Eisenhower Birthday Special Event – 2026
October 10, 2026, 0000z – October 10, 2026, 2359z
The Grayson County Amateur Radio Club is proud and honored to bring you the final special event of the year celebrating the 135th birthday of the 34th President of the United States
Celebrating the birth of the 34th President of the United States
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
born on October 14th, 1890
In Denison, Texas
Modes of Operation – CW, Phone and Digital
Bands of Operation – 80 – 60 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 17- 15 – 12 – 10 – 6 – 2
This year we will be only using 3 1×1 callsigns: W5I – W5K – W5E
Contact all 3 and you’ll spell out the Presidents name: I – K – E
Qualify for a Certificate by contacting all 3 stations on any combination of bands and on any mode. SEND AN S.A.S.E for the Special Event QSL Card, or you can send a $5 donation to the following address to get an Eisenhower Certificate confirming all three stations were worked.
Look up any call on QRZ to find out details on how to obtain a certificate for this Special Event.
Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961, and the last U.S. President to have been born in the 19th century. He was a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45 from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first Supreme Commander of NATO.
Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, the third of seven boys. His mother originally named him David Dwight but reversed the two names after his birth to avoid the confusion of having two Davids in the family. All of the boys were called “Ike”, such as “Big Ike” (Edgar) and “Little Ike” (Dwight); the nickname was intended as an abbreviation of their last name. By World War II, only Dwight was still called “Ike”.
In 1892 , the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, which Eisenhower considered as his home town. As a child, he was involved in an accident that cost his younger brother an eye; he later referred to this as an experience teaching him the need to be protective of those under him. Dwight developed a keen and enduring interest in exploring outdoors, hunting/fishing, cooking and card playing from an illiterate named Bob Davis who camped on the Smoky Hill River.
While Eisenhower’s mother was against war, it was her collection of history books that first sparked Eisenhower’s early and lasting interest in military history. He persisted in reading the books in her collection and became a voracious reader in the subject. Other favorite subjects early in his education were arithmetic and spelling.
Eisenhower was of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry and was raised in a large family in Kansas by parents with a strong religious background. He graduated from West Point and later married and had two sons. After World War II, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman and then accepted the post of President at Columbia University.
Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, campaigning against “communism, Korea and corruption”. He won in a landslide, defeating Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and temporarily upending the New Deal Coalition.
Historical information gathered From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Here is a video about Ike we think you’ll enjoy…