The Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association was first formed in 1937, and then incorporated as a California non-profit orginization in March of 1956, and for many years has had the club callsign W6OTX, formerly held by club member and Palo Alto resident (Ramona St.) Wilbur C. Lauridsen, who died while serving in the Navy during WWII.

The club first applied to the FCC for a callsign on December 12 of 1940, and listed its club station as being located at 549 Channing Avenue in Palo Alto (application signed by Mr. Lauridsen).

A sister orginization, the Menlo Park Civil Defense Radio Club, was formed in 1959 as a RACES club and later merged into PAARA. We have typically used the club’s K6YQT callsign as the call for our GOTA station on Field Day.

Club meetings have been held at various locations over the years, but since we had to vacate the Naval Communications Reserve Building on the Stanford campus several decades ago, we have been meeting at the Menlo Park Rec Center, in Burgess Park.

Previous meeting locations include the Palo Alto Community Center, Palo Alto’s Mayfield School, and the Redwood City Council Chamers, all during The War. During WWII, PAARA members participated in WERS (the Wartime Emergency Radio Service), a civil-defense group manned almost entirely by ham radio operators. The club participated in Field Day during June of 1941, operating the Palo Alto Portable Station as W6M.