{"id":1586,"date":"2013-03-03T21:14:05","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T21:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2021-06-02T21:26:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T21:26:28","slug":"new-hams-f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/new-hams-f\/","title":{"rendered":"New Hams (F.)"},"content":{"rendered":"

While somewhat greater in number than before the war, women hams were still regarded by other amateurs with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. Nevertheless, even before the war several were already experienced as telegraph operators and had become prominent in message handling as amateurs. Coincident with the closing down of amateur activity for the war, an editorial in August 1917 announced that \u201cThe Ladies are Coming,\u201d reporting that \u201cseveral hundred of the fair sex\u201d were now among the brethren, so hams would need an alternative to OM<\/em> as an on-air label. It was clear that OW<\/em> would not work in the face of understandably strong objections from those who would have to bear the label. The editor suggested DG<\/em> (dear girl) as a possible alternative but there was no consensus yet.<\/p>\n

As the new decade began, though women were still excluded from many roles and activities in society, including voting, becoming a ham needed no man\u2019s permission, just the will and skill to pass a licensing test.<\/p>\n

The first QST<\/i> article written by a woman appeared in the July 1920 issue, a few pages away from the description of Maxim\u2019s state-of-the-art spark station.1<\/a><\/sup> The author of \u201cHow to Build a Wireless Station\u201d2<\/a><\/sup> was twenty-one-year-old Marion Adaire Garmhausen of Baltimore.\u00a0 She also had written a letter published in the same issue thanking the League for her new membership certificate, of which she was quite proud, but asking the editors to correct the spelling of her last name on it (which ends in \u2018n,\u2019 not \u2018r\u2019).3<\/a><\/sup> Like other women of the time she was trained as a telegraph operator, but unlike most she had been introduced to wireless as a hobby when she happened to see an issue of QST<\/i> and wrote to the League for more information.<\/p>\n

\"Marion

Marion Adaire Garmhausen, 3BCK<\/p><\/div>\n

In a box under her article\u2019s by-line the editor wrote \u201cNo, we\u2019re not starting a Women’s Auxiliary\u2014not quite yet. But they\u2019re getting in the game fellows, and soon it will be Marcelle Waves4<\/a><\/sup> vs. the Hertzian brand. Mrs. 8ER should watch her laurels. In this story Miss Garmhausen gives an account of how a \u2018Ham (F.)\u2019 breaks in.\u201d<\/p>\n

With humor that survives time and seems current even today, she described her \u201cefforts to \u2018get into the game.\u2019\u201d After longing to \u201chear some radio,\u201d and then consulting with the wise guys at the local radio shop and enduring their snide remarks, she appealed to her parents to let her put up an aerial on the roof of their home.<\/p>\n

Aghast, her father replied that aerials and masts \u201cwould be a constant menace\u201d and warned that \u201cthe less [she] tramped around on the roof the better off [she\u2019d] be.\u201d Her mother worried that she would make the roof leak and forbade her from ever going up there!<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, having secured their permission,\u201d she wrote, without missing a beat, \u201cI borrowed a ladder from the lady next door and climbed to the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite discouragement from both parents and admitting to a \u201cdecidedly limited\u201d radio knowledge (although she had a commercial license, something she dismissed as simply learning what the book said; applying<\/i> the knowledge was a \u201cdifferent matter\u201d), she managed to get an antenna in the air. Upon connecting it up, she was thrilled to hear various stations coming through:<\/p>\n

\u2026behold! thru the stilly night purred the beloved sounds into my eager ear. And I just want to say, if any of you remember the first signals you ever heard on your own set, AIN\u2019T it a gran\u2019 and glorious feelin\u2019?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She was particularly excited about hearing the time signals from NAA in Arlington.<\/p>\n

Pop-eyed with joy I rushed downstairs and embraced my startled mother. I danced a Highland Fling around the kitchen singing, \u2018I heard Arlington\u2014I heard Arlington.\u2019 If the lad who had sent those gladsome words had known the excitement he caused in our camp he would have been amazed. Nightly thereafter I listened for the time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She described improving her setup with a tuned circuit and a disconnection switch for lightening protection. \u201cGo ahead and laugh,\u201d she wrote,<\/p>\n

