Intro to the W1HQ Blog
Feb 25, 2008 19:07 ET
Katie Breen, W1KRB
This is W1HQ before the renovations! Check out the old desks, not a lot of space - and that chair was a bit tricky! What you don't see in the picture is the 40 year old VERY stained carpet and the ceiling tiles that were falling in.
Yep, that's me writing in the corner writing for the blog today...notice the comfy chair and ottman! There was no room for something like that before
Here's Sean mentoring Margie today. Behind Sean is the corner of the room that was just behind Chuck in the top photo. The HF station is just behind him.
The snake who is yet to be named had to get in on the mentoring!
Looking through the door into W1HQ
Hi! Thanks for visiting the W1HQ blog! I've created this blog as a method of tracking our activities at the ARRL employee club station. As you may have seen some stories along the way, the station underwent some upgrades the past few months. To say a facelift was needed - was an understatement!! As many of you that are lucky enough to have a club ham shack, you know that it's not the easiest thing to keep up with. Our station was certainly usable, don't get me wrong. But it wasn't really conducive to multiple operators nor was it very homey or welcoming. Since Sean, KX9X started here at HQ, he was going through withdrawls of having a station at home now that he was in a condo, so he kinda really is the one that spurred us into action. Just like him, I live nearby in a condo and can't set up a station at home. So when you add it all together, we realized that we have a club station here for us to use - so let's do something about it....And did we ever!
First, I need to say that this whole process has been a group effort here at W1HQ...it's not just what i'm writing about here. If it weren't for the efforts in particular of the station trustee, Ed Hare, W1RFI - this wouldnt be where it is. He contributed his time and talent and funds towards the paint and woodwork and more. Sean and I painted, Ed built the desks, Mike took care of all the wiring, Tony helped with that. And so on and so on. Let me also say - that the League (and more importantly - your dues) have NOT paid for this stuff - this has all been out of our own pockets.
Ok, here's what is happening. Last week, Sean and I held a brownbag lunch to introduce our co-workers to all that is available in the station and to encourage our newer hams and operators to come in, use it and get on the air. As you may have seen recently, we've had some donations to the station, I'll cover that more in another entry. We started our mentored lunch sessions today and will continue to post a blog about how it is going! We'll get everyone comfortable with on-air operations and then we will be holding a special event station and will blog it, as well as put up some more videos on youtube! AT that time, we will also announce the winner of the Name the W1HQ Mascot Contest!
We've already received over 500 entries!!! There is still time to send in your name suggestions, so please do! You can send it to w1hqsnake@arrl.org
I think I'll sign off for now! I'll write more soon!
73!
Katie, W1KRB