In article , says...
I had read about W6RO in QST, so when I passed through the area in
April 1983, we visited the ship. Upon locating the ham station, I saw
an elderly gentleman sitting in the station. I knocked on the door,
whereupon he waved me away, acting very annoyed. The QST article
stated that hams were very welcome to visit the station, so I guessed maybe
he thought I was just another tourist, so I proudly showed him my ham
radio license through the glass, so he would know I was a visiting ham.
Now he really got ****ed and began screaming and cursing at us to go
away. I found an employee and asked them what was going on. I
was informed that the elderly gentleman was indeed a ham radio operator,
so back we went one more time. He refused to open the door or talk
to us and just kept loudly cursing for us to go away. Months later, I
spoke on the air to someone operating W6RO and was informed I must
have visited the ship on a bad day, because there was one elderly gent
who was known to act that way. Logical question is why did the W6RO
club continue to allow this nut case access to the station?

I don't know why they would have allowed him to operate. Certainly that
wouldn't be the case now -- all of the operators are told in no
uncertain terms that their primary responsibility is to be available to
visitors, and operating is only a secondary task. If there's only one
operator present, and someone is at the door wanting to talk to him/her,
then that person stops operating and caters to the tourist. Doing so
"pays the rent" for the station, so to speak.

There was one time during the Disney administration of the Queen Mary,
when a couple of the operators decided to pretend to be Animatronics
characters sitting at the consoles instead of real people. They didn't
get away with it for more than a few minutes, though -- couldn't keep
from cracking each other up.... ;-)

Anyway, I'm sure if you visit the Wireless Room now, you won't have a
problem. They also have a nice certificate they send you as a Guest
Operator, and if you want to "cheat" and get yourself into the logbook
so you can get a QSL card, ask the operator -- you can take an HT onto
the deck and "work" the station, getting you into the logbook. They can
then give you the particulars* so you can send in for the QSL card. An
SASE and valid log info is all they require.

I think I mentioned this before, but I'll get it out on the record again
just in case: Field Day QSOs with W6RO are NOT actual contacts with the
RMS Queen Mary. The Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach, CA (the
club who operates the Wireless Room on the QM) use their club callsign
W6RO from a real Field Day site during that operation, during which time
the QM station goes silent. So if you work W6RO during Field Day, don't
expect a Queen Mary QSL card.

Just did a quick Yahoo! search, found:

http://www.mpicomputers.com/ham/queen/

as a good site for info about W6RO. Mike Yaworski, WB6VUB, put it
together. (Mike also works part-time Saturdays as a salesman at Ham
Radio Outlet in Anaheim, CA.) The site includes great photos, plus a
QSL card history.

--

-- //Steve//

Steve Silverwood, KB6OJS
Fountain Valley, CA
Email:

* Each of the several operating positions has its own logbook. The
operator will give you your logbook entry number, like B280, so that the
QSL Committee can find your entry in the proper log. When you QSL,
include that info along with the usual UTC date/time and other data, so
that they can find your log entry and issue the QSL. Be sure to include
a SASE (use #10 business-size envelope, as the QSL is a large one) with
your QSL request.