May 2026
The Superflex
A Publication of the Alabama Historical Radio Society May 2026
NOTE FROM PRESIDENT WAG
Members,
Mark your calendars!
The date for next AHRS Business meeting is 7:00 PM on Monday, June 22nd, 2026, in person and via Zoom at the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86330579924?pwd=ckZLWEJMb0V2ajhBUzh0S2liQnlmZz09
Meeting ID: 863 3057 9924 Passcode: 631140
NOTE: The Executive CMTE meeting (by invitation only) will be at 6:00 PM that evening. Also, see below about John Green’s episode 2 on Radio Astronomy that will be given as part of the business meeting.
Our archivist, Lauren Kane, has begun combining the multiple versions Harry Butler was working on into a working draft of his 2nd edition of the history of broadcast radio in Alabama. We'll keep members posted on progress.
Boyd Bailey’s next class is scheduled for Saturday, June 6th, 2026, at 9:00 AM in person and via Zoom. The following link remains in effect:
https://us02web..us/j/88180351990?pwd=N2lucjB3WVhtR05nTSs5S0xGcURadz09
Topics and details include the following:
· repair of a 1935 Crosley 515,
· analysis of an unusual vintage wax capacitor, and
· a little trouble-shooting on a vintage Kenwood TS-120S transceiver
Boyd has edited and archived his classes to date; to access them, please contact him directly boyd.bailey@charter.netwith your email address and he’ll guide you through the process to access them.
We have a planned auction date, Saturday, June 20th, 2026. This will have test equipment, novelty radios, as well as our usual fare. Details will be emailed nearer to the event and many of the items are on display now at the shop.
We have additional items recently donated to us that are looking for a good home. If you have any interest in any of the items pictured below, let Tom Killian, Ray Giles, or one of our officers know, so we can make arrangements for the adoption:
In addition to the items above, there are many radios and pieces of related equipment downstairs in storage and on the lower floor at the shop; we encourage members to visit. If you find something of interest you’d like to acquire, talk to an officer or Board member about its availability. For a donation to the Society, you may well get your wish!
We have additional pictures to share from last month’s Legends of Broadcast program:
Ken Smith served as our videographer for the event and the edited version is available for viewing at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BjBN_8pkA . Thanks so much to Ken for his efforts here as well as extracting video files from the late Ed Boutwell’s MAC editing video computer here at the Society. These files will be archived and cataloged as we consolidate history-related holdings.
The Finance CMTE will be meeting in June to complete our upgrade process. Our finances remain in good order.
Speaking of committees, most are functioning well, but we could still use another member or 2 for Museum & Exhibits.One lingering void has been a chair and members for a group to coordinate public relations, outreach, and member engagement, AKA, a PR CMTE. Anyone interested in serving, especially as chair, please make your intentions know to leadership. It’s not that we don’t do this work, it just spread out amongst the officers and current CMTEs. In a way, it's like our Tech CMTE—which is doing stellar work and very engaged with much of what we’re doing.
We received several new donations this month. Many of the items will be offered in the next auction.
Let me thank a wonderful friend of the Society, John Green (who restored the Hallicrafters SX-88 donated to us and subject of its restoration presentation) for giving the first half of his talk on Radio Astronomy. We will present the second session on Monday evening 6/22/26 during the 7pm general business meeting (link above).
Hot off the teletype on May 22, 2026:
(Dayton) Hamvention® 2026 Concludes with Record-Breaking Spirit
37,924 Attendees Celebrate the World’s Premier Amateur Radio Event in Xenia, Ohio
XENIA, Ohio — Hamvention® 2026
General Chairman Brian Markland today announced that the curtain has come down on another extraordinary Hamvention®, and the numbers tell a story of remarkable enthusiasm: 37,924 attendees gathered at the Greene County Fairgrounds & Expo Center, reaffirming Hamvention’s standing as the world’s largest and most celebrated amateur radio gathering.
