1950s Camp Fuller Radio Station

Phil Hax shares his story

Did you know that Camp Fuller had a radio station back in the 1950’s?  Located in the old boathouse with a make-shift antenna, the station was started by Phil Hax during the summer of 1957.  The “stick” above the roofline on the far end of the boathouse in this photo may have been the antenna for the radio station.

1950s Boat House with Radio Station KNIBNR antenna

Phil sent us these postcards with a little bit of the history of the station.  Radio Station KNIBNR operated under Phil’s direction and sent its signals from the boathouse, the highest elevation at camp at the time.  You can see from the return address on the postcard that the signal reached as far away as Palmyra, New York. That was a distance of over 400 miles!

Postcard received from Phil Hax
Postcard received from Palmyra, New York to Camp Fuller

From what we can gather, if a signal was picked up from another location, it was customary for the receiving operator (George Closs) to send a postcard to the sender, which in this case was Camp Fuller!  Just another bit of Fuller history that we want to preserve.  Thanks for sending these in Phil.