Heavy Metal Rally W1AW-AM

[WA3VJB]

I just got off the phone with the ARRL's Allen Pitts, who has agreed to list the Heavy Metal Rally on an ARRL webpage as part of some AM-related activities they are involved with this same weekend.

http://www.hello-radio.org/event/

Curiously, the site as of 12:17PM Wednesday does not mention, anywhere, that Fessenden was using AM for his 1906 transmission. I have asked Allen to consider including that bit of information as a way to explain the crossover between his event and ours.

He has done so !  The link above now includes a list of groups on the air with special attention to AM and Fessenden.

Allen said W!AW will be open for 24 hours and that they will be operating AM.  He is taking my suggestion that they use their most capable transmitter while running AM, and he said he would pass that along to a fellow who is kin with our own Frank Carcia, WA1GFZ.

Joe Carcia is W!AW's station manager.

If you feel like expressing your support for having W1AW on AM along with us for the Heavy Metal Rally, you can call Allen at 860-594-0328 and encourage him by making your thoughts known.

Contact:
Allen G Pitts, W1AGP
Media & PR Manager
--apitts@arrl.org

dleet the antispamming double dash to reply

[Bill, KD0HG]

Very cool!
Thanks for the efforts, Paul.

Maybe we could find W1AW a donated broadcast transmitter for AM someday!
A rack of 833s in Newington would be alright. Or a big old Collins converted to 160-80-40
Imagine visitors to Newington seeing a real rig like that.
Perhaps a group project for next year?


..

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Very cool!
Thanks for the efforts, Paul.

Maybe we could find W1AW a donated broadcast transmitter for AM someday!
A rack of 833s in Newington would be alright. Or a big old Collins converted to 160-80-40
Imagine visitors to Newington seeing a real rig like that.
Perhaps a group project for next year?
..

When they had their museum at Headquarters in the 70's, I thought they had a large rack mounted transmitter on display. I wonder what happened to all that stuff. They had a number of glass cabinets filled with old radio gear.

[WA1GFZ]

There was a beautiful old buzzard AM rig in the basement years ago. Joe gave me the $.25 tour of the whole facility. At the time the 3-1000 rigs were lined up on a shelf and guys were removing parts.
 I think all that stuff was ripped off to make room for bean counters.
Ask them where it went and you will get the soft shoe. A buddy just did that and got a crock of bull. They had some cool old stuff.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

There was a beautiful old buzzard AM rig in the basement years ago. Joe gave me the $.25 tour of the whole facility. At the time the 3-1000 rigs were lined up on a shelf and guys were removing parts.
 I think all that stuff was ripped off to make room for bean counters.
Ask them where it went and you will get the soft shoe. A buddy just did that and got a crock of bull. They had some cool old stuff.

I wonder if Joe knows if any of the stuff is still around.
Poking around the web, I found this concerning the museum, dated June, 1999

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/1999/06/03/1/?nc=1

Here's a quote from the article: "But the bulk of the items that had been on display--including several items related to the early transatlantic tests of the 1920s--has been professionally catalogued and packed away carefully for safekeeping."

[WA1HZK]

The relics are being studied by "Top Experts in the Field"
Last seen rolling into a government warehouse at an un-disclosed location.....

[WA1GFZ]

Yea in the room next to Tesla's loot. How stupid taking that stuff out of circulation. It was very cool stuff to look at. My buddy tells me it was replaced by tables....wow now that is an attraction.

[WA3VJB]

Just heard "Bob" operating W1AW on AM in QSO with WA1HLR.
It was an Icom of some kind, but they're shaking it out ahead of the midnight kickoff of their Fessenden event.

QSL ?   QSL  !   over over 

traffic? no traffic !!

[w3jn]

Jim, W8MAq, Frank AHE, and myself were in a roundtable last night on 3885 when W1AW broke in.  Frank had it next and spoke for a short time but apparently W1AW didn't have the patience to wait 30 seconds, came on top of Frank and announced they were going to 3830.  I thought that was rather un-gentlmanly to break into a QSO and then not even wait a few seconds for one of the participants to finish.

For some reason W1AW was VERY proud of the fact they were running an Icom 756 pro. 

[KL7OF]

I always thought it was ignorant to name an amateur radio "pro"

[N8LGU]

    The word "Pro" adds legiitamacy to a tiny plastic radio.

[WA3VJB]

Well then I think the rest of the weekend we all ought to say in a very proud voice that we are running the special AM PRO mode, and that we hope those on the other end are using a rig capable of receiving the AM PRO format.

Doesn't matter if we explain it or not. Just act like anyone is ignorant if they ask.

[w3jn]

...running a Valiant II PRO here OM 

[WA1GFZ]

My V2-CDC pro is coming along and almost semi pro

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Well, okay - fortunately I had a different experience with W1AW from the morning of the 30th. A fellow named Mark was running the station, same Icom rig, but very polite and working everyone he could. At one point he made a call up for anyone else who wanted to work W1AW to which a local AMer remarked 'not me'.

Wasn't more than a minute or two later that this guy made a call to W1AW anyway. When I remarked to him that he had just said he didn't want to work them, he replied 'just be quiet and listen'.

He then launched into an anti-ARRL rant in some attempt to give the guy a piece of whatever mind this fool has remaining. This as many other stations stood by. I think it had at least as much to do with this guys ego and the fact that no one paid attention to his 'not me' remark as the need to impress others with his 'anti' stance.

Now don't get me wrong here, I'm probably one of the more vocal opponents to the ARRL both here online as well as anytime I see that dimwit Frenaye or 'the TWF' K1TWF who is actually a decent guy. I've pissed and moaned here with others, having been a member twice and having been left with the same 'used and abused' slimey feeling. But in my opinion, when some average Joe operator has gone to Newington on a Saturday to put the station on the air using AM and the listening public is standing by, it's probably not a good time to show your ass in the name of the AM community.

As a side note, this guy also claims to be a star traveler from the planet mzorb or something along those lines, a reiki master, rants about Timmy and his Tim-isms being a rip off of his original material that he refers to as 'baby talk', and gets enjoyment out of encouraging jammers like bhv and other nitwits by associating them with his 'special powers and talents'. He seems to have a real need for attention and is willing to do anything to get it. Reminds me a lot of Johnny....

So, as bad as some of the W1AW operators were, or the SSB knuckle draggers who do their best to annoy and jam us, we have in our midst a few similar ops who are at least as caustic.

BTW, when I was talking to Mark/W1AW, he mentioned that the Vintage station donated by Joe and Bob is off the air in need of repairs. He reported that someone was either using the Valiant or trying to get it on the air when "smoke came out of it". Apparently a number of folks had inquired, so he asked someone there at headquarters and that was the response he got. Makes you wonder if something let go or someone lacking the 'peak and dip' skillset let the smoke out. Maybe someone nearby (Frank?) could drop over and see it it can be saved before it ends up in the trash?

[W1UJR]

As a side note, this guy also claims to be a star traveler from the planet mzorb or something along those lines, a reiki master, rants about Timmy and his Tim-isms being a rip off of his original material that he refers to as 'baby talk', and gets enjoyment out of encouraging jammers like bhv and other nitwits by associating them with his 'special powers and talents'. He seems to have a real need for attention and is willing to do anything to get it. Reminds me a lot of Johnny....

I've heard this "gentleman" before, and I can assure you that his planet travel is just in his mind. Unlike some of the more colorful members of our community, this “gentleman” speaks to others in such a contemptible and condescending manner I find even the briefest of QSOs untenable. 

But that's just my 2 cents, and I could be wrong 'cause I'm just from planet Earth. 


73 - Bruce W1UJR