I’ve always been a history buff. What you see here is not the history of the SFLARC but part of the history of ham radio in Miami. The Dade Radio Club is the oldest continuously running ham club in Miami-Dade County. I’m proud to say I found these QSL cards during my countless hours of carefully searching ebay over many years.
First the card from Miami Edison Senior High. That card is from 1934. Bottom right you see a hand drawn logo with a palm tree and the letters M A R C. The Miami Amateur Radio Club was what ultimately became the Dade Radio Club. The Miami Amateur Radio Club met in a house somewhere near Biscayne blvd. During WW2 amateur radio was silenced across the country. After WW2, MARC returned as what we now know as the Dade Radio Club. This is the only physical item I have ever found referencing MARC, everything else has been newspaper scans and such.
The next card with the big SWL logo on it is from 1946. This was a shortwave listeners QSL card to a ham station he heard. On the left side you see a stylized DRC (Dade Radio Club) logo. That logo was lost in history until I found this card. The other interesting thing about it is that for many years it was thought that the DRC started in 1947. Here it is, a year earlier. Hams were anxious to get back on the air. MARC became DRC. This logo didn’t last long, the palm tree came back for the long haul.
The last card is from W4LQN. This was apparently a ham station at the Miami Fire Department from 1948. Within about a year, the DRC went from being revived after several years of silence to having representation at a firehouse.
I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoy tracking them down.
