ARRLWeb: A Little Trip to the Mother Ship

By Robert Bastone, WC3O
radiofreebob@att.net
www.skyviewradio.net
November 15, 2007

Train station from the hotel window.

Bob, KB3OMB, at the W1AW Mike.

Harold, WJ1B, and Piero, I2RTF.

Hamtrak.

George, N3GJ, and Piero, I2RTF.

George, N3GJ, in the outgoing QSL bureau.

Larry, AB3ER, and Bob, KB3OMB.

Where to begin? This story starts with a local 2 meter net known as the Rail Fan Net in Pittsburgh on the 146.88 repeater. In February 2007, a number of local area ham/rail fans took a trip via Amtrak from Pittsburgh to Altoona, Pennsylvania and back. This was my first time on a train and I was in love!

The Amtrak cars were roomy, clean and comfortable, the ride was smooth, there were 110 V outlets at each seat and the cost was quite affordable. Some time after that trip I started wondering what would be involved in taking a trip up to ARRL Headquarters in Newington Connecticut? After some research on the Web I found out that Amtrak doesn’t stop in Newington but does stop in Hartford, less than 20 miles away!

I figured that if we were to land up in Hartford we would need lodging close by. I located a Holiday Inn Express in downtown Hartford and found that they were right across the street from the train station! I was then able to contact Hertz Rental Car and they could deliver 7-passenger vans to the hotel! With the vans, we would be able to drive our crew down to headquarters and go out to dinner afterwards. The hotel people gave us a group rate. This was all starting to come together!

We called our little excursion “Hamtrak”! We talked up the trip at all the local hamfests and on the local nets. Our group of travelers started to grow. When it was time to go we had 15 people! I called ARRL HQ to let them know of our planned trip. I spoke to Membership Manager Katie Breen, W1KRB, and she assured me that we would be able to operate W1AW. This trip just kept getting better and better! I have been a ham for over 25 years and always dreamed of doing this!

I wanted to allow everyone who was planning on going to make their own arrangements. While making my arrangements for the train and hotel I made careful step-by-step notes as to the Web sites, prices, discounts and any other details needed. I put together a Microsoft Word document with all the details and handed out or e-mailed them to all interested. After that, it was up to each individual to arrange getting their train tickets and hotel reservations. I made the arrangement with the rental car company. We would split the cost of the rental vans among us. That was about it!

Over the years I have become friends with Piero, I2RTF and Bruna Begali. Piero and Bruna make some very fine code keys and paddles in Italy. I was helping Piero and Bruna at their booth at Dayton Hamvention when I asked Piero if he had ever donated a key to the ARRL. He said no. I told him about our pending train trip to HQ and that I would present a key to ARRL on his behalf. Piero asked me when the trip was and I told him that it was to be in August. Piero and Bruna discussed the trip in Italian and I had no idea what they were saying. After some time, Piero exclaimed “WHY NOT!” I thought he was just talking about the key. As it turns out, he decided that he and his wife Graciella would fly in from Italy and go on the trip with us! Like I said, this trip just got better and better!

As the time for the trip got closer, I was getting more and more nervous about all the details. Would we be on time for our connecting train in Philly? What if anything would go wrong?

Well, the day we left there were severe thunderstorms in the Western Pennsylvania area. Parts of Pittsburgh were getting flooded and there was a flash flood warning out for surrounding counties. This meant that the train speed was reduced to only 15 MPH!

We went at this speed for around two hours. Would we miss our train in Philly? What would the Amtrak people do to help us out? I was worried in a big way. Well, as it turned out, we did make our connecting train with a very thin margin and all was well. We arrived in Hartford and went across the street to the hotel to register and sleep. We had a big day ahead of us!

We got to ARRL HQ and took lots of pictures of the outside and antenna farm. We went in and were greeted by the staff. Since we had such a large party we were split into two groups. Some went to operate W1AW and the others went on the tour of the HQ building. We were surprised at how large an operation the ARRL is. We toured the QST/QEX production area, equipment testing room, outgoing QSL Bureau, VE testing area and much more! Everyone was very good to us and we had a great time. We sent off a bunch of outgoing QSL cards from our club while we were there, too. George, N3GJ, got his QSL cards checked to get his DXCC 300 endorsement!

After the tour, our group got its chance to operate W1AW. I was waiting for this! We found the other half of our party working a pileup and having a blast. We had both seasoned contesters and new hams operating. Piero presented his key to W1AW and Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B, and we were on the air! Contester George, N3GJ, and I got on CW. George was banging out the contacts at an astonishing rate. After we were spotted on the DX cluster it was off to the races! It sure is fun being on the other side of the pileup! Contester Rich, K3RWN, was loading in the contacts on phone. Everyone got to operate. It was a blast!

After we finished up our fun with W1AW we went to lunch. As it so happened, Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar, N3LLR, was in the area on business and asked me what our plans were for dinner. I told him we were just winging it. Bill said he knew just the place for great seafood! Like I said, better and better. We ate very well until it was time to head back to the hotel. We had to get up early to make our train back home.

Our trip back home was thankfully uneventful. The weather was perfect and the scenery was just fantastic. We came home with many great stories. Piero and Graciella had a very relaxing time, as did we all. There is nothing more relaxing than watching the world go by from a train window.

If you ever get the chance to make this kind of trip, do it! We will be talking about it well into the future. By the way, my mentioning of the hotel and rental car company are not endorsements. They were picked because they fit the bill for what we needed. We had no complaints with either one, though. This was a non-club related event -- anyone interested in going didn’t need to belong to any club. All were welcome.

This was a great way to promote fellowship amongst Amateur Radio operators and a good time was had by all. Go ahead, put a trip together yourself. It was a blast! All photos by Robert Bastone, WC3O