“On behalf of the entire Hamvention team, I am thrilled to share that Hamvention 2026 was an outstanding success. Seeing nearly 38,000 fellow amateur radio enthusiasts come together in Xenia is something that never gets old. This event belongs to every volunteer, every exhibitor, and every guest who made the journey — and I could not be more proud of what we accomplished together.”
— Brian Markland, General Chairman, Hamvention 2026
Several AHRS members (Dave Cisco, John Outland, Boyd Bailey, and I) made the trip up to Dayton Hamvention, meeting several friends (John Green and Dave Belt-who met us for the first day) and making at least one new one (Bob Babcock, another interesting fellow who drove up in his Tesla from North Carolina with John Green!). We purchased additional historical books to help fill gaps in our reference library and are in the process of adding them to our shelves.
At the DX Banquet the group attends, Dave Cisco won the grand prize drawing, a new ICOM-7610 transceiver.
At the most recent Exec CMTE meeting May 26th, guest presenter Mark Snow (K4ZYP) of Birmingham Mesh requesting permission to mount a solar-powered mesh node on the AHRS tower. This is relatively new technology that Society leadership is learning about to make an informed decision. If any of our readers have experience with this mode and wish to offer an opinion, please do so by email to AHRS2000@gmail.com using the subject line Birmingham Mesh Network Proposal.
VP Steven Westbrook and I plan to attend the Local Museum Workshop (sponsored by Alabama Humanities Foundation / Alabama Historical Association / Auburn University) being held at Bevill State the morning of June 16th, 2026. Topics include advocacy, communications, and grant opportunities as relate to Alabama museums.
Mark your calendars! Huntsville Hamfest https://hamfest.org/202x-event-flyer occurs August 22nd & 23rd, 2026; AHRS will be there, but only on Saturday the 22nd. We will need volunteers to help bring our items there, man the tables, then break down and reload for the return to Birmingham. This is the same day as the Scouts Advance-O-Rama– an event we’ve hosted at the shop for several years now to help Scouts earn their Radio Merit Badge. We plan to participate in both, of course!
In closing, our December 2025 edition mentioned the Powell Avenue steam plant building in the context of having been purchased by Kulture City, an organization whose mission is serving the neurodiverse community, and as the site of the first transmitting site of WSY, Alabama Power’s 1922, first-in-the-state radio broadcaster. Dave Cisco, Steven Westbrook, and I met earlier in May with one of Kulture City’s principals, Dr Julian Maha, about whether our mission in radio history might be of interest as the site is developed. There appears to be a shared potential vision for doing this, so we await updates soon.
Respectfully submitted
President Wag, AHRS
Room 641
Room 641A is a telecommunication interception facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency, as part of an American mass surveillance program. The facility commenced operations in 2003, and its purpose was publicly revealed by AT&T technician Mark Klein in 2006.
Description
Room 641A is located in the SBC Communications building at 611 Folsom Street, San Francisco, three floors of which were occupied by AT&T before SBC purchased AT&T. The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as the SG3 [Study Group 3] Secure Room.
The room measures about 24 by 48 feet (7.3 by 14.6 m) and contains several racks of equipment, including a Narus STA 6400, a device designed to intercept and analyze Internet communications at very high speeds. It is fed by fiber optic lines from beam splitters installed in fiber optic trunks carrying Internet backbone traffic. In the analysis of J. Scott Marcus, a former CTO for GTE and a former adviser to the Federal Communications Commission, it has access to all Internet traffic that passes through the building, and therefore "the capability to enable surveillance and analysis of internet content on a massive scale, including both overseas and purely domestic traffic."
The existence of the room was revealed by former AT&T technician Mark Klein and was the subject of a 2006 class action lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against AT&T. Klein claims he was told that similar black rooms are operated at other facilities around the country.
Room 641A and the controversies surrounding it were subjects of an episode of Frontline,[7] the current affairs documentary program on PBS. It was originally broadcast on May 15, 2007. It was also featured on PBS's NOW on March 14, 2008. The room was also covered in the PBS Nova episode "The Spy Factory".