I expect it. But wait till my audion and amplifier arrives that I sent for back in the dim ages. I shall defy a flickering smile to cross one face, for I expect to hear the soup chorus of the Esquimeaux5<\/a><\/sup> <\/b>at six p.m. every day. And when I have perfection in receiving sets I shall construct a transmitting set that will make the night hideous for the whole United States. One thing I have discovered about radio \u2013 is never as hard as you think it is going to be. When you get started everything works out like magic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unrelated to radio but pertinent to hams (F.), one month later on August 18, 1920, the Tennessee General Assembly ratified the proposed nineteenth amendment to the Constitution granting universal suffrage for women. It was the thirty-sixth state to do so and the final one required to make it law.6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Garmhausen\u2019s article was such a big hit with QST<\/i> readers that it led to a series of others shortly afterward. In September, \u201cBeginning at the End\u201d appeared, written by someone identified only as \u201cThe Old Woman\u201d inspired, she said, by Miss Garmhausen.7<\/a><\/sup> The writer (possibly Garmhausen\u2019s own alter ego, as T.O.M. was Maxim\u2019s) complained that she must constantly deny being Mrs. Candler, and what a shame it was that women were being passed over for operating positions by the military stations even though they had operator\u2019s licenses.<\/p>\n

In a box leading into this article the editor promised to reserve the moniker \u201cT.O.W.\u201d for her if she would continue to write. And, taking his cue from the recent landmark constitutional news, commented that since the state of Tennessee had \u201crecognized woman and admitted her into participation in general activities, so we guess we will too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then in November, QST<\/i> noted that, \u201cBaltimore will boast of having a Ham (F) this coming winter, but Duvall [E. B. Duvall, 3EM, Eastern Maryland District superintendent] says he is a little skeptical as to the use of the word \u2018ham,\u2019 as he is informed that she is equipped with a First Grade Commercial License. He won’t give out her name or call letters yet, but says if anyone mentions the name he\u2019ll whistle.\u201d8<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The next spring a poem appeared, addressed as \u201cLines to Miss M. A. G.\u201d9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Oh Lady Bug! Dear Lady Bug!
\nIf it could only be
\nThat all the girls were just like you,
\nSo quiet, friendly, frank and true
\nAnd yet could laugh the way you do-
\nThey’d make a hit with me.
\nBut when I mention Radio-
\nThat fascinating game-
\nTo any other lady-fair,
\nShe’ll wiggle, giggle, pout or stare
\nOr turn her back and fix her hair;
\nThe poor benighted dame.
\nNow with you, friend, its different;
\nYou’re ‘there’ in every way.
\nWhen e’er talk this wireless stuff
\nYou hold you own without a bluff
\nAnd never seem to hear enough.
\nThat’s what I call ‘OK’.
\nAnd when you start to slinging code
\nThat’s when I like to be
\nAsittin’ with my bulbs alight,
\nThe pencil flying, phones clampt tight—
\nSay! I could listen half the night
\nWhen you are at your key.
\nNow, as I mentioned just above,
\nIf all the girls could be
\nAs nice as you, and use their heads
\nFor other things than millin’ry spreads
\nAnd paint displays in creams and reds,
\nThey’d sure appeal to me<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Garmhausen published her second QST<\/i> article10<\/a><\/sup> in May 1921, a humor piece in which she talked about \u201cbreaking out with the Hookups,\u201d a story of becoming obsessed with trying new arrangements of apparatus, never quite getting it right, and finally returning to what she started with, but with less money for all the effort.11<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\"Oct.

Winifred Dow, 7CB<\/p><\/div>\n

The cover of that issue depicted a woman wearing headphones\u2014the fifth time a woman had appeared on the cover of QST, <\/i>and one which drew several letters. The illustration, a drawing of a well-known local model (unnamed), had been donated by The Grogan Photo Systems Company of Milwaukee, which did commercial illustrations. Its publicity manager was a member of the local ARRL affiliated club and had arranged the donation.12<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Under the call sign 3BCK, Garmhausen was profiled in QST<\/em> the following year,13<\/a><\/sup> along with another prominent YL, twenty-year-old Winfred Dow, 7CB, who had been active on the air since 1916, took second prize in the Washington\u2019s Birthday Relay test, and was currently ARRL District Superintendent in Tacoma, Washington.<\/p>\n

Garmhausen bacame known as \u201cthe first YL\u201d\u2014<\/em>a sort of female version of Vermilya, even though in the presence of 8NH (now 8ER) and 7CB she clearly wasn\u2019t\u2014and was mentioned as such in QST<\/i> as recently as 2002.14<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\"BT<\/p>\n

A Strays<\/em> column in 1920 started off with this YL item:<\/p>\n

Say Eddy15<\/a><\/sup>:
\nKid Useless out here wants to know if a Ham (F.) is a Lady bug. Answer per QST.
\nYours, V.T.<\/p>\n

