Welcome to the ARRL Connecticut Section 

Page 02

Here are some links to some important resources

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My father told me the story of when his family first had radio in their home in Scranton, PA around 1921 and the dire warnings from the neighbors about how it would affect people… and this was many decades before the shock jocks, rap music, and Rush Limbaugh of the 21st century!

My father and his brother found out how to build a simple crystal radio, and listened to the early first commercial radio broadcasts KDKA, in Pittsburgh, on the other end of Pennsylvania from Scranton. My grandfather, a coal miner who emigrated from Poland in the late 1890s was astonished at the concept of radio. Talk about the invention of the World Wide Web… radio was truly magic being created at the level of the common person.

Predating the early 20s by a bit was the founding of the American Radio Relay League, a collection of pioneering radio amateurs in the northeast part of the United States who were beginning to experiment with radio and communications. By September of 1914, there was a list over 230 amateur radio stations who were interested in relaying messages from one station to another. Promoted by Hiram Percy Maxim in his involvement with the Hartford Radio Club, they set the wheels in motion for the “American Radio Relay League”, a name credited to Maxim. By the way, do you realize his father, Sir Hiram Maxim, a Briton patented the first machine gun in England in 1884? His son, Percy patented and developed a silencer for guns and also is credited with the automobile mufflers

With his famous family name and connections in Washington, DC, Hiram was the key figure in convincing the US Navy bureaucrats to allow amateur radio operators back on the air after the hiatus of World War 1. And, as many of you know the story, the government agencies gave the fledging amateur radio buffs the higher frequencies above 200 meters, thought to be useless for good communications at that time! So much for government management schemes.

Well, the rest of the story is history, as they say… and the legacy of our wonderful ham radio hobby is available for your viewing and touching at 225 Main Street in Newington.

When was the last time you popped in on this wonderful institution? The old transmitters, receivers, keys, and the original “woffhong” are nicely arranged for your review. If you're a newbie to the craft and don't know what a woffhong is… it is a large, wicked looking forked stick made from a tree branch, and created by “the old man”, Hiram himself, and often exhibited at early board meetings. Its use was to bring order and fear into play at the right time, and it's been reported that copies of the fiendish device were made and

passed out around the country for use by local amateurs when they ran across some offending ham doing something very wrong, like continuously tuning up on a DX frequency, or splattering the spectrum with overdriven amplifiers, or using improper language on the air, etc. I would suggest that it is again needed in the bands and byways of ham radio to encourage wayward hams to practice wise and friendly relationships. If you've tuned around the CB radio spectrum recently, you'll agree with me that an atomic age version of this devilish woffhong is needed in great supply!

Besides the venerable technical stuff on the walls and in display cases, there is the production of the QST magazine that goes on continu- HQ. The actual printing is done by an outside private company, but every issue is put together here. The ARRL lab is very exciting and it's hard to resist touching stuff as you wander around, seeing projects under test, or being built. The attached sheet metal shop is very well equipped.

Their RF-tight testing room for new rigs is né plus ultra… and always impresses me with the faint smell of ozone and old composition resistors… very heady perfume for electronic hobbyists. Inside a nearby locked, vault-like room is the library, stuffed with every copy of QST since the first one, along with technical literature on every and all topics of our hobby. Finally, as the tour group returns to the lobby, I always ask if anyone is interested in going over to the “old man's” station, W1AW, just across the parking lot from the HQ building, surrounded by a plethora of aluminum and copper wire antennae. Most of the time the answer is enthusiastically YES!

Here is where the feeling of visiting a holy place, perhaps a European cathedral, comes over me every time. Stepping through the door, you meet Joe Carcia, the chief radio operator who maintains and runs all of the equipment. But first, you wrinkle your nose a bit and smell the faint oily scent of the old man's spark gap rig on the left side of the entrance room, and to the right is an old oak, roll-top desk that belonged to Hiram as well. .. just amazing. Inside the main room, you can see three heavy glass enclosures of radio room studios, where visiting hams can sit down and operate most any modern-day transceiver, amp, and antenna combo that Joe has connected. There are six setups that can be run simultaneously. Recently I've availed myself of this opportunity to get on with the $10,000 Yaesu connected to the kilowatt, and a 4 element yagi pointed at Europe… just awesome. Signing W1AW for the first time is really “spooky”, like you're channeling the old man himself. A feeling of calmness comes over you, and you focus on being the very best op possible with the polite, consistent protocol required when running the most well-known ham radio station in the world. Naturally I asked Joe for the manual, J-39 straight key and worked lots guys in a mini-pile up, and enjoyed the feeling of adding the tag “QRZ? de W1AW” as I finish one QSO and look for the next.

If anyone reading [this article] has not ever visited the ARRL HQ or operated W1AW, you deserve to treat yourself and make the pilgrimage up to Newington soon. Let me know, and perhaps I can be your tour guide!