Lawsuits
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit, Hepting v. AT&T, against the company on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecommunication company of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in a massive, illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications. On July 20, 2006, a federal judge denied the government's and AT&T's motions to dismiss the case, chiefly on the ground of the state secrets privilege, allowing the lawsuit to go forward. On August 15, 2007, the case was heard by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and was dismissed on December 29, 2011, based on a retroactive grant of immunity by Congress for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the government. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
A separate case filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation was titled Jewel v. NSA and was filed on September 18, 2008. After many years of litigation, on April 25, 2019, the ruling from the Northern District of California concluded that the evidence presented by the plaintiff's experts was insufficient: "the Court confirms its earlier finding that Klein cannot establish the content, function, or purpose of the secure room at the AT&T site based on his own independent knowledge." The ruling noted that "Klein can only speculate about what data were actually processed and by whom in the secure room and how and for what purpose, as he was never involved in its operation." The Court further went on to discredit other experts called upon, citing their heavy reliance on the Klein declaration.
In the spring of 2006, over 50 other lawsuits were filed against various telecommunications companies in response to the article. There has been speculation that several rooms similar to this exist all over the United States.
-Wikipedia
Quote of the Month
On some nights, I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.
I got my start in silent radio.
Remember our Lending library in the basement is a wonderful asset available to all members.
Occasionally we receive radios and radio related items from donations that are stored in our basement, but do not make it into an auction. If you are interested in any of these items please discuss them with Tom Killian or Ray Giles.
We meet every Saturday (unless a Holiday weekend) at 8:30 A.M. until around 11:30 A.M., at the one-story AHRS Shop at the corner of 8th Avenue North and 18th Street, (1801 8th Avenue North, Birmingham, AL 35203). Please use the rear (Southeast) entrance.
The Shop is open on Tuesdays at 8:30 A.M. until around 11:30 A.M. Note that parking can be a problem on Tuesdays, so you may have to find street parking occasionally.
Regular monthly members meetings are on the fourth Monday night starting at 7:00 PM with the Executive Meeting starting at 6:30 PM
Please come join us!
The electronics classes are generally on “Zoom” and “in-person” at the AHRS Shop, typically the first Saturday of each month (except when something special is taking place, then we agree on an alternative Saturday)
Check your emails for the schedule and how to participate.
We start from the beginning Ohms Law, inductors, resistor and Capacitors color codes, as well as what each component does within the radio circuits. We also teach how to use test equipment used in the repairing of radios. We teach troubleshooting radio troubles, as well as how to read a radio diagram.
Currently the class is studying advance topics relating to troubleshooting and project radio repair. We are retooling our website in hopes of archiving prior classes for those who may have missed a prior class. Email will provide timely details on date, topics & links.
There are coil winding classes, and one-on-one repair help. Come join these classes!
Membership dues are $25.00 a year, payable beginning in January. If you have questions about your dues, you can contact Treasurer Michael Spanos at 205-. Dues can be mailed to AHRS at P.O. Box 131418, Birmingham, Alabama 35213 or paid on-line at https://alhrs.org
Be sure and check out our website at https://alhrs.org, which has copies of all newsletters from 2006 to the present (click on News), videos, photo galleries, museum, Old Time Radio columns, Projects, Reading Rooms, Archives, and Contact Information. Within the next few months we hope to update our website and add additional content and new capabilities
President – Richard “Wag” Waguespack
(205) 531-9528
drminims@aol.com
Vice President – Steven Westbrook
(205) 305-0679
spwestbro@bellsouth.net
Treasurer - Michael Spanos
(205) 540-2523
michael@mspanos.net
Recording Secretary – Grady Shook
(205) 281-3007
gshook@bellsouth.net
Boyd Bailey, Member and Instructor
(334) 412-6996
boyd.bailey@charter.net
Newsletter Editor/Webmaster – Steven Westbrook
(205) 305-0679
spwestbro@bellsouth.net
Web Address:
https://alhrs.org
E-mail Address:
ahrs2000@gmail.com
Youtube Channel: Alabama Historical Radio Society - YouTube