LA1K 100 Years (Part 5): The Anniversary Weekend

Introduction: In an earlier issue of Amatørradio, LA1K published two articles in the ongoing series about our anniversary celebration. One of which told about how we put our own touch on the May 17th parade in Trondheim, and the other concluded some loose ends regarding the club’s radio activities. In this issue, we will cover the anniversary weekend 5 – 7 of May, where over 170 old and active ARK members met.

In recent times, the year 2023 has been the big year we have been looking forward to in ARK. This year would mark 100 years since the club’s foundation in 1923, which undoubtedly had to be celebrated with an anniversary banquet for all the club’s members. Money was budgeted several years in advance, rooms were reserved, an anniversary book was to be written, bar benches and toilets were to be painted and other ambitions were suggested at regular anniversary meetings in the run up to the anniversary. On the first weekend of May 2023, the anniversary took place and all the efforts of the last few years finally paid off.

No time was wasted when already on Friday at 08:00 ARK’s jubilee flags, specially ordered for the occasion, were to be raised on top of the Student Society in Trondheim. Three flags were raised in splendor, and ARK’s jubilee banner was displayed on the electronic cornice at the front of the building. There were also ambitions to hang a dozens of flags on Elgeseter Bru, a popular choice for all flag occasions in Trondheim city. Unfortunately, Rosenborg Ballklub had gotten ahead of us and reserved all the flagpoles on the bridge this weekend as they were going to play a home game. Not exactly a rare event, compared to ours!

Raising the jubilee flags marked the beginning of our jubilee weekend and the next thing on the agenda was waffles and mingling for all new arrivals to the city. It seems like this was a sought after event as the first guests showed up at 18:00 on the dot. It was a good evening with a lot to catch up on and stories about the good old days. Rumor has it the last of the visitors went home around 06:00 on Saturday morning!

On Saturday, several sober activities were set up before the actual banquet in the evening. Tours of the inside of the Society were set up, along with visits to the roof of the Student Society where ARK has it’s antennas. Here the visitors were given an explanation of all the club’s current antenna projects, which antennas had arrived in recent years and of course which antennas had endured through several generations of ARK’ers.

Down in the park outside, radio equipment was set up to give visitors the opportunity to get a QSO with the new anniversary callsign, LA100K. As always, it was our well-known and beloved Yaesu FT-891 and wire antenna that was used for the occasion. Not a rare sight on the blog at la1k.no. A grill was also set up where we served burgers and hot dogs, which perhaps took over some of the attention from the radio section. There were quite a few visitors, both from ARK and guests from invited NTNU associations – but an unexpected visit was also to come out of the forest. A moose had found its way down from the forest and came trotting past, first up and then back down with a wildlife patrol car driving behind. Fortunately, our antenna with all it’s wires survived, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for the moose that ended its days in a nearby garden.

When all the visitors had had their serving of both barbecue and QSOs, the Saturday evening eventually began to creep up on us. The program in the Great Hall inside the Student Society, the highlight of the weekend, was about to begin. Four long tables with white coverings had been set up, and the decorations naturally consisted of various radio parts, including glass radio tubes. All the guests were given a medal for the commemoration, and not least, their very own edition of the anniversary book for ARK. When everyone had arrived, a joint group photo was also taken on stage, where dozens of generations of ARK huddled together. The oldest member present on the evening was Sven Pran LA7SG, who joined the club way back in 1958.

The evening started with a “bang”, thanks to Strindens Promenade Orchester, one of the orchestras at the Society. They played one of their signature tunes “Stars and Stribes”, where the party cannon located on the ceiling in the Great Hall goes off during the first beat. There was also a small preview of the UKA student festival in Trondheim, when a sign with light bulbs and display sequences spelling out “LA100K” were unveiled on stage, in the same style as the UKEname that is unveiled for the festival every second fall.

As the evening progressed, a three-course dinner was served, and a number of speeches took place. Later in the evening, we also got to experience what it is like for other events at the house when we transmit 1000 watts which usually interfere at events, as some fools had made an antenna with a receiver in the hall which made good and controlled crackling noises in the speakers. Our friends in the Amplifier Committee, which are responsible for the sound systems, did perhaps appreciate our little jab.

After the highlight of the evening was over, the anniversary celebration continued way into the night, as an evening at our clubhouse perhaps usually does. Sunday was therefore planned with slightly quieter activities, namely radio from our shack at ARK. Those who didn’t turn up for the portable setup at Saturday now had one last opportunity to get a QSO in the log with the anniversary callsign LA100K. A must for those heading back out of town! Over the course of the evening it was time to lower the flags from the roof again and the anniversary weekend was formally over. We hope that everyone who came had a great time with the activities and saw friends from their student days again, beyond all the various generations that were present. We would also like to say a big thank you to those who took part in helping out with all the activities and the program throughout the weekend.

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Featured image details:
Everyone who showed up for the event!
Photo: foto.samfundet.no

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– Heidi LB9WI, Kristoffer LB0VG, Sondre LB5PI and Yngve LB8LI

Article first published in “Amatør Radio”, August 2023