Entry No. 14 — the Asheville file — filed under: ham-radio
Asheville Radio Museum
One room on the third floor of A-B Tech's Elm Building holds a century of radio: fifty-plus vintage home sets from names like Atwater Kent and Philco, fifty-plus ham rigs, spark-gap transmitters, telegraph keys, Edison phonographs, and a working amateur station with the call sign W4AFM. The Southern Appalachian Radio Museum's volunteers — retired hams, mostly — staff it exactly three hours a week and will gladly put a telegraph key under your fingers. It is free, and open only Saturdays from noon to 3, February through the weekend before Thanksgiving, a schedule that keeps it essentially unknown in its own city.
→ Three more unusual museums & collections in Asheville — never the same twice
The story
The Asheville Radio Museum opened to the public in 2001, assembled by a few amateur radio operators — founders Carl Smith (N4AA) and Clint Gorman (K4KRB), both since deceased — and it is still run by the Southern Appalachian Radio Museum, Inc., a 501(c)(3) sponsored by QCWA Chapter 145. A-B Tech's Department of Engineering and Applied Technology hosts it, which is why one of Asheville's better collections has a community college for an address: Room 306, third floor of the Elm Building. The officers are hams themselves — Ron Beaver (WB4OQL) is president, Stuart Smolkin (WA5EYI) secretary and curator.
The room holds a century of the technology in rough order: 50-plus vintage home radios, from crystal sets that needed no batteries through three-dial battery farm sets to the superheterodynes that finally reduced tuning to one knob; 50-plus ham rigs; Morse telegraph gear from the late 1800s; Edison phonographs; 1950s televisions with four-inch screens; wire and magnetic-tape recorders; early Heathkit and Apple desktops. There is a 1907 Morse ticker tape, and a spark transmitter the volunteers set off so a Marconi device can register an invisible wave in front of you.
The stated mission is teaching rather than display — hands-on exhibits, a working ham station, STEM outreach to student groups — and the club call sign W4AFM is licensed to the museum by the FCC. The catch is capacity: this is a volunteer operation open Saturdays noon to 3, February through the weekend before Thanksgiving, free, which adds up to about three staffed hours a week. The same volunteers meet at 10:30 on the first Thursday of each month to keep restoring the collection.
What it's like
Set your mapping app to 16 Fernihurst Drive, park free in the A-B Tech garage, and walk straight ahead into the Elm Building's short side; the elevator goes to the third floor and a small sign points down the hall to your right. What follows depends on who is on duty, but the default is that a volunteer guide attaches themselves to you and starts switching things on — a spark gap, a phonograph, a farm radio you tune yourself across three dials. Nobody rushes you and nobody charges you. Say yes to the demonstrations, because they are the museum; the placards are secondary. One room, an hour is plenty, and 3 p.m. is a hard stop.
The move: This Saturday at noon: park free in the 16 Fernihurst Drive garage, take the Elm Building elevator to the third floor, and get a volunteer to teach you both Morse — tap out each other's names, then argue over whose fist was cleaner at lunch downtown after it closes at 3.
📍 Before you go Saturdays only, noon-3, February through the weekend before Thanksgiving — closed the rest of the year (reopens the first Saturday in February). Free admission. Set your map to 16 Fernihurst Dr for the free parking garage, walk to the short side of the Elm Building, and take the elevator to the third floor; signage carries you from there. Group tours by arrangement through the website.
- 📍 Asheville
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: Elm Building, Room 306, A-B Tech, 283 Victoria Rd, Asheville, NC 28801
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Moogseum — Under two miles north on Broadway and the logical sequel: the radio room ends with vacuum tubes and oscillators, and the Moogseum picks the story up where Bob Moog took it, open Saturdays until 5 p.m.
- Level 256 Classic Arcade Bar — A mile and a half away in South Slope and open from noon on Saturdays, so the 3 p.m. hard close drops you straight from tuning a farm radio into a room of CRT cabinets — note it goes 21+ after 5 p.m. on weekends.
More weird in Asheville
Good to know
When is it actually open?
Saturdays only, noon to 3 p.m., from February through the weekend before Thanksgiving; it then goes dark until the first Saturday in February. That is the entire public schedule, so a Saturday afternoon in, say, mid-January is not an option.
What does it cost, and do I need to book?
Admission is free and no booking is needed for the Saturday window. Group visits — ham clubs, student and STEM groups, church groups — are arranged at other times through the contact form on avlradiomuseum.org, and the volunteers say they usually reply within a day.
Where do I park, and how do I find Room 306?
Set your map to 16 Fernihurst Drive for the free A-B Tech parking garage, about 100 feet from the Elm Building; if the app rejects it, use 283 Victoria Road and turn at the corner. From the garage elevator lobby walk straight ahead into Elm's short side, take the elevator to the third floor, and look right for the small museum sign.
Is it wheelchair accessible?
The museum reports that the Elm Building is handicap accessible, and the route from the garage runs elevator to elevator with a short flat walk between the two buildings. The museum itself is a single third-floor room.
Is anything else on their calendar worth timing a visit around?
Yes — the 6th Annual Vintage Market runs Saturday, September 26, 2026, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., under cover in the A-B Tech parking garage. Admission and vendor booths are free, sellers come from across the Carolinas and Georgia with restored and restorable sets, and the museum stays open until 3 that day.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · blueridgeheritage.com
last checked: 2026-08-25