2006 Trip to ARRL Headquarters

On Wednesday July 26, 2006 , a small group of NPARC members drove up to Newington, Connecticut to visit and learn about operations at the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) Headquarters. The group included first-time visitors Hillary KC2HLA, Vince KC2IZK and Nick KC2ONP. Driving was veteran visitor Barry K2JV. Visiting the ARRL is always an exciting event, even for those who have been there before.  Here's their report:

"Arriving at about 10:30 a.m., we were immediately introduced to a staff member who guided the group through all the business aspects of the ARRL, including the QSL Bureau, the Laboratory, the Library, the DXCC Center, and the QST production facilities.

At noon, we went off for lunch to a local restaurant, but returned at 13:00 in order to get on the air from W1AW, the ARRL Headquarters radio station. Fortunately, we were the only visitors to W1AW on that day. Our host at the station was the Station Manager Joe Carcia NJ1Q, who explained the operating positions, the bulletin transmitters, the antenna arrays, etc.

Since all three first time visitors were Technician class licensees, arrangements were first made for each of them to have a personal 2 meter QSO with W1AW, which qualified them to get an official W1AW QSL card. Then came the piece de resistance. All the visitors got a chance (using K2JV as Control Operator) to call "CQ" on 20 meter SSB using the call W1AW. As is well known, this generates an instant pile-up, but it also generates interesting QSOs because all the contacts want to get your impressions of Headquarters and W1AW in particular. "

Photos - click on any thumbnail image to download the full size image

Picture Captions:

1.  NPARC Visitors at the Maxim Memorial Station W1AW. Left to right: Barry K2JV, Vince KC2IZK, Hillary KC2HLA, and Nick KC2ONP, along with W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia NJ1Q.

2. Hillary KC2HLA

3. Nick KC2ONP

4. Vince KC2IZK

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