THE MEANING OF THE WOUFF-HONG: 

"The Wouff-Hong is amateur radio's most sacred symbol and stands for the enforcement of law and order in amateur operation."

When the clock sticks midnight on Sept 10, the Royal Order of the Wouff Hong begins. this will be available to any licensed amateur who is a member of ARRL.

The traditional ceremony is performed only at ARRL conventions. Wouff Hong sprang from the imagination of ARRL co-founder Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW as a means to combat poor operating practices.

An attractive Royal Order of the Wouff Hong certificate will be presented to each person who is initiated at the midnight
ceremony which will take place Saturday in the Banquet Room.

THE DREADED WOUFF HONG:

The ceremony lasts about one hour and a small price fee is payable at the "SOARA Club Table.

THE HISTORY OF 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.

To learn more about the Wouff Hong, go to: http://www.w1ujr.net/wouff-hong.htm

Plus check out the original Wouff Hong in cased at: http://www.arrl.org/ham-radio-history  then below the page click on-

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