[MIham] Has Anybody Heard about The Wouff Hong?

[FSK]

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.


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