ex 6XB (1914). First amateur radio activities from the UC Berkeley campus in 1913 by Frank Rieber (6XR), the son of a Cal professor and a later seismologist.

Shack location: As of January 2013 the main shack of W6BB has ben setup in the Richmond Field Station of UC Berkeley, at the north-east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Richmond, Contra Costa County, qth locator CM87uv. Since the Cory Hall shack was lost in the mid 1990ies, this is the first time W6BB is back on the air with a permanent shack and antennas. But listen for our QTH, some operation is also done from the UC Berkeley main campus.

QSL Info: W6BB: via K6EE (buro) or with SASE direct:

575A Evans Hall, MC# 3198
Berkeley, CA 94720-3198, USA

(The FCC address works too but might be slower.)

USS Iowa (BB-61) operation of W6BB: On May 18, 2012, W6BB was used in a special event on board of the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) in the Port of Richmond, California. Members of the University of California Berkeley Amateur Radio Club participated in the event organized by Ken Fowler, KO6NO. Our club call W6BB was used for the BB-61 special event exploiting a pure coincidence - other amateur radio operations from museum battleships use a BB suffix, for example, NJ2BB (BB-62) and KH6BB (BB-63). The W6BB special event is probably the first systematic appearance of the USS Iowa on amateur radio bands but not the last one. Once in its final location, the museum ship USS Iowa will sign with the call NI6BB.

The W6BB BB-61 special event marked the last days of the USS Iowa in the Richmond/San Francisco Bay area. As of 28 October 2011, the USS Iowa was tied up in the Port of Richmond and underwent rehabilitation before moving to Los Angeles. On 20 May 2012, the USS Iowa was supposed to be escorted by President F. D. Roosevelt's yacht, The Potomoac, out of the San Francisco Bay, then tugged down the West Coast to Berth 87 in the Port of Los Angeles for its final voyage at sea. However, the last travel was delayed until May 26th due to a storm. For further information, see USS Iowa (BB-61).

All contacts were confirmed with a dedicated qsl card for the W6BB BB-61 special event.