Welcome to the "unofficial" SEMARA Zero Beat archiving project!

This is an endeavor that I have been thinking about for a number of years and have finally decided to ease into the routine of organizing and scanning SEMARA's newsletter archive. This club is rich in history and has seen numerous members come and go over the years. Reading through some of these newsletters can be as fascinating as browsing old copies of QST, except with a personal connection that many of us have with SEMARA.

You will recognize call signs of many of our good friends that have long departed and many of those older than dirt that are still with us today. A reminder to all of the newer SEMARA members that the clubs rich history goes well beyond the debut of Zero Beat in the mid-1960's. This temporary site is dedicated to those members, past and present that took the time to compose, edit and circulate the clubs newsletters over the years. They are deserving to be honored by making these copies available for all members to reminisce, discuss and use for valuable reference.

I have not identified a target completion date at this time as this project is simply a back-burner effort at this time. I had hope to be able to batch scan many of these with my fancy new sheet-feed scanner but many of the copies are quite fragile, being over 40 years old with various printing methods including mimeograph, chemical copiers and early dry toner copiers that all had problems with halftones. Each one has to have contrast adjustments to capture the essence of each page. (phew...what a mouthful). I will be removing one folder at a time from the SEMARA locked files for scanning, tagging as scanned and shink wrapping each volume set for permanent archiving. ROM copies will be made and place in the locked files along with the shrink-wrapped paper copies as well as electronic copies made available on future versions of the SEMARA.ORG website.

I will announce on the reflector as new updates are added to the site. Meanwhile enjoy, talk it up and share those old stories with us at SEMARA.

To set the tone...here's a sample of the early days of "ZB". . It was late 1965. The warm glow of tubes light up bedrooms from National NC300's, DX60's with J38 keys tapping out friendly greetings all over the world. Mini-skirts were hitting the scene, '65 Mustangs powered by 260 and 289 V8's were cruising down the "Ave" with radios blasting "Wolly Bully", "I Got You Babe" and "Hang On Sloopy" on WNBH and WRKO. We could hardly wait for the adventures of Dr. Smith and the B9 robot each week on Lost in Space. The "Sound of Music" and "The Flight of the Phoenix" was playing at the "drive-in". What a simple, carefree time....

Zero Beats of Yesteryear

Volume 1, Number 2 - September 1965

Volume 1, Number 4 - November 1965

Volume 1, Number 5 - December 1965

Volume 2, Number 2 - February 1966

Stay tuned for more!

73,

Tim Smith, N1TI

Mattapoisett