TZUTC: -0500   
   MSGID: 464.fidonet-ls_arrl@1:2320/33 28cc3b65   
   PID: Synchronet 3.20a-Win32 master/4985797d2 May  9 2023 MSC 1929   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.20-Win32 master/4985797d2 May  9 2023 MSC 1929   
   BBSID: TBOLT   
   CHRS: ASCII 1   
   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, and there it remains to this day,   
   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.   
      
   The chance to join the Royal Order Of The Wouff Hong is done ONLY at   
   either ARRL Division or National Conventions, and not necessarily at   
   hamfests. The initiation ceremony to this "secretive society", which   
   lasts 20 to 30 minutes, is done at midnight, or just after the   
   banquet...whichever comes first. This is done at the discretion of   
   event organizers.   
      
   Participants are sworn to secrecy on what goes on during the ceremony...   
   but suffice it to say, "a good time is had by all".   
      
   I will say that there is "nothing degrading or vulgar", but you will   
   do a lot of laughing...and participants get a very nice certificate.   
   --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32   
    * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (1:2320/33)   
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