[ETS/PARC List] It was a long time coming to this. FOR WA2F

[Drew Moore]

Talking to the world by amateur radio.

By; John L. Manna WA2F

Top of the honor roll was a long time goal for John L. Manna WA2F of 
Bridgewater. This award is sponsored by the Amateur Radio Relay League 
who holds the list of all the countries and individual records. In the 
month of May 2007 this became a reality for John when a group of radio 
hams set up operations on a group of rocks in the South China sea known 
as Scarborough Reef owned by China. On a previous operation a few years 
ago the event was cut short after a day because of very bad weather 
putting the group of rocks under water. Normally on high tide the rocks 
barely protrude above surf. Scaffolding was necessary to make this 
operation happen. After a week the operation was halted and who knows 
when it will happen again.

This is how it all began for John who was living in Westfield back in 
1945. After World War II surplus electronic equipment and parts became 
readily available. Anyone could go to New York city to a place known 
then as Radio Row. There you could find anything in the way of radio 
parts. In a short time John had enough parts to build a short wave 
receiver. It started out to be a breadboard design meaning that it was 
built on a piece of wood. With some help from friends the receiver was 
completed. The receiver was a one tube super regenerative receiver using 
a # 76 triode tube. It was powered by batteries and with ear phones it 
received alarmingly well. By changing the length of the wire wound coils 
it would receive multiple frequencies, even police radios. John said 
"Little did he know at the time, the radio was emitting spurious signals 
that were interfering with all the AM radios in the neighborhood". John 
said it’s Good thing there were no TV’s back then because knowing what 
he knows now the interference would knock out the TV picture on any 
channel.

Shortly after that he became interested in Amateur Radio (ham radio). He 
studied up for a license exam and got his ham license and received the 
call sign WV2MTR, it was a novice class license. It was good for only 
one year which meant that he had to upgrade. The test was a lot more 
technical and it involved the Morse code. He struggled through the 
studies and upgraded his license which changed his call sign to WA2MTR. 
With that license he was somewhat limited to where he could transmit. 
Not satisfied with that it meant another upgrade. John went into New 
York city to the FCC and there he passed the Advanced Class exam. Later 
he took an exam for Extra Class Amateur which required copying Morse 
code at 20 words per minute, it was a struggle but he passed the test 
and got a new call sign WA2F. With that class of license he had no 
limitations and was able to communicate with countries all over the 
world. Certificates are hung on the walls in his radio room for many 
achievements as well as three plaques from the late King Hussein of 
Jordan. After a long time trying to reach the top award which he finally 
did, the award is, #1 Top of The Honor Roll. To qualify for this award 
it is required that you have confirmation for two way communication with 
every country there is. This includes even some countries that have been 
deleted and new ones formed because of countries being separated such as 
Yugoslavia and some others which were divided into several new 
countries. John’s total countries now is 346 some of which are small 
islands classified as a separate country. This award is very difficult 
to achieve because, the government of some countries do not allow radio 
hams to transmit. However at one time or another they would allow it. 
For example North Korea did not allow and still does not allow ham radio 
transmitting except for a few months when a Russian ham was allowed to 
transmit. During the time he was allowed to transmit, the North Korean 
government stopped him permanently after a month or two. John’s wife, 
son, daughter, Son-in-law and two grandsons are also licensed ham radio 
operators. John is the founder of the Marconi Radio Club and a member of 
the Raritan Valley Radio Club. He participated with communications on 
several walk-athons, parades and bike races in the area. Even though he 
has reached this goal he said he will continue making contacts with 
stations all over the world when conditions permit.



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