The ribbon show here was found about 20 years ago in between the pages of an old copy of S.Grensback's

Radio Encyclopedia.

It been in a display case in my radio collection display room ever since.

Just a couple of weeks ago the Mecklenburg Amateur Radio Society had their annual hamfest.

They advertised it as their 60th anniversary.

I happened to think about the ribbon.

This makes it the 82nd anniversary of the Roanoke Division convention since the ribbon says 1929 was the third annual I would guess the first one was in 1927.

Scroll down this page to see the article about the 1929 Roanoke Division Convention from the

May 1929 issue of QST.

History of amateur call sign W4ZZZ

In the 20s ZZ suffix calls were issued to mobile stations. This was a time when they issued a license for fixed stations and another one for mobile stations.

According to the Old Old Timers Club listing,

ROLAND O AKRE, W3EJ-1929 MIAMI FL SK Mem#1338. He was born in 1904, and licensed as W4ZZZ in 1929. He passed away in 1987.

*History of the Elmendorf AFB Radio Club*

Winter 1948 Call Book lists KL7AIR on Elmendorf Field (now Elmendorf  AFB). Appears the original

Trustee was KL7LG Roland Akre.

Roland Akre was a Colonel in the US Air Force.

His son Roland C. Akre now holds the call K4ZZ.

Many thanks to Ben Antanaitis WB2RHM,

for his help with this research.

I hope to soon learn where he lived in 1929

when he got W4ZZZ.

Write-up about the 1929 Roanoke Division Convention from the May 1929 issue of QST

This page was last updated: April 14, 2009