Category: Amateur Radio
Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, describes the use of radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communication.
I bought two of these pulleys for my G5RV antenna. Nylon cord comes from the antenna’s insulators and is tied to a brick on each side. This allows the antenna to move with the wind or a tree limb.
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New license plates
Check out the clean plates on the dirty car!
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Icom IC-735
I bought an Icom IC-735 HF transceiver at Frostfest today. $200. Everything works.
It transmits on amateur 10 meter through 160 meter bands. It receives 0.1 MHz through 30 MHz.
I’ve hacked together a power cable for it. It won’t be transmitting for awhile (I need proper antennas and power supply), so what you’re about to see won’t be a problem.
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RARC Wouff Hong
This Wouff Hong was passed around at the 2011 Richmond Amateur Radio Club annual dinner. It reads:
“Prize given to all Radio Club Presidents at A.R.R.L. Nat’l Convention, Chicago 1938. Attendance 3700. Won by R. N. Eubank. Presented to Richmond Radio Club 4/7/50. W4FJ”
History of the Wouff Hong:
Every amateur should know and tremble at the history and origins of this fearsome instrument for the punishment of amateurs who cultivate bad operating habits and who nourish and culture their meaner instincts on the air.
It was invented–or at any rate, discovered-by “The Old Man” himself, just as amateurs were getting back on the air after World War One. “The Old Man” (who later turned out to be Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, co-founder and first president of ARRL) first heard the Wouff Hong described amid the howls and garble of QRM as he tuned across a band filled with signals which exemplified all the rotten operating practices then available to amateurs, considering the state of the art as they knew it. As amateur technology and ingenuity have advanced, we have discovered many new and improved techniques of rotten operating, but we’re ahead of our story.
As The Old Man heard it, the Wouff Hong was being used on some hapless offender so effectively that he investigated. After further effort, “T.O.M.” was able to locate and identify a Wouff Hong. He wrote a number of QST articles about contemporary rotten operating practices and the use of the Wouff Hong to discipline the offenders.
Early in 1919, The Old Man wrote in QST “I am sending you a specimen of a real live Wouff Hong which came to light out here . . . Keep it in the editorial sanctum where you can lay hands on it quickly in an emergency.” The “specimen of a real live Wouff Hong” was presented to a meeting of the ARRL Board and QST reported later that “each face noticeably blanched when the awful Wouff Hong was . . . laid upon the table.” The Board voted that the Wouff Hong be framed and hung in the office of the Secretary of the League. On display today, it’s still a sobering influence on every visitor to League Headquarters who has ever swooshed a carrier across a crowded band.
The Old Man never prescribed the exact manner in which the Wouff Hong was to be used, but amateurs need only a little imagination to surmise how painful punishments were inflicted on those who stoop to liddish behavior on the air.
Some pictures from the 2011 ARRL Field Day in Richmond, Virginia.
