The Royal Order of the Wouff Hong

Are you a member of our Order?

Yes?   Then I must ask, how will you be tested ?

No?   Then this informaiton is for YOU!

If you are an ARRL member, it's high time you participate in the secret initiation and pass through the gate!

But what is the Royal Order of the Wouff Hong?

I can't tell you. I'm pledged to secrecy. If I told you, I'd have to kill you. And then they'd have to kill me.

It's so secret, that if you search the ARRL web site for "Wouff Hong," you turn up only a downloadable picture of the dreaded device itself, and the fact that there is an initiation ceremony at the National Convention. And that the ceremony is at midnight.

You don't have to travel that far (or stay up that late) - we're holding the secret ceremony the Friday night before the North Carolina ARRL State Convention, which happens to be the RARSfest in Raleigh. The initiation is Friday evening, March 30, right after the RARSfest Social. The Social starts about 7, and we're usually ready to start the Wouff Hong ceremony at about 8:30 pm.

The hamfest itself is on Saturday, March 31, from 8 to 3 PM.

But I can tell you this. From time to time, QST publishes an article describing the Wouff Hong. Looking suspiciously like a menacing piece of driftwood, the Wouff Hong is a wooden device that appeared mysteriously at League Headquarters many years ago... the 1920's, I believe. HQ staffers speculated on it's purpose and origin, and eventually reached the conclusion that the Wouff Hong is a device somehow meant for punishing hams who abuse the privilege of their license and the honor of the hobby.

Yes, there was plenty of lid-like behavior back in those days, too.

If you question how well the Wouff Hong has been working, considering that there is still plenty of lid-like behavior around today, well, just imagine how bad things might have gotten if there were NO Wouff Hong!

I can also tell you this - the initiation ceremony is fairly brief, and you don't have to stick your hands in any spaghetti-brains or peeled-grape-eyeballs like on Halloween.

Well, I may already have gone too far. A long, black car just pulled up out front, and some big dudes in dark suits and sunglasses are walking to the door.

Let me just say that if you value your hobby and want to do all you can to keep it right and true, and you're an ARRL member, then present yourself at the meeting room just outside the Social room in the Jim Graham building on the NC State Fairgrounds, just after the RARSfest Social on Friday night, March 30.

When we are through with you, you will know how you will be tested.

Please feel free to pass this message on to others.

73,
Gary KN4AQ
Member: ARRL, RARS, Possom-Trot, Royal Order of the Wouff Hong