Dear V.T.-
\nQuestions concerning Anything (F.) are beyond us. We’ve found out that we don’t know anything about ’em. But why not?
\nYours, Ed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further illustrating the conditions women endured to work in wireless, Edward T. Jones wrote a letter to QST<\/i> on the subject of women in radio\u2014\u201cGive the Fair Sex a Chance.\u201d16<\/a><\/sup> He started out amusingly:<\/p>\n

A great majority of radio bugs will no doubt disapprove of my suggestions in that behalf, because they would rather have the fair damsels where they can throw their lamps at em\u2019 now and \u2018en\u2014so to speak. Especially so now-a-days with those low cut \u2018everythings.\u2019 You know what I mean. Then you young rascals must remember that there are the serious minded gentlemen who have either lost their eyesight or have been married so long that their only wish is to die. However, they want to see the Radio Female enthusiast given a chance and I am one of those type.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He went on to suggest that since women who were interested in radio had \u201cabsolutely no chance\u201d to progress up the ranks of commercial wireless operators because companies would never assign them to be operators on a ship, apparently a prerequisite for further advancement. He suggested an alternative that would even be acceptable to the \u201ccons on the suffragist ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone who has held an executive position in a Radio Corporation or in a corporation related to Radio in some way or another, knows only too well the trouble experienced in breaking in a female stenographer. The radio terms just make her sick\u2014she never knows (nor cares to know) what you are driving at\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Therefore, as an alternative to the inaccessible path to advancement as an operator, he suggested that they instead could combine radio knowledge with stenography and become a valuable asset to any company involved in radio\u2014a \u201cradio stenographer.\u201d He said they\u2019d be in high demand since regular stenographers were so unfamiliar with radio terms that it might as well be a foreign language.\u00a0 \u201cI myself would prefer to have a woman of this type,\u201d he wrote, asserting that the position ought to pay \u201cmuch more\u201d than a regular stenographer.<\/p>\n

Though he tried sincerely to argue in their favor, one wonders if women interested in radio operating would really have been satisfied to simply be writing about it.<\/p>\n

\"AR<\/p>\n

de W2PA<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
    \n
  1. M. A. Garmhausen, “How to Build a Wireless Station,” QST<\/em>, July 1920, 55. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Oddly, and unlike any others, this title appeared in quotes at the top of the page and in the table of contents. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. “<\/a>Oh Lady, Lady!”, (Radio Communications by the Amateurs), QST<\/em>, July 1920, 55. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. This is a reference to a 1920\u2019s flapper hairdo involving tight rows of curls. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Eskimo. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Miss Garmhausen\u2019s own state of Maryland, having rejected it earlier in the year, took until 1941 to ratify the amendment, and did not certify it until 1958 \u2013 one of the last states to do so. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  7. The Old Woman, “Beginning at the End,” QST<\/em>, September 1920, 10. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  8. F. H. Schnell, “Atlantic Division”, Operating News, QST<\/em>, November 1920, 30. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  9. “Lines to Miss M. A. G.”, Strays, QST<\/em>, April 1921, 45. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Her third, if you count the one attributed to T.O.W. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  11. M. A. Garmhausen, “Breaking Out,” QST<\/em>, May 1921, 10. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  12. Strays, QST<\/em>, May 1921, 51 (midway in second column. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  13. Who\u2019s Who in Amateur Wireless, QST<\/em>, October 1922, 58. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  14. John Dilks, \u201cThe First YL,\u201d Old Radio, QST<\/em>, September 2002, 76. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  15. The editor was often referred to as \u201cEddy\u201d in letters and other correspondence. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  16. Jones, Edward T., \u201cGive the Fair Sex a Chance\u201d, Radio Communications by the Amateurs,<\/i> QST<\/em>, November 1920, 51. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    While somewhat greater in number than before the war, women hams were still regarded by other amateurs with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. Nevertheless, even before the war several were already experienced as telegraph operators and had become prominent in message handling as amateurs. Coincident with the closing down of amateur activity for the war, an editorial in August 1917 announced that \u201cThe Ladies are Coming,\u201d reporting that \u201cseveral hundred of the fair sex\u201d were now among the brethren, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,172,173,167,166,174,113,171,63],"class_list":["post-1586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","tag-3bck","tag-7cb","tag-8er","tag-marion-adaire-garmhausen","tag-t-o-w","tag-the-first-yl","tag-washingtons-birthday-test","tag-winifred-dow","tag-yl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3444,"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions\/3444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w2pa.net\/HRH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}