the Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta on December 7, 1946. The fire killed 119 people and injured at least 90 more.

James was featured in a 1950 QST advertisement for Sylvania Electric. In 1956, he received the General Electric Company sponsored Edison Radio Amateur Special Citation Award “for outstanding technical and organizational efforts.”  He attended many hamfests, including the 1960 Silver Springs Hamfest (photo).

In July 1959, as Chairman of the A.R.R.L. Membership and Publications Committee, he sent a report to the A.R.R.L. Board of Directors stating that the committee preferred a dues increase if it was needed to maintain the quality of QST and A.R.R.L. publications. This is interesting in light of the fact that in the summer of 2023, the A.R.R.L. is again facing this question and conducted a survey of its members.

Bev Cavender (former K4VW  and W4CKB) became W4ZD in (or about) 1977.  The Quarter Century Wireless Association has a memorial page with a number of his QSL cards displayed.  He was also well known as Costa Rica licensee TI2BEV, and he maintained property in that country from which he would occasionally operate, or which he would lease to other hams.  The cover of the newsletter Florida Skip (The All-Florida Amateur Radio Publication), features a photo of Bev operating from his Costa Rica station in 1983.  Bev was a realtor and owner / president of the real estate firm, the Cavender Corporation in Florida.

Bev’s specialty was VHF / UHF operating, specifically using Earth-Moon-Earth (EME or Moonbounce) propagation, along with meteor scatter and tropospheric ducting propagation. He published an EME Directory to help hams coordinate QSO attempts.

In October 1988, Bev wrote an article for Florida Skip describing a last-minute effort to work EME on 2 meters from Costa Rica to the USA. Despite some challenges, Bev made the first 2M EME QSO from that country. He also claimed the first meteor scatter QSO between the US and Costa Rica (with WB4MUJE in the Florida Keys).

For his EME work from his OTH (home) in Lake Placid, Florida, Bev maintained an impressive two-meter antenna array (photo).  The 144 MHz array was made up of sixteen M2 yagi antennas, each of which was 17 elements with a 33-foot boom! Using a Henry 3002 amplifier, he would deliver 1500 watts to the array. Bev worked all 50 US states via EME.

Marv was a software developer and wrote a number of books about software. On the LinkedIn website, he wrote, When [I am] not designing or coding (which is seldom) I enjoy playing classical guitar, composing music, amateur astronomy, amateur radio (call sign W4ZD), reading history and poetry, and (on occasion) a fine craft ale.

The QRZ.com memorial page for Marv Luse includes his photograph.