Ham Discoveries
by Kirk Kleinschmidt, NTØZ
Working Special
Event Stations:
Fun For You, Nifty Wallpaper
For Your Shack!
Hams
collect stuff—there’s no denying it. We can squirrel things away with the
best packrats. We can forget we own stuff and delight in rediscovering it
years later! This, in fact, is one of ham radio’s most endearing qualities.
Underneath our rough and ready exteriors, we’re soft and even a little
“syrupy” when it comes to collecting special sentimental goodies!
Some hams collect radios themselves, while others gather up interesting QSL
cards or hard-to-find Morse code keys. Many of us collect operating awards,
and when we finally qualify for them, we proudly display the awards in and
about the rest of the “wallpaper” we’ve amassed.
Check out the shack pictures in any ham magazine and you’ll almost always turn up something framed and on the wall: QSL cards, a contest award, DXCC, or whatever. This is Amateur Radio’s version of the “ego walls” that we usually associate with the offices of certain professionals. It’s meant to impress—and to let your fellow hams know what a great operator you are. It also serves as a way to reflect on the mileposts of your ham radio career.
If your shack walls need covering, let me suggest collecting Special Event certificates as the absolute fastest way to cover them up (short of applying actual wallpaper, that is). This month’s column is full of tips on how to acquire Special Event wallpaper of your own. By using just a few of these tips you’ll be knee deep in certificates before you know it!
Something Special
In
case you’re still wondering, Special Events are on-air activities designed
to generate interest in specific happenings. Clubs or groups try to contact
as many people as they can in a given time period (usually the course of a
weekend), and they produce special QSL cards and suitable-for-framing
certificates to issue to the stations they work. Even if you’re just getting
started, Special Event stations are usually easy to work, and many set up in
the Novice/Technician 10-meter phone subband for easy access.
Special Event stations call attention to or commemorate a wide variety of events, activities, and causes. This certificate was used to acknowledge contact with the KB1HGK Special Event station highlighting the group’s second annual Missing Children Day, May 19, 2002 (Sturbridge, Massachusetts).