17 Feb
2000
17 Feb
'00
7:01 a.m.
Wouff-Hong (sp?) Boy, that's an obscure reference. When I was
in high-school, (back in the 70's) I picked up a couple of big
boxes of QST magazines at a ham auction. Most of 'em were from
the 1940's and 50's, but they were _very_ interesting reading,
especially if you were into tinkering with old world-war II
receivers (like the ARC-5 series...) I ran across a number of
articles that mentioned the Wouff-Hong. From what I can remember,
it was a wierdly-shaped piece of wood with a couple of rusty bits
of metal hanging from it (probably was a fragment of an old cart
hitch or something along those lines) From what I can remember,
someone at ARRL headquarters found this item lying around somewhere
in a storage area, and hung it on the wall just for grins. Nobody
knew what it actually was, but it became kind of a joke to threaten
to use it on someone as a punishment instrument if they did something
against the ham ethic. I haven't heard a reference to it since
high-school reading foray into the ham-past. (until now, that is :-)
-al- (KD4TTQ)
-acorda(a)geocities.com
-----Original Message-----
From: John Wilson [mailto:wilson@dbit.dbit.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 10:11 PM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: ham radio?
On Tue, Feb 15, 2000 at 06:49:55PM -0600, jeff.kaneko(a)juno.com wrote:
I think someone hit him with the Wouff-hong.
Geez, it's been waaaay too long, what's that again? And I forget what
a Wollongong (sp?) is too...
John Wilson KC1P (formerly KA1BNJ from Sep '78 -- Bad News John!)
D Bit
19 Feb
19 Feb
7:33 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: Corda Albert J DLVA <CordaAJ(a)nswc.navy.mil>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2000 7:31 AM
Subject: RE: ham radio?
Wouff-Hong (sp?) Boy, that's an obscure
reference. When I was
in high-school, (back in the 70's) I picked up a couple of big
boxes of QST magazines at a ham auction. Most of 'em were from
the 1940's and 50's, but they were _very_ interesting reading,
especially if you were into tinkering with old world-war II
receivers (like the ARC-5 series...) I ran across a number of
articles that mentioned the Wouff-Hong. From what I can remember,
it was a wierdly-shaped piece of wood with a couple of rusty bits
of metal hanging from it (probably was a fragment of an old cart
hitch or something along those lines) From what I can remember,
someone at ARRL headquarters found this item lying around somewhere
in a storage area, and hung it on the wall just for grins. Nobody
knew what it actually was, but it became kind of a joke to threaten
to use it on someone as a punishment instrument if they did something
against the ham ethic. I haven't heard a reference to it since
high-school reading foray into the ham-past. (until now, that is
IIRC, the founder of the ARRL, one Hiram Percy Maxim, used the term
in his "Rotten Radio" series of articles in the 20's(?). Evidently the ham
bands in those
good(?) old days were something of a mess (bit like 27mhz now I guess)
with all kinds of wierd noises, interference etc etc. IIRC, the particular
reference was
in the context of a msg heard on air, with a suggestion that a particular
LID (Bad Operator) be hit with a (burst of noise that came out as Wouff
Hong)
and the reference became a standard threat to LID's of all kinds, but it was
purely an Americanism, and to my knowledge, did not get used by ops in
other countries. I first read about in the same source you did, QST.
In particular, it was an article that explained the origin of the term.
It was an issue from the late 50's or early 60's but couldn't tell you now
which one it was.....
I think this is right, it was some years ago that I read all this.....
The reference to the actual wood&iron article I think was mentioned
in this article as well, and sounds (as near as I can remember) like
the description there of the origin of the actual device..
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
VK5KDR
9073
days inactive
9076
days old
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2 participants
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CordaAJ＠nswc.navy.mil -
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