NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 26, 2004--Members of the amateur community are invited to help celebrate the 135th birthday anniversary of the League's co-founder and first president Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW. The HPM/135 celebration September 2-12 will continue a tradition of sorts that began with the popular HPM/125 celebration 10 years ago. ARRL Life Members and the League's extended family of elected and appointed volunteers and officials are eligible to identify by appending /135 to their call signs. The complete eligibility list (or see Sep QST, p 40) also includes ARRL Headquarters staff members as well as past ARRL directors, presidents, vice presidents and honorary vice presidents.
Hiram Percy Maxim was born September 2, 1869, and he died February 17, 1936, in Colorado of complications stemming from a throat infection (this was in the days before readily available and effective antibiotics). He was 66. His widow, Josephine Hamilton Maxim, died nine days later. The Maxims are interred in Hagerstown, Maryland.
 HPM (right)--in 1915 and then in his mid 40s--and an unidentified operator at Maxim's 1ZM rotary spark gap station in Hartford, Connecticut. Maxim's personal setup also served as the first ARRL Headquarters station. [Courtesy John Dilks, K2TQN] |
 HPM is buried with his wife, Josephine, in her family's (Hamilton) plot in Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown, Maryland. [Howard Smead, K3WPJ, Photo--thanks to Mike Flowers, K6MKF] |
Maxim Memorial Station W1AW will be on the air for the 135th birthday anniversary event and will identify as W1AW/135. While W1AW has been appending "/90" to its call sign to mark the ARRL's 90th anniversary, it will go with the /135 identifier alone during the birthday celebration period. W1AW/90 anniversary activity will resume September 13.
The object of the 10-day event is to work as many HPM/135 stations as you can. Putting at least 25 in the log will make an operator eligible for an attractive certificate, designed especially for this occasion and endorsable in increments of 25 contacts up to a maximum of 100 (but don't stop there).
The HPM/135 event begins at 0000 UTC on Thursday, September
2, and concludes at 2400 UTC on Sunday, September 12. Stations may be contacted
on any band or mode--including repeaters--for credit.
 A memorial marker dedicated to "The Old Man" by the Antietam Radio Association in 1994. [Howard Smead, K3WPJ, Photo--thanks to Mike Flowers, K6MKF] |
HPM/135 stations transmit signal report, appointment (or position) and name. All others transmit signal report and name.
To obtain a certificate, submit a log extract including date, time, band, call sign worked and exchange for each /135 contact. HPM/135 stations are eligible for a certificates too. Include your name, call sign and address and indicate how many HPM/135 stations you worked.
Entries go to HPM/135 Celebration, c/o W1AW, 225 Main St,
Newington, CT 06111-1494. Entries may be submitted on a floppy disk or CD in
text format. Include a check or money order for US$5, payable to ARRL. Entries
must be postmarked by October 16, 2004.
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